Elvis, Race, and the Unity of Complementary Genius

Abstract Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Records and first to record Elvis, is reputed to have said, “If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.” If Elvis invoked that feel, was doing so as profitable as Phillips predicted it would be? For whom? And why would performance by a white artist make a difference? The first part of this chapter explores the actuality of a “Black sound and feel,” examining the existence and nature of Black music and culture. In examining Elvis’s connection to Black music, the second part uses a legal framework to define cultural appropriation and to examine whether Elvis appropriated Black music and culture. The third part addresses the issue of race by exploring whether whiteness made Elvis’s affiliation with Black music and culture “better,” more appealing, or more commercial. Finally, the last part explores the significance, challenges, and potential benefits of rethinking Elvis and race. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ambition to erase racial divisiveness reaches to the music industry. He calls to us engage in an authenticity that values every person and thereby every contribution, artistic or otherwise, making it possible to celebrate an Elvis along with every Black contributor he studied and valued, birthing the valuing of not “white as better,” but as white genius that coexists through the recognition of Black genius. Only in this land of acknowledged, shared genius can Elvis reign as King of Rock’n’Roll.