Entertainment

January 11, 2010

If you’re a real Elvis Presley fan

VALERIE KELLOGG Newsday

If you’re a real Elvis Presley fan, you knew he would have turned 75 last Friday well before the coverage started.

The celebration was marked by tribute concerts, movie marathons, book releases and more, proving that The King is still king.

You also probably know that Presley was a twin, that Priscilla was only 14 when she met her future husband and that he liked fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Here are 10 things that you might not have known about him.

1. Presley almost died in a Tupelo, Miss., tornado when he was 15 months old.

2. Research shows that “Elvis” is one of the most popular passwords for computers.

3. When Presley was 2, he wiggled out of his mother’s grip and joined the choir to sing during an Assembly of God Church service.

4. At 11, Presley got a guitar. He really wanted a bicycle (some say a rifle), but his parents couldn’t afford it.

5. The first time Presley recorded, it was for his mother. He paid $4 to Sun Studio to press two songs — “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” — as a gift for her.

6. Presley recorded anywhere from 600 to 1,200 songs, depending on whether the list includes unfinished works, alternate versions, bootlegged recordings, etc.

7. Presley’s last words were, “OK, I won’t,” when he assured Ginger Alden, his last girlfriend, that he wouldn’t fall asleep reading in the bathroom.

8. It is estimated that there were about 170 Presley impersonators when he died in 1977. Today, some say there are 250,000.

9. Presley started wearing a chai necklace because his mother Gladys’ maternal grandmother was Jewish — the reason why he added a Star of David on his mother’s gravestone in the mid-1960s.

10. When asked why he wore the necklace, he said, “I don’t want to miss out on going to heaven on a technicality.”

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