Elvis Presley didn’t do his best work in Hollywood. But his story is coming to the big screen in the form of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, a musical biopic that explores his complicated relationship with manager Colonel Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks. (Austin Butler plays Presley.) When it comes to music, though, Elvis never left the building: He remains one of the best-selling artists of all time, with 25 top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, plus numerous hits that precede it. Billboard followed him from his rise at Sun Records, through his days in Las Vegas, until his 1977 death in Memphis.
HOUND DOG, CASH COW
Hailing a 21-year-old from Tupelo, Miss., as a “country cat” who was “powerfully inspired by authentic R&B,” an article in the…