30 Years Ago Today...

...Elvis Aaron Presley passed away.

At the age of 42, "The King's" death shocked the world. To date, he is the only performer to have been inducted into four separate music halls of fame.

Back in the late 1960s, composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein remarked: "Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the 20th century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution...the 60's comes from it."

It has also been claimed that his early music and live performances helped to lay a commercial foundation which allowed other, established performers of the 1950s become recognized. African-American acts, like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard, came to national prominence after Presley's acceptance among the mass audience of white American teenagers. Little Richard commented: "He was an integrator, Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music." It has been claimed that the black-and-white character of Presley's sound, as well as his persona, helped to relax the rigid color line and thereby fed the fires of the civil rights movement.

In 2002, The NY Times observed: "For those too young to have experienced Elvis Presley in his prime, today’s celebration of the 25th anniversary of his death must seem peculiar. All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite -- a genuine cultural force...Elvis’s breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely."

With that, let's all bow our heads in a moment of silence...