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Elvis Presley’s Autopsy Report Set for 2027 Release—The Secrets It Could Reveal

Lucille Barilla — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:36:51 +0000

Fifty years after Elvis Presley‘s death, his complete autopsy report is set to be released. Contents of the document will be revealed publicly for the first time since 1977, possibly answering some longstanding questions surrounding the King of Rock and Roll’s death.

What Elvis Presley’s autopsy could reveal about his death

Elvis Presley’s autopsy report has been sealed for 50 years per the request of the Presley family. The decision to keep the report private has fueled decades of speculation and conspiracy theories.

Elvis’ death was initially ruled as a heart attack. However, toxicology reports found he had multiple prescription drugs in his system.

The secrecy surrounding Elvis’s medical records has led to ongoing debate about whether there was more to his death, such as a potential cover-up regarding his health or drug use. But when the report is finally released, it could either confirm longstanding theories or introduce unexpected, new ones.

Some theories about Elvis’s death include heart disease, an autoimmune disorder, severe constipation, and a potential seizure. His declining health in his later years involved prescription drug use, weight gain, and an unhealthy diet.

Elvis’ second autopsy requested by the Presley family will be released

Memphis newspaper detailing Elvis Presley’s death | Blank Archives/Getty Images

The New York Times reported that following Elvis Presley’s death, doctors Eric Muirhead, Jerry Francisco, and Noel Florredo, conducted an autopsy. Their findings weren’t officially available until two months later.

Dr. Francisco claimed that per the results, Elvis appeared to have a history of mild hypertension and coronary artery disease. However, Dr. Francisco admitted “it is possible in cases like this that the specific cause will never be known.”

Francisco said at the time, Elvis’ physician Dr. George Nichopoulos prescribed the only drugs found in the singer’s system for hypertension and a blockage of the colon.

In the final seven months of Elvis’s life, Dr. Nichopoulos prescribed more than 10,000 pills, including sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics, to the King of Rock and Roll.

Thereafter, Elvis’ father, Vernon Presley, wanted answers as to what happened to his only son. The family asked for a second, private autopsy, and the results were sealed. That report will be publicly revealed on the 50th anniversary of Elvis’ death.

What happened the day Elvis Presley died?

Elvis Presley was just 42 years old when he was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, on Aug. 16, 1977. His fiancée, Ginger Alden, discovered him.

Ginger was just 21 years old at the time of Elvis’ death. She shared her trauma in her memoir, Elvis and Ginger: Elvis Presley’s Fiancée and Last Love Finally Tells Her Story.

Ginger detailed the traumatic sight of finding Elvis dead, writing, “His arms lay on the ground, close to his sides, palms facing upward. It was clear that, from the moment he landed on the floor, Elvis hadn’t moved. I gently turned his face toward me. A hint of air expelled from his nose.”

She continued, “The tip of his tongue was clenched between his teeth and his face was blotchy. I gently raised one eyelid. His eye was staring straight ahead and blood red.”

His father Vernon Presley, who worried about his son’s declining health, was reportedly overcome with emotion when he learned what had happened. Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, revealed in her memoir From Here to the Great Unknown that she was first told Elvis was “sick” before she ran to the bathroom and saw her father dead on his floor.

Beyoncé’s ‘Halo’ Is Similar to 1 Elvis Presley Song

Matthew Trzcinski — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 11:00:00 +0000

One of the best songs of Beyoncé‘s career is “Halo.” The ballad has some lyrical similarities to a famous song by Elvis Presley. Interestingly, both tunes are part of a fascinating trend in popular music.

Why Beyoncé’s ‘Halo’ is reminiscent of Elvis Presley’s ‘Burning Love’

While Beyoncé has given us some of the most lyrically unique tracks in the canon of popular music, “Halo” is a straightforward love song. The thrust of the tune is the way that it compares love to a religious experience. In “Halo,” Beyoncé’s lover is compared to an angel, the biblical prophet Joshua bringing down the walls of Jericho, and the theological concept of salvation. That’s some heavy imagery for a pop hit!

