It's the 80th birthday of Elvis Presley (b. Jan. 8, 1935)....
Top Ten True Facts About Elvis Not Known to Most Ecuadorians
10. Among the 600-plus tracks recorded by Elvis, more than 20 contained the word "blue" in the title. Among the most famous are Blue Suede Shoes, Blue Christmas and Blue Moon.
9. Elvis had a stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, who preceded Elvis's arrival by 35 minutes and who was buried the next day, Jan. 9, 1935.
8. Elvis bought the 13-plus-acres Graceland Estate and mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 22. Decades later, it became a major tourist attraction and the second most-visited home in the United States (after the White House) -- with over 600,000 visitors in a single year.
7. Elvis married Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967 at the Aladdin Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. He had met her in 1959 when he and her family were all stationed with the U.S. military in Germany. At the time they met, Elvis was 24, Priscilla 14. They divorced in 1973.
6. The U.S. National Archives' most-requested photograph pictures Elvis with Richard Nixon at the White House in 1970.
Nixon: "You dress kind of strange, don't you...."
Elvis: " Well, Mr. President, you got your show and I got mine."
5. Elvis's only child with Priscilla -- singer Lisa Marie Presley -- was not only the daughter of the King of Rock 'n Roll, but (from 1994-96) the wife of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
4. Elvis did not write the songs he performed, although he received some writing credits, including co-writing credit for Love Me Tender. In 1972, he released his cover of Always On My Mind just weeks after he and Priscilla separated, and that hit song has long been associated with his feelings for her. However, the writers of that song were Wayne Carson, with studio assist from Johnny Christopher and Mark James.
3. Elvis's last girlfriend was actress Ginger Alden, who was his fiancee.
2. Elvis had blonde hair as a youth. It changed to natural brown when he was a teenager. He then dyed it black for the rest of his life, to achieve an edgier look.
And the number-one little-known fact about Elvis on this list...
1. Elvis had released one of his top hits, Return to Sender, in 1962. Thirty years later, the U.S. Postal Service released the Elvis commemorative stamp, showing a close-up of Elvis with a hand-held microphone. It became the number-one commemorative among stamp collectors....When the stamp was released, many collectors affixed it to envelopes which they then mailed to fictitious addresses -- hoping to get the letters back now at a higher value, having been officially marked: "Return to Sender."
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Sources: PopMatters, History in the Headlines, philbrodieband.com, Wikipedia, Heather Jarvis, The Telegraph (U.K.)
