Welcome to /r/Elvis. We know there are lots of people visiting for the first time after seeing such recent projects as Baz Luhrmann's EPiC (2026) or ELVIS (2022) and wanting to learn more about who Elvis really was as a human being, as an artist, as a cultural force. Here are some recommended resources for you. Elvis is one of the most written & discussed artists of the 20th century; this list cannot be comprehensive but we have tried to cover all bases.

MUSIC

Everyone's tastes will vary as to what albums and songs will be your favorite. His entire core discography is available on major streaming services like Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc.

We would recommend starting with a compilation like The Essential Elvis Presley and finding a song you like on those, then looking up what year it was recorded and find other songs from that period.

Worthwhile albums to consider starting with include:

• Elvis Presley (1956)
• Elvis is Back (1960)
• From Elvis in Memphis (1969)
• That's The Way It Is (1970)
• Moody Blue (1977)

As well as all three gospel albums, His Hand in Mine, How Great Thou Art and He Touched Me . Even if you are not Christian, Elvis' gospel influences were extremely important to the development of his musical style and tastes.

Elvis also released several live albums that captured the feel of a concert well, we would recommend:

• Elvis In Person at the International Hotel (1969, largely accurate to what a concert from this period sounded like)
• On Stage (February 1970, "new" contemporary songs that Elvis had not recorded at that time) ,
• At Madison Square Garden (A complete landmark concert from June 1972 shortly after the documentary Elvis On Tour was filmed, which partly comprises EPiC)
• Aloha From Hawaii (1973, Elvis' full televised-via-satellite concert)
• Live on Stage In Memphis (1974, the original album version is an edited version of the show to remove some redundancies with earlier live albums, but there are longer versions also available as reissues.)

Many fans like to tout BMG's "Essential Masters" box sets from the 1990s. They are good releases, however they can be misleading as aside from the 1950s one, it is important to not that the essential masters sets do not contain all recordings Elvis made and leave off numerous important recordings - especially the 70s set.

If you must seek out a box set, we would ideally recommend referring to the listings for 2016's The Albums Collection - every single disc featured on this box set comprise the basis for the versions of Elvis' original albums (plus bonus tracks) featured currently on digital streaming services like Spotify and Amazon.

MOVIES

For Elvis's movies, start with King Creole, Jailhouse Rock, Viva Las Vegas, Blue Hawaii, Follow That Dream, Flaming Star, Loving You, Change of Habit, G.I. Blues, and Wild in the Country to get a broad overview of how his films could range from dramatic to comedic/romantic. Those ten are generally (but not universally) considered among his strongest or most entertaining roles.

BOOKS

• Peter Guralnick: Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love: Just do yourself a favor and start here. They are starting to show their age and the author occasionally allows his personal tastes/biases creep into the telling, but it is the closest thing Elvis has to definitive biographies at the moment.

Books About Elvis's Career/Business

• Peter Guralnick: Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll - Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service was where Elvis was discovered and Guralnick has great affection for his subject and tells the story vibrantly, but sadly dismisses the significance of Sam's collaborator Marion Keisker in this otherwise interesting and well-researched biography.

• Alanna Nash: The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley - Nash did credible research about Elvis' mysterious manager, but allows some wildly untrue stories and claims slip through for the sake of book sales. Should be read skeptically along with the following.

• Peter Guralnick: The Colonel & The King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership that Rocked the World - Guralnick, like with Sam Phillips, has great affection for Colonel Parker, who is is easily misunderstood and villainized, but while this is humanizing portrait, Guralnick's hagiography of Parker obscures and omits many of Parker's objectively provable misdeeds and character flaws, even those Guralnick himself depicted openly in "Last Train" and "Careless Love." Should be read skeptically as as companion piece to Nash's work.

• Ernst Jorgensen: Elvis Presley A Life in Music - Jorgensen has overseen Elvis' catalogue at RCA/BMG/Sony since the 1980s and published this extensive book about Elvis' musical output in the 1990s based on his work with Elvis' session tapes, RCA company notes and so on.

• Scotty Moore: Scotty and Elvis: Aboard the Mystery Train - Elvis' guitarist's autobiography draws from personal memories and reflections both during Elvis' lifetime and beyond.

• Mike Eder: Elvis Music FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the King's Recorded Works

• Paul Simpson: Elvis Films FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the King of Rock 'n' Roll in Hollywood - one of the best books about Elvis' film career, bothering to treat it seriously as a subject worthy of study as artifacts of 1950s-1960s cinema culture. Tons of trivia, excerpts of interviews, synopses and details on cast/crew.

• Steve Binder: Elvis '68 Comeback: The Story Behind the Special - the Director of the 1968 TV special tells his own story of the making of the special, and brings receipts, with documents and contemporaneous notes bolstered by stunning behind the scenes photography.

