ALOHA ELVIS:
HAWAII'S GREAT FRIEND
Jerry Hopkins (photo by William Waterfall)
NOTE about the author:
Jerry
Hopkins has been chronicling popular music since his graduation from
Washington and Lee University in 1957.
He is a twenty-year
veteran of Rolling Stone, and authored two highly praised books
about Elvis Presley:
“Elvis:
A Biography,” published in 1971 and
“Elvis: The Final Years,” published in 1980, as well
as the 13-hour-long radio series, “Elvis Presley Story,” syndicated
internationally. Both books were international bestsellers (now out
of print).
His files and tapes and other research material constitute one of the most visited archives at the in the Mississippi Valley Collection at Memphis State University.
New Hopkins Book About Elvis in Hawaii
Elvis's
first biographer, Jerry Hopkins, is back on
the Elvis beat in Hawaii.
Following his best-selling ELVIS IN HAWAII,
an illustrated account of Elvis's many connections to Hawaii published
in 2001, the same publisher,
Bess Press, soon will release
ALOHA ELVIS: HAWAII'S GREAT FRIEND,
the third in it's mini-book series.
The 100-page, palm-sized book will place
Elvis in the context of other foreign individuals and musical forms that
influenced and changed the music of the islands from the time of its Western
discovery in the 18th century.
For example, the early missionaries brought the piano and hymns
to Hawaii and, later, Portuguese field workers contributed a small stringed
instrument that was adapted to become the Œukulele. As was
true everywhere
else, Elvis's taught the islands to rock.
Hopkins, who wrote ELVIS: A BIOGRAPHY in 1971
and ELVIS: THE FINAL YEARS in 1980, as well as the No. 1
bestselling biography of Jim Morrison, NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE, says
Elvis was the only outside performer to appear publicly in Hawaii during
the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, when he performed numerous times in concert,
made three movies, and called
the islands his favorite vacation spot.
The book will be published in Hawaii by the end of the year and
will be available on amazon.com in 2007.
Click
on the cover of "Elvis,
The Final Years"
to read an article from Rolling Stone Magazine
about this book, published in 1980.