122 - Elvis Presley & Colonel Tom Parker with Peter Guralnick

We welcome legendary music writer Peter Guralnick as we take a deep dive into the fascinating relationship between Elvis Presley & his manager Colonel Tom Parker.  Peter first gained access to Parker’s archives in the mid 1990s & what he found may change your view of Tom Parker & his relationship with Elvis. Parker was born in Breda, Holland in 1909 & came to the US in 1926, renaming himself Tom Parker, he creates an origin story about his life in the US & never returns to Europe.  In his early years in the United States he travels as a hobo, works on travelling carnivals before beginning to manage musical artists. Scoring huge success with country stars Eddy Arnold & Hank Snow.  In early 1955 Parker first hears about a singer from Tupelo, Mississippi named Elvis Presley after he draws 800 people to a nearby show. Bowled over by what he finds & the hysterical crowd reactions, Parker begins to promote Presley immediately.  Parker gets Elvis off Sun Records for a more lucrative deal with RCA, after RCA meet Sun founder Sam Phillips $35,000 number to agree to the deal. His first new recording for RCA is Heartbreak Hotel.  We also debunk numerous parts of the relationship between The Colonel & The King including Parker’s part in Presley’s acting career, the lack of foreign touring, the famous 50/50 revenue split & the sale of his master recordings to RCA.  Parker never worked with another artist following Presley’s death, turned down a million dollar deal to write a memoir, didn’t give interviews & rarely spoke in public.  **It takes anything from 5 to 40 hours to prepare each episode of Music Maps - if you’d like to make a contribution to help us cover the costs & time of producing these episodes for you, you can do so at this link:** ko-fi.com/musicmaps **It is hugely important for us to get positive reviews & star ratings - if you have enjoyed Music Maps & can spare the time to do either we would hugely appreciate it.**  **You can see our upcoming live events here:** https://rocknrollbookclub.co.uk/events Instagram: @rocknrollbookclube17 X: @simonmusicmaps Facebook: E17rockbookclub **Hosted, Produced & Edited by Simon Cardwell** **Music by Andy Maxwell** * * * Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.