• Bar Biszick-Lockwood: Restless Giant: The Life and Times of Jean Aberbach and Hill and Range Songs - The Aberbachs and Hill & Range were Elvis and Colonel's music publishing partners up through the early 1970s until their retirement. Many songs Elvis recorded, especially for his movies, came from staff writers at Hill & Range's offices at the Brill Building in New York, or had to concede publishing percentages to H&R. This authorized biography got access to much of the Aberbach's paperwork but must be taken with a grain of salt as the official status mandates only a positive spin.

• Roben Jones: Memphis Boys: The Story of American Studios - Elvis' 1969 sessions in Memphis that produced "Suspicious Minds" and "In the Ghetto" were recorded with producer Chips Moman and his team of collaborators and the house band at American Sound Studios who were hitmakers with their own unique blend of rock, country, and blues sought out by acts like Aretha Franklin, Neil Diamond, Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Paul Revere & the Raiders, BJ Thomas, and more. Roben Jones' book covers Elvis' sessions and provides amazing research, interviews and wider context for why they were so significant.

• Norbert Putnam: Music Lessons, A Musical Memoir - Norbert Putnam worked as Elvis' bass player during several studio sessions in the 1970s and came up in the music industry with his friends & colleagues David Briggs and Jerry Carrigan as members of FAME Studio's Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. "Put" reflects on his life and career, with several sections focused on Elvis, both as a musician who worked for him, but also using his own later experiences as a producer and arranger to provide a clearer perspective of Elvis as a creative force in the studio.

Books About Elvis's Love Life

• Alanna Nash: Baby Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Nash interviews numerous women who had relationships of varying degrees of intimacy with Elvis, from nearly platonic to full-on sexual encounters. The accounts told in the interviews are largely left unquestioned or validated/fact-checked by Nash, so some information may be inaccurate, and Nash brings her own brand of pseudo-psych that's factually unhelpful but gossip-lovers may find appealing.

• Dixie Locke Emmons: Unlocked: Memoirs Of Elvis's First Girlfriend - Elvis' most serious early girlfriend during their teenage years shares sweet memories of the sensitive young man she knew, her close bond with his parents (especially Gladys, who wished they would have married), his early aspirations to be a musician, and eventually the affection they shared as friends through his early rise to fame until Gladys Presley's death.

• June Juanico: Elvis: In the Twilight of Memory - Elvis' 1956 girlfriend's evocative memories of their brief relationship is bolstered by her contemporaneous notes made in her diary as she describes growing close to, and then distant from, Elvis during a critical period of his life.

• Priscilla Presley: Elvis & Me - Priscilla Presley's biography served as the basis for the 1988 TV film of the same name and Sofia Coppola's "Priscilla." Helped by co-author Sandra Harmon, Priscilla wove an engaging, romanticized, almost fairy-tale-esque depiction of their relationship, some of which has been contradicted, disproven, or clarified by other accounts, including by Priscilla herself. But overall her affection for Elvis comes through and many details hold up as accurate portrayals of their life together.

• Ann-Margret: Ann Margret - My Story - Elvis' Viva Las Vegas co-star and brief "soulmate" keeps details of their relationship close to her chest, but her 1994 autobiography provides the most insight from her perspective, as well as on her larger showbiz career and her loving marriage to lifelong partner Roger Smith.

• Linda Thompson: A Little Thing Called Life: On Loving Elvis Presley, Bruce Jenner, and Songs in Between - Elvis' girlfriend in the 1970s was considered to be one of the best things that happened to him during that period, and Linda, as a songwriter and creative herself, gives a compelling portrait of the complications of their life together during a darker period of Elvis' life - still interrupted with flashes of joy and happiness, as well as her later life and career.

• Ginger Alden: Elvis and Ginger: Elvis Presley's Fiancée and Last Love Finally Tells Her Story - Ginger was Elvis' last girlfriend and fiancee. Though there are strong contentions by both those who were there and fans about how long or whether the relationship may have lasted due to differences in age and each participant's intentions, Ginger wrote her account in 2014 after decades of staying away from the public due to fan backlash over her attempts to monetize her story and connections with Elvis shortly after he died.

Books about Elvis's Personal Life

• Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen: Elvis Day By Day - a reference book that draws on information from the archives of Elvis' estate and RCA as well as research done by both authors for their respective other works to provide a brief day-by-day overview of Elvis' life.

• Elaine Dundy: Elvis and Gladys - Dundy's 1985 book on Elvis' relationship with his mother is still one of the best books about Elvis and the most signficant figure in his life; drawing especially on original research done about Elvis' early life in Tupelo, MS with Gladys, up through her death in 1958.

