January 8

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in a two-room shotgun house in Tupelo, Mississippi. His twin brother was stillborn. As a teenager living in public housing in Memphis, he became intensely interested in the guitar, learned country songs by heart, and listened to gospel and African-American music at every chance. His eponymous first recording for RCA (pictured), which included “Blue Suede Shoes,” was released in March 1956. It spent ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart and was the first rock and roll album to do so. That year, Elvis had No. 1 hits with "Heartbreak Hotel," "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You," "Don't Be Cruel," "Hound Dog" and "Love Me Tender." In recording “Hound Dog,” he insisted on 31 takes before he was satisfied with it. “The King” never received formal music training or learned to read music. He studied and played by ear.