Beyoncé was not the first singer to speak of love in pseudo-Christian terms. Two of the best songs of the 1980s — Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” — did the same thing. One of the earliest hit songs to do that was Elvis’ “Burning Love.” While Beyoncé mostly used spiritual imagery to emphasize how great her lover was, Elvis instead used spiritual imagery to make sex sound heavenly. He starts the song by exclaiming, “Lord Almighty!” before singing about his soul and comparing his lover’s kisses to “the sweet song of a choir.”

How Beyoncé and Elvis Presley tackled the same subject in very different ways

What makes “Halo” so different from “Burning Love” is its tone. “Halo” is completely sincere and reverent. On the other hand, “Burning Love” is a little bit campy. It shows off the sense of humor that makes a lot of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll‘s music so charming.

“Halo” also incorporates a lot of elements of Christian music. The vocals sound like a choir of angels. Meanwhile, “Burning Love” doesn’t sound religious. It sounds like many country/rock/pop/soul hybrid songs that Elvis released during his comeback period. It’ll be interesting to see which sound connects with audiences as the years wear on.

How ‘Halo’ was written in 3 hours

During a 2014 interview with Billboard, songwriter Ryan Tedder discussed the origin of “Halo.” It had nothing to do with Elvis. “I was playing a pickup game right before a show in Michigan, and I tore my Achilles heel,” he recalled. “It was the most intense pain I ever experienced in my life. I passed out. So, I ended up going home for two weeks.

“My wife forbade me from writing or doing any work whatsoever,” he added. “[Songwriter] Evan Bogart and I were super close friends. He was having his explosion as a songwriter, and I texted him and said, ‘My wife’s gone for three hours, will you come over? Let’s write one song.’

“Beyoncé had contacted me because of a song on our first album called ‘Come Home,'” he remembered. “So he came over, and I said, ‘Dude, Beyoncé wants me to do a song. Let’s do a song in three hours.’ I had this idea for a patch of this weird choir of angels thing, started playing it and within three hours, we had ‘Halo.'”

“Burning Love” didn’t inspire “Halo” — they’re just part of the same tradition in popular music.

‘Pathetic’ Elvis Presley Was in No State to Cover Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way,’ Said Songwriter Paul Anka

Emma McKee — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 16:54:00 +0000

In the 1970s, Elvis Presley began covering “My Way,” a song Paul Anka wrote for Frank Sinatra. Anka saw Sinatra’s version of the song as defiant, and he didn’t think Elvis was capable of striking this tone. He shared why he told Elvis he shouldn’t cover “My Way.”

Paul Anka didn’t think Elvis should have covered Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’

Anka wrote the lyrics to “My Way” after hearing the French version of the song, “Comme d’habitude” while on vacation in France. He wrote the lyrics for Sinatra after he said he felt his career was over. While Sinatra was hesitant to take the song, he eventually recorded a version. Elvis was a huge fan and told Anka he had plans to cover it.

“‘My Way’ meant so much to him as a song, so he was going to do it,” Anka wrote in his memoir My Way: An Autobiography (via People). “And I’d say, ‘Elvis, it’s not really your kind of song.’ And he’d say, ‘Nooo, Paulie, but those words, they mean so much to me. Boy, I want to do that song one day.’”

Elvis began to cover the song in concert despite Anka’s reservations. His live recording of the song charted higher than Sinatra’s version, but Anka still didn’t think it was a good fit.

“In the end, that song and those words had resonance for him, but not in the way I intended,” Anka wrote. “Given Elvis’s pathetic state at the end, it was in the opposite sense that the words had had for Sinatra. There was nothing defiant or heroic about Elvis at that point.”

Frank Sinatra reportedly felt concerned for Elvis’ wellbeing

When Elvis was a rising star, Sinatra made his dislike for him clear. As his career progressed, however, Sinatra grew more fond of him. By the 1970s, he was reportedly concerned for Elvis’ wellbeing.

