John Lennon shares what he thought was the ‘great period’ for Elvis Presley

John Lennon believes one era for Elvis Presley is his “great period” and remains far better than the works to follow.

The Beatles would meet with Presley in an awkward encounter that left Lennon and the band feeling somewhat different about their idol. The King would be a major part of life for, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, but his influence was felt most of all before The Beatles broke America. The Fab Four’s breakout in the United States came after the “great period” Presley enjoyed, with Lennon believing the Sun Records days were the best. An interview given by Lennon, where he spoke on The King, was used during the first episode of Anthology. The Beatles documentary would offer insights into the influences on the band in their earliest years, and Presley was an obvious one.

Lennon said: “When I was sixteen, Elvis is what was happening. A guy with greasy hair, wiggling his ass, and singing Hound Dog and That’s Alright Momma on those early Sun records which I think are his great period.”

It was not just Lennon who was thoroughly influenced by Presley, but McCartney too. Speaking on The King in that same episode, he praised Presley as the “guru” of rock and roll music in the 1950s and 1960s.

McCartney said: “I remember being in school when I was a kid and somebody had a picture in one of the musical papers of Elvis Presley. I think it was an advert for Heartbreak Hotel. I just looked at it and thought ‘he’s so good looking, he looks perfect.’”

Heartbreak Hotel would release on January 27, 1956, and was a Billboard Top 100 chart topper. The two-minute track would leave a lasting impression on John Lennon, too, with the Imagine hitmaker considering Heartbreak Hotel a “great” alternative to American music of the times.

He told the NME: “We’d never heard American voices singing like that. They always sang like Sinatra or enunciate very well. Suddenly, there’s this hillbilly hiccuping on tape echo and all this bluesy stuff going on. And we didn’t know what Elvis was singing about … It took us a long time to work what was going on. To us, it just sounded as a noise that was great.”

It was not just Presley that McCartney was fond of, with the work of Buddy Holly also catching his and Lennon’s eye. McCartney explained briefly that the difference between Holly and the rest of the music scene at the time went beyond his sound and style. He said: “Suddenly here was a rock and roll hero who had glasses.”

The rock hero, like Presley, had a huge influence on McCartney, who says frequent home viewing of whatever was broadcast on BBC television formed part of his musical upbringing. Responding to fan questions on his website, McCartney shared: “Well, in the early days, my idea of what a real musician was came from radio or TV shows.