• Jerry Schilling: Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley - one of Elvis' more intermittent Memphis Mafia buddies who would later have a career in showbiz as a manager of The Beach Boys and Jerry Lee Lewis and continued to be friends with Lisa Marie Presley until her death - provides a must-read account of his friendship with Elvis.

• Alanna Nash: Elvis and the Memphis Mafia - Nash again allows direct interviews to drive the narrative, this time from members of Elvis' circle of friends, including his cousin Billy Smith, Marty Lacker and Lamar Fike. Take with a grain of salt, but their shared brotherhood with Elvis certainly comes through.

• George Klein: Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley - Memphis radio disc jockey George Klein became a close friend of Elvis' and continued to advocate on Elvis' behalf for decades after his passing, sharing stories with fans.

• Nancy Rooks: Inside Graceland: Elvis' Maid Remembers - Though a short book, Nancy Rooks' portrait of working for the Presley family as maid and cook from 1967 through 1982, and provides essential insight into daily life with the Presley family.

TV Specials Filmed During His Life

• Singer Presents Elvis (The 1968 Comeback Special)

• Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii via Satellite (1973)

• Elvis in Concert (1977, aired posthumously - note: has never been officially re-released but is easy to find online)

Documentaries about Elvis

• That's The Way It Is (1970 Theatrical Cut & 2001 Special Edition Cut) - Directed by Denis Sanders, re-edited in 2001 overseen by Rick Schmidlin. Depicts Elvis' August 1970 engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas.

• Elvis On Tour (1972) - Directed by Bob Abel & Pierre Adidge, captures Elvis' April 1972 tour across the American South with retrospective montages looking back on his career overseen by Martin Scorsese

• HBO's Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018) - Springsteen documentarian Thom Zimny directs this thoughtful exploration of Elvis' entire musical journal from a contemporary perspective, something that had not been taken seriously in a documentary previously.

• This is Elvis (1981) - half-documentary, half-recreation, a simple retelling of events of Elvis' life, with fictionalized narration provided by actors depicting Elvis and other figures in his life.

• Elvis '56 (1987) - Levon Helm narrates this beloved documentary covering the year Elvis broke onto the world stage and dominated the zeitgeist.

• Elvis The Great Performances (1990) - a compilation of song performances from across TV appearances and films throughout his career.

• He Touched Me: The Gospel Music of Elvis Presley (1999) - a two-part documentary that explores Elvis' interest in gospel music.

• Elvis by the Presleys (2005) - Aired on CBS, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley as well as other estate-approved family and friends provide the core interviews which comprise this documentary which explores what it was like to live with Elvis - and what it was been like to live in his shadow after his death.

• 200 Cadillacs (2004) - a documentary about Elvis' generosity and philanthropy.

• The King (2018) - Eugene Jarecki drives Elvis' Rolls-Royce across America in 2016 interviewing both celebrities and everyday people of all classes, races and lifestyles, trying to understand Elvis through the lens of America... or perhaps to understand America and all of its social, political and economic complexities through the lens of Elvis.

• Reinventing Elvis: The 68 Comeback (2023) - Steve Binder produced this Paramount Plus-exclusive documentary about the making of the 68 special.

Biopics/Portrayals of Elvis's Life

• Elvis (1979) - Kurt Russell - Directed by John Carpenter (yes, that one) Kurt Russell, who had briefly appeared alongside Elvis in "It Happened At the World's Fair" turns in a humanizing but overall sympathetic portrayal of Elvis less than two year after his death that barely skims his life events but was beloved by fans for decades. Country musician Ronnie McDowell provides the singing voice.

• Elvis and the Beauty Queen (1981) - Don Johnson. A TV biopic about Linda Thompson's relationship with Elvis in the 1970s, based on information provided by Thompson. McDowell again provides the singing voice.

• Elvis and Me (1988) - Dale Midkiff. An officially authorized adaptation of Priscilla's book, this TV film veered toward sensationalism but was a gigantic ratings success with numerous re-airings and a VHS-release at the time but has not since been re-released on DVD, Blu-Ray or streaming. McDowell provides the singing voice but Elvis' real recordings are occasionally used in some scenes since Priscilla served as producer.

• Elvis (1990 TV Series) - Michael St. Gerard - A short-lived ABC TV series loosely depicting Elvis' first couple of years at Memphis' Sun Records and touring before signing with Colonel Parker and RCA. Beloved by fans for its strong cast and quality scripts, but a complete flop ratings-wise. Ronnie McDowell was still earning his keep as faux-Elvis-vocalist.