“Tom Jones and I met up for a drink with [Sinatra] in New York and he told us that he had just been on the phone to Elvis,” publicist Chris Hitchens told Express.

Elvis had recently been hospitalized, and Sinatra wanted to offer his support.

“When I called the hospital in Memphis, the girl on the switchboard asked: ‘Who’s calling?’ and when I replied: ‘Frank Sinatra,’ I fully expected her to say: ‘Oh, yeah, and I’m the Queen of England’ or some such dumb line,” he reportedly said. “But she must have recognized my voice because, a few seconds later, Elvis came on the line.”

According to Hitchens, Sinatra told Elvis to take care of himself. He worried about what might happen to the younger singer.

“I told him he’s got to look after himself and quit fooling around,” Sinatra said. “He’s too young to die, and I told him so.”

Despite its popularity, Sinatra didn’t like ‘My Way’

“My Way” became one of Sinatra’s most famous songs, a fact that bothered him endlessly.

“He always thought that song was self-serving and self-indulgent,” his daughter Tina explained. “He didn’t like it. That song stuck, and he couldn’t get it off his shoe.”

He didn’t attempt to hide his disdain for the song, even in front of audiences.

“We have a song we haven’t done in a long time, and we’re gonna drop it in here now,” he told an audience in 1984. “I think we did it for about 10 years, and it got to be a real pain you-know-where.”

Elvis Presley’s Fiancée Ginger Alden Flaunts Jaw-Dropping 11.5-Carat Ring on Engagement Anniversary

Lucille Barilla — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 13:26:25 +0000

Ginger Alden was Elvis Presley‘s fiancée at the time of his death. Only two months after they began dating, Elvis gifted Ginger with a massive 11.5-carat engagement ring. The former beauty queen shared details of the life moment, and showed off the jaw-dropping statement piece, in a new social media post honoring the couple’s engagement anniversary.

Ginger Alden and Elvis Presley became engaged in January 1977

Ginger Alden took to Facebook on Jan. 26, 2025, to celebrate her engagement anniversary to Elvis Presley. She shared four photographs and memories of the intimate experience.

She wrote, “Forty-eight years ago today, January 26th, what special memories of Elvis on bended knee, asking me to marry him! In August setting our wedding date, him having waited, wanting to announce our engagement by putting it in our local Memphis paper and share from the stage during his last concert in his hometown.”

Ginger concluded, “We loved you Elvis, and thank you for all you did and wanted to do for me and my family. It will never be forgotten.”

Along with her message, Ginger posted four photos of the massive 11.5-carat engagement ring gifted to her by the king of rock and roll. She presented three photos of herself wearing it and another of the diamond sparkler in its original box.

Intimate details of Elvis and Ginger’s engagement

On Jan. 26, 1977, in the lounge area outside of his bathroom, Elvis Presley proposed to Ginger Alden, his girlfriend of two months, with a massive engagement ring. He was 41 and she was 20.

In her book Elvis & Ginger, she recalled when Elvis asked her to marry him. He said, “Ginger, I’ve been searching for love so long, and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would find it in my own backyard. I’ve been sixty percent happy and forty percent happy, but never a hundred percent. I’ve loved before but I’ve never been in love. Ginger, I’m asking you: Will you marry me?”

The massive center stone for Ginger’s engagement ring was taken from the center diamond of Elvis’ TCB ring and placed in a setting for Ginger. Lowell Hays, Elvis’ favorite jeweler, designed it.

Reportedly, Elvis called Hays in the middle of the night to make Ginger’s engagement ring. However, Elvis wanted a size diamond that Hays didn’t have.

As a result, the King of Rock and Roll told the jeweler to use the diamond in his ring for Ginger. A faux diamond was set into Elvis’s ring, which remains today.

In August, Elvis told Ginger, “I’d like to announce our engagement to the audience at the end of the tour in Memphis. We’ll put it in the local paper too, under the regular engagement section, nothin’ fancy.”

