I always thought Elvis was great but I can't help but notice how many bands say they were influenced by the Beatles instead of Elvis. What's your opinion.

We were just discussing this in week 16 of the bracketology. I personally think he was great and worthy of being called the king. Even though he might not have written his songs, he was one of the greatest performers ever.

I'm not gonna come back to what was said before, but I personnally think that Elvis is fascinating.
more than the king or the biggest rock'n'roll star, he was the one by whom this music was announced and revealed to the world. He wasn't the first to mix black and white music -JImmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams or Bill Haley and many more did that before him, but he appears in the mid-50's with an original style, a charm and freshness which really were a revolution.
I think he was an intuitive genius, moved by forces he could not control. Of course, he lost control very early.
He is such an icon that he can't be treated as any other singer. His image is well beyond the man that he was, a rather simple man, very gifted for the stage, very handsome and good looking, and last but not least with a wonderful voice that has been copied so many times after that we don't realized how new it was when he came out in 55-56.
And he sang beautiful songs, at least until 1956, but also after, sporadically.
There's a sort of dogm among music lovers that Elvis started recording bad music after his military service.
This is not ture : he also made bad music before and (rarely but true) good after.
There was a very interesting article in French magazine Rock and Folk about Elvis; the writers tried to chose a list of 50 songs fit for the mp3 players, and they realized that post-56 songs were more fit for MP playing, and they chosed gems from his late 50's, 60's and 70's. A
The sun sessions and the first RCA singles are masterpieces to me
Of course he didn't write his material, but in roots music (blues, country) it is very common. He lived in a pre-songwriter era, and his lectures of old songs (i.e.Arthur Crudup's That's all right mama)are really fascinating.
I also love certain his Vegas come back (suspicious minds, in the ghetto)
He is not among my favorite artists (maybe not in my top 20) but he is really apart for me
So given the immense popularity he enjoyed, and his groundbreaking historical role, and once again, the very good songs he recordrd, I think he is not overrated.

No he's not overrated - I think it's just a generation thing - he's just not gonna mean as much to people born after he died. And of course the music was only part of the whole package.

Compared to the Beatles, Elvis is overrated if you put Elvis with the Rolling Stones, the Beatles would still have been the act of 60's. How many artists could have albums that the majority of songs could have been hit songs and wrote the songs at the same time? I have noticed what a lack of influence Elvis has with today's rockers. Great singer of other people songs but he never made an album as great as Revolver but then again not many have.

It's definitely a generation thing and that generation is now in their 60's. You don't hear Elvis much on the radio anymore either. I think his sound and appeal was very revolutionary in the 50's but then music came along that blew everything he did out of the water. Anybody who grew up with Elvis would have a different opinion because he was like nothing they had heard before at the time. For the most part, the rest of us find he doesn't compare to anything we've heard before.

for the most part, the only stations you're going to hear 50s/60s music on is oldies.

Elvis had some terrific material. He's deserving of the acclaim and more.

I think from a musical perspective he is definitely overrated. He had some fun tunes and is historically significant but musically speaking I think he's the 50's Justin Timberlake.

John, whwen you say It's definitely a generation thing and that generation is now in their 60's, I agree it may be a generation thing, but not that much
First, I'm 37 an not (yet) in my 60s. I was 7 when elvis passed away and I don't remember hearing his records when he was alive. I discovered them later on the radio, in the 80s.
About the radio I think JR made a good point when he said it was oldies stations that play Elvis : more than a generation thing, it is rather a question of marketing target : the specialization of radio stations according to the public, which is also spreading in France.
So I think for the younger generation the King could sound overrated (I'm not discussing only about the value of his music, which is a personal thing; for my part I consider some of his songs like or as highlight of the 50's and of popular music in general, but Acclaimed Music base is made out of critics' choices, and the critics are from an older generation.
You have to take into account that rock music is in its 50's, it's an ageing music. It's no longer the monopoly of a young generation, but a heritage shared by a community of generations;
Fathers, grand fathers and soon great grandaddys have rock records in their collections.
That's why I think a "demographics thread" would be welcome and I'm just going to open one.

that Justin Timberlake is going to go down in history the way Elvis Presley has- just a teenie-weenie hunch.

I was going to say the same thing you said about Timberlake but with Nirvana. You can already see the gap starting to form... They just mean so much more to anybody who grew up in the early 90's.

By the way, Elvis doesn't even get played on oldies stations anymore. Maybe you'll hear Suspicious Minds or another late "Vegas Elvis" tune, but the songs that made Elvis "The King" are very rarely heard on the radio anymore. Oldies stations cater to people in their late 30's to early 50's. If you're not listening to classic Elvis on your own you most likely aren't hearing it at all.

Well you're hearing him all the time in soundtracks.

Justin Timberlake won't be Elvis because we already have Elvis. Besides, he way too late to give him a run for his money. I'm comparing them in terms of types of talent, skills, songs, image and marketing. Not legacy.

In France you can still hear Elvis on the radion, even 50's tracks
especially because it was the anniversary of his death, but you can hear things like Don't be cruel

Bono certainly considers Elvis an influence, and while he didn't write songs, he certainly was influential as a performer.

Bono just yesterday has been qouted in the papers saying the Beatles were his inspiration and that today's rock music were in large part influneced from the Beatles. I think because Elvis did not write his songs his influence is somewhat limitted compared to many artists that came after the Beatles.

I think Bono finds him more influential as a performer than as a musician.