This is Elvis Birthday Week. He would have been 84 on Tuesday.

“ I don’t sound like nobody.”
Elvis, to Sun records secretary Marion Keisker when she asked him who he sounded like

Elvis was told to return to being a truck driver.
Grand Ole Opry manager Jim Denny after Elvis performed in 1954 for the first and only time at the Opry. Elvis swore he’d never go back. Years later, Garth Brooks commented in a television interview that one of the greatest thrills of playing the Opry was that he got to play on the same stage Elvis had.

 “Rockin’ on music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can’t help but move to it. That’s what happens to me. I can’t stand still. I’ve tried it and I just can’t do it.”
Elvis, on Elvis

”His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people.”
Frank Sinatra, in Elvis’ early days. The two would later become good friends.

”I wanted to say to Elvis Presley and the country that this is a real decent, fine boy.”
Ed Sullivan to Elvis during one of Elvis’ appearances on Sullivan’s popular Sunday night variety show

”Elvis was the king. No doubt about it. People like myself, Mick Jagger and all the others only followed in his footsteps.”
Rod Stewart

”A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood.”
Producer Hal Wallis

”A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man’s music, when in fact almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis.”
Jackie Wilson

”There have been a lot of tough guys. There have been pretenders. And there have been contenders. But there is only one king.”
Bruce Springsteen

”When I first heard Elvis’ voice I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody; and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail.”
Bob Dylan

”Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it’s a whole new social revolution… the 60’s comes from it.”
Leonard Bernstein

“Without preamble, the three-piece band cuts loose. In the spotlight, the lanky singer flails furious rhythms on his guitar, every now and then breaking a string. In a pivoting stance, his hips swing sensuously from side to side and his entire body takes on a frantic quiver, as if he had swallowed a jackhammer.”
 “Time Magazine,” May 15, 1956

“It isn’t enough to say that Elvis is kind to his parents, sends money home, and is the same unspoiled kid he was before all the commotion began. That still isn’t a free ticket to behave like a sex maniac in public.”
Eddie Condon, “Cosmopolitan,” December 1956 

“I wanted to say to Elvis Presley and the country that this is a real decent, fine boy.”
Ed Sullivan, during Elvis’ third appearance on his show, January 6, 1957

“There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home…He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect from rock ‘n’ roll singers.”
John Landau, Review of “Elvis” (1968 TV Special)

“You have no idea how great he is, really you don’t. You have no comprehension – it’s absolutely impossible. I can’t tell you why he’s so great, but he is. He’s sensational.”
Phil Spector

“Elvis had an influence on everybody with his musical approach. He broke the ice for all of us.”
Al Green

“He was an instinctive actor…He was quite bright…he was very intelligent…He was not a punk. He was very elegant, sedate, and refined, and sophisticated.”
Walter Matthau, who co-starred with Elvis in “King Creole,” from a 1987 interview

“…it was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody’s ear, and somehow we all dreamed it.”
Bruce Springsteen

“A lot has been written and said about why he was so great, but I think the best way to appreciate his greatness is just to go back and play some of the old records… Time has a way of being very unkind to old records, but Elvis’ keep getting better and better.” 
Huey Lewis

“This boy had everything. He had the looks, the moves, the manager, and the talent. And he didn’t look like Mr. Ed like a lot of the rest of us did. In the way he looked, way he talked, way he acted – he really was different.” 
Carl Perkins

“It’s rare when an artist’s talent can touch an entire generation of people. It’s even rarer when that same influence affects several generations. Elvis made an imprint on the world of pop music unequaled by any other single performer.” 
Dick Clark

“I’m sitting in the drive-through and I’ve got my three girls in the back and this station comes on and it’s playing “Jailhouse Rock,” the original version, and my girls are jumping up and down, going nuts. I’m looking around at them and they’ve heard Dad’s music all the time and I don’t see that out of them.” 
Garth Brooks

“Ask anyone. If it hadn’t been for Elvis, I don’t know where popular music would be. He was the one that started it all off, and he was definitely the start of it for me.” 
Elton John

“The first concert I attended was an Elvis concert when I was eleven. Even at that age he made me realize the tremendous effect a performer could have on an audience.” 
Cher

“It’s insane the charisma he had. I’ve never seen anything like it to this day.” 
Faith Hill

”There have been many accolades uttered about Elvis’ talent and performances through the years, all of which I agree with wholeheartedly. I shall miss him dearly as a friend. He was a warm, considerate and generous man.”
Frank Sinatra

”Elvis Presley’s death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique, irreplaceable. More than twenty years ago, he burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled. His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense. And he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness and good humor of this country.”
President Jimmy Carter after Elvis’ death

”Before Elvis, there was nothing.”
John Lennon

”If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead.”
Johnny Carson

”Elvis taught white America to get down.”
James Brown

”We’ll never know what an old Elvis Presley would have been like. He’ll just always be the King.”
Pat Boone

”When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie .So every dream I ever dreamed has come true a hundred times. These gentlemen over there, these are the type who care, are dedicated. You realize if it´s not possible that they might be building the kingdom, it´s not far-fetched from reality. I´d like to say that I learned very early in life that:

‘Without a song the day would never end

Without a song a man ain´t got a friend

Without a song the road would never bend

Without a song…’

So I keep singing a song.Good night. Thank you.”
Elvis in his acceptance speech in 1971 for being one of the Top Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the national Junior Chambers of Commerce (the Jaycees)