Ginger Alden found Elvis Presley dead in August 1977

Ginger Alden poses with an Elvis Presley painting in 1978 | Anwar Hussein/Getty Images

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Ginger Alden shared her story of finding Elvis Presley dead in his Graceland bathroom on Aug. 16, 1977. In addition, Ginger shared her first-person account in her memoir, Elvis & Ginger.

“His arms lay on the ground, close to his sides, palms facing upward. It was clear from the moment he landed on the floor, Elvis hadn’t moved,” Ginger explained.

“I gently turned his face toward me. A hint of air expelled from his nose. The tip of his tongue was clenched between his teeth and his face was blotchy. I gently raised one eyelid. His eye was staring straight ahead and blood red.”

Following Elvis’s death, Ginger pursued acting and modeling and wrote a memoir. She married Ronald Leyser in 1991 and they had a son, Hunter. Ronald died on Aug. 16, 2015, on the 38th anniversary of Elvis’s death.

Ginger Alden regularly makes public appearances to talk about her life with Elvis Presley. She returned to Graceland for Elvis Week 2024 after reportedly being banned by the family.

Elvis Presley’s Granddaughter Reveals His Spirit Is ‘Imprinted’ in Off-Limits Graceland Bedroom

Lucille Barilla — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 14:24:59 +0000

Elvis Presley‘s granddaughter, Riley Keough, has revealed little-known secrets about one of Graceland’s most mysterious rooms: the King of Rock and Roll’s off-limits bedroom. Riley pulled back the curtain on this secretive space in the book From Here to the Great Unknown, saying her grandfather’s spirit is “imprinted” in his bedroom.

Riley Keough reveals secrets of Elvis Presley’s bedroom

Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s only child, was in the process of recording her life’s recollections at the time of her death in January 2023. Subsequently, her eldest daughter, Riley Keough, took those recordings, added her thoughts, and finished her mother’s memoir.

In the book, From Here to the Great Unknown, Lisa Marie talks about life at Graceland. Keough shares her recollections of her grandfather’s infamous estate, including private secrets about Elvis’ bedroom.

“Upstairs at Graceland is just as Elvis left it. So you can really feel his presence.” She spoke of the many books that lined the walls of the bedroom. These included spiritual or self-help titles; Keough claimed Lisa “loved” to go through them to understand Elvis better.

Elvis would often underline passages in the books, and write commentary in their margins. “He was searching to fix himself, searching for a deeper meaning something she would then search for in her own life too.”

“You can still feel him in that room. His spirit is imprinted there.”

Lisa Marie would sometimes sleep with her children in Elvis Presley’s bed

Lisa Marie Presley longed to reconnect with her father, Elvis Presley. Visiting his bedroom allowed her to do so privately.

“Sometimes we would all sleep in his bed. My mom loved being in her dad’s bed,” Keough revealed.

“It made her feel close to him, and we felt it too, that closeness. But because Elvis’s bedroom isn’t a part of the tour, no visitors are allowed up there.”

Keough continued, “If we woke up late and the tours had a ready started, we’d be stuck in his room until late afternoon when the tours stopped. We’d have staff members bring food up, usually McDonald’s, and just hang out all day. Trapped in Elvis’s bedroom.”

“My grandmother’s hairdryer was still up there so we’d sit under it and pretend we were in a salon. He had a little plaque on the wall up there with a poem that always broke my heart. It’s titled, ‘Why God Made Little Girls.'”

Elvis Presley’s bedroom remained a place of solace for his only daughter

Speaking to ITV’s Lorraine, Lisa Marie admitted Graceland was always a place of solace. Additionally, she explained that being in Elvis Presley’s bedroom provided her with a sense of safety and calm.

“It’s the one place I feel safest ever. I keep the key to upstairs with me. It’s just his room and my room, [it was Elvis’] sort of sanctuary. If I take the key and just shut that door. I feel the safest and the calmest that I could possibly feel.”

Lisa’s recollection of Elvis’s bedroom room mirrored her daughter’s. She said, “He always had books stacked up high next to his bed and they were all religious.”

