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Channeling Elvis: How Television Saved the King of Rock 'n' Roll Book


By Elvis Australia
Source: Allen J. Wiener
September 22, 2014

The book, 'Channeling Elvis: How Television Saved the King of Rock 'n' Roll' by Allen J. Wiener will be released in October 2014. (Beats & Measures Press LLC)

Elvis Presley was a virtual unknown when, in 1956, he strutted his stuff in front of a national television audience for the very first time. By year's end, following a dozen TV appearances, he was an international superstar. Over the next two decades, Elvis turned to TV whenever his career required a boost or a complete makeover. Channeling Elvis: How Television Saved the King of Rock 'n' Roll takes a close-up look at his 20-year career through the unique lens of television.

Based on more than a decade of research, dozens of fresh interviews, and careful review of hours of television and other footage, this book focuses on Elvis' TV career and the role it played in creating, sustaining, and reviving his unrivaled popularity. Only television captured the full arc of the King's career, from his initial steps on the national stage and highly anticipated return from the U.S. Army, to his resurrection in the wake of some lame recordings and lousy movies, renewed acclaim as a concert artist, and premature, self-inflicted 1977 exit. Television captured it all. And Elvis Presley's TV appearances also provided us with the most extensive visual record of this incredible man doing what he loved best: performing live.

Featuring the insights and observations of some of his closest associates, Channeling Elvis: How Television Saved the King of Rock 'n' Roll places us behind the camera as well as in front of the small screen to explore one of the most fascinating and revealing aspects of a legendary career.

Early Praise for Channeling Elvis:

'Allen Wiener puts a new charge into the story of Elvis and his rise, namely television. It's arguable that television had more to do with Elvis' meteoric streak to the top than radio. Channeling Elvis is something new under the Elvis sun'. -- Allen Barra, author of Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age

'Channeling Elvis is the first book to exclusively focus on Presley's television performances. Allen J. Wiener knows his way around icons, and ably makes the case that TV transformed the greatest recording artist of the early rock 'n' roll era into a unique cultural phenomenon. Even though Presley too often allowed others to control or shape his destiny, the Elvises that emerge in Wiener's account always command the spotlight'. -- Paul Cool, former program director and disc jockey, KUSF Radio, San Francisco, and author of Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande.

Buy 'Channeling Elvis: How Television Saved the King of Rock 'n' Roll' by Allen J. Wiener

ALLEN J. WIENER is the author of The Beatles: The Ultimate Recording Guide as well as co-author of David Crockett in Congress: The Rise and Fall of the Poor Man's Friend - winner of the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Regional Non-Fiction - and Music of the Alamo: From 19th Century Ballads to Big-Screen Soundtracks. He has also written for the Washington Post, People, the Nashville Tennessean, Musician, Goldmine, Discoveries American History, Western Clippings, the Alamo Review, the Alamo Journal, and the Crockett Chronicle, while providing the liner notes for several CDs. He lives in Maryland.


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