It was 37 years ago to the day that legendary performer Elvis Presley died. His influence on popular culture in the mid 20th century is hard to overstate, and he left a broad range of recorded music that endures. Like millions of his fans, I remember precisely where I was when I heard the news of his death (Geyser basin, Yellowstone National Park). Elvis' music has been a blessing to my life ; I never grow tired of listening, and it always seems fresh and new.
I've twice visited Elvis' Memphis home, Graceland. The first visit was just a few years after it opened to the public and the second decades later. I was surprised to see how Elvis' popularity seems not to have diminished over the years. The place was packed and attendance at Graceland increases yearly. Elvis' recordings still sell millions of copies annually and now there's a whole generation of fans who never knew what the world was like when Elvis lived on it.
Elvis often evoked very strong emotional responses from his fans, and that's true to this day. Folks still leave heart-felt tributes to the man as graffiti on the wall of Elvis' Graceland estate, as seen in our highlighted series of photos today. The estate scrapes the graffiti off frequently but it reappears in short order.
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