“If you go up to his bedroom, there’s a little office connected. And there’s just nothing but books of every religion, a million bibles. He was constantly searching.”

Additionally, Lisa Marie revealed the sanctuary feeling of the room was almost upstaged by its showiness. “Oh, it’s showy,” she admitted. “It’s got a long shag carpet, black bed, red walls. Gold everything here and there.”

Elvis Presley died in August 1977. Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023. Both are buried in Graceland’s Meditation Garden along with her son, Benjamin Keough, and Elvis’s parents and grandmother, Vernon, Gladys, and Minnie Mae.

David Lynch Bizarrely Compared a 1990s Star to Elvis Presley

Matthew Trzcinski — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 19:08:29 +0000

As a director whose movies take a lot of influence from the 1950s and early 1960s, it’s no surprise that David Lynch had some interesting things to say about Elvis Presley. Lynch once compared a 1990s icon to Elvis. This comparison is simultaneously insightful and nonsensical.

David Lynch worked with a star he likened to Elvis Presley and an ‘egg-born offspring’

Lynch and Marilyn Manson were, in some ways, artistic kindred spirits. They both brought twisted avant-garde art into the mainstream. While they both knew how to disturb audiences, they also both had a good sense of humor. The two have collaborated in interesting ways. Manson had a small role as a porn star in Lynch’s Lost Highway. He also contributed the songs “Apple of Sodom” and “I Put a Spell on You” to the film.

Lynch also wrote the introduction to The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, Manson’s 1998 autobiography. Lynch’s writing is about as unusual as Eraserhead. “Outside it was raining cats and barking dogs,” he wrote. “Like an egg-born offspring of collective humanity, in sauntered Marilyn Manson. It was obvious — he was beginning to look and sound a lot like Elvis. David Lynch — New Orleans 2:50 a.m.” I can’t imagine anyone who opened up The Long Hard Road Out of Hell because they enjoyed Manson’s alternate rock hits like “Lunchbox” or “The Beautiful People” would have expected the book to start that way.

Marilyn Manson once said he felt like Elvis Presley

Later in the book, Manson compares himself to Elvis. “I opened a fortune cookie and it said, ‘When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed,'” he wrote. “Well, I’ve gotten everything that I wanted. We’re the biggest band in America. We’ve got platinum albums. We got the Rolling Stone cover that Dr. Hook never managed to get.

“But I’ve managed to destroy and lose everything that I’ve loved along the way,” he said. “The whole world now looks at me the way I looked at my grandfather. I hope they like what they see because now I finally do. I feel one part Elvis Presley, one part Jack Warner, and one part Reverend Ernest Angley, and this disturbs me.” For context, Warner was the infamously difficult movie producer behind classics like Casablanca and My Fair Lady, while Angley was a controversial Christian evangelist.

Why David Lynch’s analogy is only partly correct

Do these Elvis analogies make sense? On one level, they do. In the 1950s, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll helped cement his genre’s dangerous image. In the 1990s, Manson might have been the most controversial singer in the world. Between his criticisms of Christianity and his embrace of the Church of Satan, he upset numerous religious people. On top of that, he was the subject of horrific false rumors, such that he inspired the Columbine massacre or that he committed human sacrifices during his concerts.

On a commercial level, any comparison between the two rock stars fizzle. Elvis had numerous top-10 singles over a 20-year period. He even had a hit single or two after his death. Manson never managed to catapult one of his songs into the top-40, much less the top-10. In addition, Elvis cut gospel albums, something that Manson would never do.

Lynch, Manson, and Elvis are good reminders that great art should be provocative.

Patty Loveless’ ‘I Try to Think About Elvis’ Was Much More Sexual at 1st

Matthew Trzcinski — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 03:33:19 +0000

Elvis Presley was a massive sex symbol. He’s mentioned prominently in Patty Loveless’ “I Try to Think About Elvis,” a song that was initially very sexual. The track’s writer explained how “I Try to Think About Elvis” evolved into something with more radio appeal.