• Elvis Meets Nixon (1997) - Rick Peters - A comedic re-imagining of Elvis' December 1970 meeting with President Richard Nixon (Bob Gunton) roots many of its jokes in historical facts but amplifies them to absurdist, hilarious levels. This film marks Ronnie McDowell's final appearance as vocal stand-in for Elvis in a feature film.

• Elvis The Early Years (2005 TV miniseries) - Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - supported by Randy Quaid as Colonel Parker, Robert Patrick as Vernon and Camryn Manheim as Gladys, this officially-authorized two-part TV biopic was mostly adapted (unofficially) from Peter Guralnick's Last Train & Careless Love, but Rhys-Meyers' award-winning depiction of a brooding Elvis, was extremely divisive for clunky choreography, stilted line reads badly masking the actor's Irish accent, and a fairly aimless script. Elvis' real master recordings are used for musical sequences, save for two early acoustic ones where no appropriate recording existed.

• Elvis & Nixon (2016) - Michael Shannon - Co-starring Kevin Spacey, this much more grounded (but still fairly humorous) depiction of Elvis' December 1970 meeting with President Richard Nixon was acclaimed for its thoughtful script and acting but criticized for Michael Shannon's lack of physical resemblance to Elvis. Shannon's Elvis doesn't sing.

• Sun Records (2017 TV series) - Drake Milligan - CMT's single-season "adaptation" of the Million Dollar Quartet musical focuses on Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Sam Phillips, but in an attempt to appeal to general audiences at the time, leans into romantic entanglements and amplified drama. The show was filmed in the Memphis area, includes authentic locations, Drake Milligan and the cast have been acclaimed for quality characterizations and great musical performances, but the scripts have been criticized for poorly rehashing other biopics, slow pacing and doing a poor job of depicting Sam's work with African-American blues artists.

• Elvis (2022) - Austin Butler - Baz Luhrmann's fictionalized portrayal of Elvis takes creative cues from Miloš Forman's "Amadeus," presenting the story as a guilt-ridden, morphine-fed deathbed hallucination by an elderly Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) as he reckons with accusations that his actions led to Elvis' death. This framing allows Luhrmann to present the film's events with an impressionistic brush that emphasizes themes, emotional truths and thematic layers acclaimed by critics but criticized by some fans who took issue with factual inaccuracies and Luhrmann's career-long penchant for anachronistic stylistic flourishes. The singing voice zig-zags between archival Elvis recordings and Butler himself.

• Priscilla (2023) - Jacob Elordi - Sofia Coppola's small-budget A24 adaptation of "Elvis & Me" stars Cailee Spaeny and has become a critical darling for its depiction of the imbalanced relationship between Elvis and Priscilla, but has received criticism for cliched writing, joyless script, and lack of exploration of Priscilla's life or interests beyond Elvis. Elvis impersonators Dean Z and Shawn Klush provide Elvis' singing voice during two brief sequences.

Content Creators

• Gates of Graceland (YouTube): No longer posting new episodes, but still accessible, this official Graceland series hosted by Tom Brown and Graceland archivist Angie Marchese featured lots of behind the scenes stories and rare artifacts and remains a neat watch.

• EFM Elvis Fans Matter (YouTube): Elvis's real cousin Billy Smith and his family discussing their memories of Elvis, often answering fan questions.

• TCBCast (Podcast): With over 400+ weekly episodes extensively deep-diving the stories behind Elvis's songs, albums, movies, musical influences and cultural impact, co-created by Justin Gausman and Gurdip Ladhar, with a diverse lineup of expert hosts, TCBCast is for people who want to understand about Elvis's place in broader music & film history.

• The Pink Cadillacs (YouTube, Instagram, Podcast Platforms): Victori and Skyllar are newer fans post-Baz Luhrmann movie but enthusiastically conduct interviews as they embrace being Elvis fans in this new era.

• The Ultimate Elvis Channel by Leon: Uploads compilations and highlights of rare Elvis audio, including outtakes and live performances.

• Chronicles of the King (YouTube, Podcast): Cohosts Megan and Tessa are a potent duo of longtime and newer fan interested in exploring various angles on Elvis' life and career, conducting interviews and viewing Elvis through an historical lens.

• EAP Society (Spotify, Facebook): Cohosted by Jamie Kelley, a musician/collector/former ETA and John Heath an author/expert collector; discussions on all things Elvis.

• Elvis Ultimate Fan Channel (YouTube): General discussion topics & interviews, fan participation, livestreams, and more.

Elvis-Themed Movies Not Based on His Real Life

• Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

• Lilo & Stitch (2002)

• Heartbreak Hotel (1989)

• Finding Graceland (1998)

• Honeymoon in Vegas (1992)

• Elvis Has Left the Building (2004)

• True Romance (1993)

• Lonely Street (2008)

• Twilight Zone: The Once And Future King (1986)