{"id":746521,"date":"2026-08-22T20:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T20:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746521\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T20:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T20:52:14","slug":"the-singer-elvis-presley-crowned-as-pops-perfect-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746521\/","title":{"rendered":"The singer Elvis Presley crowned as pop’s “perfect voice”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Elvis<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Ollie Atkins<\/p>\n

Sat 22 August 2026 17:32, UK <\/p>\n

Emerging as the biggest name in the 1950s rock \u2018n\u2019 roll scene, Elvis Presley<\/a> became one of the first-ever globalised superstars. <\/p>\n

With a voice that could, by turns, stir honey into tea from a thousand paces or rock a can of Red Bull to sleep, cherubic looks, and hips so slick they could make an ageing snake look stiff, he was a worthy bastion of a new revolution. <\/p>\n

He awakened a sleeping potential for what we now know and love as pop culture. As the Beatles\u2019 John Lennon once famously remarked, \u201cBefore Elvis, there was nothing\u201d. Presley\u2019s musical career blossomed through the decade, with US record shops turning over vast, unprecedented profits from his hotcake singles. <\/p>\n

Then, the tap was turned off. In December 1957, Presley was drafted into the US Army<\/a>. While the proud patriot might have quipped, \u201cThe Army can do anything it wants with me,\u201d when he was honourably discharged in March 1960, the world had moved on, and his second chapter was one of diminished returns. <\/p>\n

Rock \u2018n\u2019 roll had evolved for a few years without him, and the \u2018British Invasion\u2019<\/a> was just around the corner, waiting to dethrone the king they all used to hail. Yet, Elvis was not without his allies, the old guard from an era where prowess and performative command were still vital tenets. So, the appeal of some of the old favourites proved pervasive. <\/p>\n

The King\u2019s favourite singer<\/p>\n

In 1956, Roy Orbison was signed by Sun Records, Presley\u2019s formative label, and alongside the likes of Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, he began to make a name for himself. Unlike Presley, Orbison liked to write his own lyrics. One of his early ambitions was even to have the \u2018Heartbreak Hotel\u2019 star sing one of his songs, and in 1960, as the King returned from his military duties, Orbison made his move. <\/p>\n

Understandably, the bespectacled crooner saw Presley as the perfect man to take on his new anthem, \u2018Only the Lonely\u2019, full of soaring sentiment and enough swing for Presley\u2019s potent timbre to work with. After getting in contact with the star, however, he was disheartened to receive a polite rejection. Sadly, Orbison received a similar response after pitching the track to The Everly Brothers. <\/p>\n

Consequently, a little-known songwriter ended up putting the single out himself in May 1960. With it, he would introduce the world to a voice that sounded heartbroken from the diaphragm up. Bob Dylan would later say he sounded \u201clike he was singing from an Olympian mountaintop\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Listen<\/a>Credit: Jack de Nijs for Anefo<\/p>\n

The success the unlikely star saw was rapid. On October 20th, 1960, Orbison\u2019s quivering croon saw \u2018Only the Lonely\u2019 strike the top of the UK singles chart after reaching a peak at number two in the US. People loved this curious new character. Needless to say, Presley will have felt a little regret as he reviewed the stats, but overall, he was happy for his fellow Sun Records alumnus. <\/p>\n

In many ways, they were playing for the same team. Their more traditional blend of pop and rock defied the zeitgeist of rocking psychedelia<\/a>. Above all, they were also virtuosos \u2013 both knew that while their \u2018cool\u2019 cache wasn\u2019t quite competing anymore, they could crank out a tune and have an audience swoon all the same. Could Donovan sing \u2018Hound Dog\u2019 and send the front two rows straight to the maternity ward? Gimme a break!<\/p>\n

So, through the 1960s, the pair\u2019s friendship blossomed and during one of Presley\u2019s famous Las Vegas concerts, he described Orbison as having the \u201cperfect voice\u201d and called him the \u201cgreatest singer in the world.\u201d Presley wasn\u2019t one to offer lavish praise all that often, but for Orbison, he made an exception. How could he not?<\/p>\n

In a return of praise, Orbison reflected upon seeing Presley perform in Odessa for the first time in February 1955, and how it inspired him to take a swing at making music himself. \u201cHis energy was incredible; his instinct was just amazing,\u201d he recalled in a 1980 interview. <\/p>\n

Adding, \u201cI just didn\u2019t know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it.\u201d He was, it seemed, a Promethean force fresh from nowhere. <\/p>\n

Presley would go on to perform a cover of Orbison\u2019s crooning classic \u2018Are You Lonesome Tonight?\u2019 But beyond that, he always kept a keen eye on how the slicked-back star was able to still make his more classically inclined tunes heard in a changing world. The answer for Presley was always the same: he had the perfect voice. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s very, very high praise, indeed. Especially from a King. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Ollie Atkins Sat 22 August 2026 17:32, UK Emerging as the biggest name in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[33244,8421,6491,18254,96,1581,30381,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-746521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-1950s","tag-america","tag-celebrities","tag-elvis-presley","tag-entertainment","tag-pop","tag-roy-orbison","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}