Patty Loveless’ ‘I Try to Think About Elvis’ might have been relatable in the worst way

“I Try to Think About Elvis” is a song about a woman who feels she thinks about her lover too much. She attempts to focus on a litany of other topics, including Elvis, hair-dos, tattoos, sushi bars, and saxophones. Of course, she fails and the man she loves stays on her mind. I guess the song could be a cousin of “Always on My Mind!”

The track was penned by Gary Burr, one of Ringo Starr’s regular collaborators. During a 2024 interview with The Tennessean, Burr discussed the original version of “I Try to Think About Elvis.” “I always joke when I sing it live,” Burr said, laughing. “I tell the audience I need to explain the song. It’s like when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much and the daddy wants to show that love for a longer period of time, he has to think of things in his head to preoccupy himself. That’s what this song is about. It’s a list of things the guy is thinking to himself. We’ll leave it at that.”

Perhaps some men would have been able to relate to the original version of the song. Maybe men would have related to it to an uncomfortable degree! Regardless, it sounds like Burr’s vision for the track was too vulgar for the radio.

The track had to be rewritten for Patty Loveless

The track was initially too masculine for Loveless’ taste. It featured references to both firearms and football. Burr went back and rewrote the song.

“I went back in and put in the lines about high heels, good deals, and talk shows to take out some of the more testosterony stuff,” Burr recalled. “It was tremendous pressure because you know if you don’t do the rewrite properly, you lose the cut. I sweated it out and the next thing I know they brought it for me to listen to. I did and it was tremendous.”

How ‘I Try to Think About Elvis’ performed

“I Try to Think About Elvis” became one of Loveless’ biggest songs. It did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 but country hits don’t often crack the pop charts. “I Try to Think About Elvis” appeared on the album When Fallen Angels Fly. That record reached No. 60 on the Billboard 200 and lasted on the chart for 46 weeks. It remains the most commercially successful album of Loveless’ career.

When Fallen Angels Fly produced three other singles: “Here I Am,” “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am,” and “Halfway Down.” That album, and Loveless’ career as a whole, helped make the 1990s a golden age for women in country music. While she wasn’t as big as Shania Twain or Faith Hill, Loveless proved that women could be big names in her genre.

“I Try to Think About Elvis” is a fun country song and it could have been a lot racier.

How the ’68 Comeback Special’ Inspired Patty Loveless’ ‘I Try to Think About Elvis’

Matthew Trzcinski — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 17:04:46 +0000

Elvis Presley has been mentioned in countless songs. In fact, his ’68 Comeback Special — and a postage stamp — inspired Patty Loveless’ “I Try to Think About Elvis.” The tune in question was initially designed to be manly, but it was rewritten to suit Loveless.

A radio DJ accidentally coined the title of Patty Loveless’ ‘I Try to Think About Elvis’

During a 2024 interview with The Tennessean, songwriter Gary Burr recalled listening to a radio program where people discussed how the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll should look on a commemorative stamp. “When I think about Elvis, I try to think about Elvis in the reunion special with the black leather, black hair,” a radio DJ said.

That comment inspired Burr. “I love songs with titles that make you want to listen to the song and go ‘What is that about?'” he said. “So I heard him say, ‘I try to think about Elvis’ and something just stuck in my head and I went upstairs and wrote the song.”

‘I Try to Think About Elvis’ is as much about The Beatles as it is about Elvis Presley

“I Try to Think About Elvis” isn’t a song about Elvis so much as a song about someone trying to distract themselves from thoughts of a lover by focusing on anything else. In addition to Elvis, the narrator tries to ponder The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, the cosmos, Oprah Winfrey’s afternoon television show, sushi, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. It’s ultimately a list song where the joke is how random and extensive the list gets.

While the song only mentions Elvis once, it’s still conspicuously named after him. That says a lot about the “Can’t Help Falling in Love” singer‘s enduring status as a cultural icon. It also speaks to his continuing influence in the world of country music. The track could just as easily have been titled “I Try to Think About The Beatles” or “I Try to Think About The Rolling Stones,” but, apparently, Elvis’ name was a bigger draw in the country music scene. I guess country radio programmers like playing “Suspicious Minds” more than The Beatles’ or The Rolling Stones’ country songs.

