This Day in Music – 16th Aug

On this day in 1977, Elvis Presley was found dead lying on the floor in his bathroom by his girlfriend Ginger Alden; he’d been sitting on the toilet reading The Scientific Search For Jesus. He died of heart failure at the age of 42.
The King of rock & roll dead at 42!
I can’t think of another performer who has been the subject of so much posthumous attention, so many urban myths and so many tales. Everything that needs to be written about Elvis has already been written. So it just leaves me to leave you with some facts about Elvis you might not know.
Like, did you know:
His first record for RCA, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, was also his first US No.1.
He starred in 31 films.
Elvis holds the record for the most entries on the US Hot 100 chart with 154.
Elvis became the first rock ‘n’ roll artist to be honoured by the US Postal Service with a stamp.
In 1960, after completing his national service and flying back to America, he stepped on British soil for the first and only time in his life when the plane carrying him stopped for refuelling at Prestwick Airport, Scotland.
Elvis Presley was a big Monty Python fan. His favourite film was The Holy Grail. It was in his video recorder when he died.
In Switzerland it is illegal to cut a front lawn while dressed as Elvis Presley.
In 1977 there were 170 Elvis impersonators. By 2002 there were 85,000. At that rate of growth, by 2019 a third of the world’s population will be Elvis impersonators.