Why rewriting the song for Patty Loveless stressed out Gary Burr

Initially, “I Try to Think About Elvis” had a lot to say about bedroom activities. The original version of the song was also more macho and included references to guns and sports. To make the song work for Loveless, Burr had to make it more feminine.

“I went back in and put in the lines about high heels, good deals, and talk shows to take out some of the more testosterony stuff,” he recalled. “It was tremendous pressure because you know if you don’t do the rewrite properly, you lose the cut. I sweated it out and the next thing I know they brought it for me to listen to. I did and it was tremendous.”

Regardless, he is proud of Loveless’ rendition of the song. While it wasn’t meant for her, it became one of her signature songs. She brought a certain comic energy to “I Try to Think About Elvis” that suited the tone of a lot of 1990s country music.

Burr and Loveless thought about Elvis a lot — and so do the rest of us fans.

If Elvis Presley Were Alive, Would Lisa Marie Have Lived Full-Time at Graceland?

Lucille Barilla — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 16:38:32 +0000

In her book From Here to the Great Unknown, Lisa Marie Presley shared her deep love for her father Elvis Presley and her Graceland home. However, Lisa Marie felt such a deep connection with Graceland that she never wanted to leave. If Elvis were alive would Lisa Marie have lived full-time at his Memphis, Tennessee home? One family member has a theory.

Elvis Presley’s cousin thinks Lisa Marie would have lived full-time at Graceland

When Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley divorced in 1973, Lisa Marie Presley moved to California full-time to live with her mother. However, she regularly spent holidays and summers at Graceland.

Danny Smith, son of Elvis’ cousin Billy Smith, shared on his Memphis Mafia Kid YouTube channel that Lisa Marie would have loved to live in Memphis full-time. When asked if Lisa Marie would have loved to live with her dad regularly, Smith emphatically said, “Yes.”

“There’s not a doubt in my mind. The reason I could say that was ’cause she talked about that,” Smith continued. “She told me how things would have worked out, I don’t know if she would have been a lot more out here. Maybe 50/50 or 60/40; who knows?”

He concluded, “I can damn sure tell you that if she would have had her way she’d have been at Graceland a majority of the time. All the time.”

In her book, From Here to the Great Unknown, co-written by her daughter Riley Keough, Lisa Marie said she never wanted to leave Graceland. She loved the home, the city of Memphis, and her friends and family there.

Lisa Marie Presley said she would ‘transform’ in Memphis

Lisa Marie Presley photographed in March 1977 | Pictorial Parade/Getty Images

In the book From Here to the Great Unknown, Lisa Marie Presley shared her recollections of a life split between California and Memphis. Priscilla resided with Lisa Marie in Holmby Hills, California.

Lisa wrote, “Leaving Graceland and flying out of Memphis International Airport to go back to L.A. was a true emotional trauma for me. As soon as I got out of the car in Memphis though, I would completely transform.”

The passage continued, “I never wanted to leave and I loved everything about it. I loved the weather, the storms, the cold, the sounds of the birds, the fireflies. I love the people, the smells.”

Elvis Presley wasn’t as strict as Priscilla Presley when it came to parenting

In a 2013 interview for The Talk, Lisa Marie admitted Elvis was not a “strict dad.” His parenting style differed significantly from her mother, Priscilla, who was more regimented when dealing with their daughter.

Lisa Marie said, “He was not strict at all. I was truthfully a terror, to be honest. My mom was completely the opposite. She was really strict. So, it was very confusing when I had to go back and forth between the two.”

She added, “He would sleep all day, so me and my friends had the run of Graceland. And I knew no one would tell me what to do ’cause they would get fired.”

Lisa revealed she was a “tyrant” in a separate interview published in Rolling Stone, via Elvis.com.au. “Nobody was looking after me, and everyone was afraid of my dad, and he was sleeping. So if that was the case, I was a tyrant.”

Lisa Marie Presley did not live full-time at Graceland after Elvis Presley’s death in August 1977. However, she would regularly visit Memphis and her relatives, and spend holidays at the home with her children Riley, Ben, Harper and Finley. She died in January 2023 and is buried in Graceland’s Meditation Garden.

Elvis Presley’s Favorite Birthday Cake: What Was the Sweet Treat He Asked For on His Special Day and All Year Long?

Lucille Barilla — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:53:30 +0000

Elvis Presley had many sweet treats. However, his favorite was a cake he regularly requested whenever he wanted a slice for his birthday and all year long.

Elvis Presley’s favorite birthday cake was sweet, salty, and delicious

Legend has it that one of Elvis Presley’s favorite birthday cakes was a traditional southern pineapple pecan delight with a vanilla cake base. He reportedly loved this dessert so much that he often asked for it for birthdays and other occasions.

Reportedly, this cake was a specialty of one of Elvis’ grandmothers. Other stories have the cake originating from the recipe book of Graceland’s longtime cook, Mary Jenkins. The dessert was perfect for celebrating birthdays, holidays, or any other reason a dessert was in order.

The cake uses a boxed cake mix, with cream cheese, pineapple, and pecan topping. It comprises all the favorite tastes of Elvis’ childhood into one delicious bite.

It is an easy cake to make. The glaze is just a can of crushed pineapple boiled on the stovetop with a cup of sugar. The icing includes cream cheese and confectioner sugar, heated until all are combined to form a thick icing. The cake is then topped with the icing and crushed pecans.

Get the full recipe on Food.com.

What other types of sweet treats were always on hand at Graceland?

Elvis Presley had a list of favorite foods that needed to be kept on hand at all times in the Graceland refrigerator. However, Elvis requested one item that should always be at the ready in case he decided to eat it.

According to Elvis’ longtime cook Mary Jenkins, that food was banana pudding. The dessert was made fresh each evening.

Per The New York Times, Jenkins said “The only thing in life he got any enjoyment out of was eating. And he liked his food real rich.”

The Times said that Jenkins cooked items such as cheeseburgers, chicken-fried steaks, hamburger steaks, caramel cakes, and huge bowls of banana pudding. He also loved sweet and salty peanut butter and banana sandwiches, which Jenkins said she perfected alongside his father, Vernon Presley.

Elvis’ father suggested toasting the bread before putting it in the skillet. Jenkins said, “It’d be just floating in butter. ‘You’d turn it and turn it and turn it until all the butter was soaked up; that’s when he liked it.”

Elvis Presley’s cook perfected the King of Rock and Roll’s meals

Mary Jenkins claimed that Elvis liked everything he ate filled with flavor. He wasn’t a fan of bland foods.

“For breakfast, he’d have homemade biscuits fried in butter, sausage patties, four scrambled eggs, and sometimes fried bacon,” she said to The New York Times. “I’d bring the tray up to his room, he’d say, ‘This is good, Mary.’ He’d have butter running down his arms.”

“It’s not true that Elvis liked burnt bacon sandwiches,” she added. “He liked his bacon very crisp.”

According to the book The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley, Graceland’s refrigerator had to be stocked with certain foods. Many of these snacks, meals, or desserts had to be made fresh daily in case Elvis wanted them immediately.

The items in Elvis’ refrigerator included fresh, lean, unfrozen ground meat, a case of Pepsi Cola, and brown-and-serve rolls. Cans of biscuits, hamburger buns, pickles, potatoes, and onions were also included.

Fresh fruit, yogurt, sauerkraut, frankfurters, milk, cream, and bacon were also at the ready. Mustard, peanut butter, hand-squeezed orange juice, ingredients for meatloaf, and ice cream rounded out the food that Elvis’ cooks always had to have on hand to serve the King of Rock and Roll when he requested them.

Mary Jenkins worked for Elvis Presley in 1977 up until his death on Aug. 16.