OLLI Plus at SF State: "Elvis Presley in the Mid-1950s: Birth of a Superstar"

At the beginning of his career in the mid-1950s, Elvis Presley offered an explosive and unprecedented fusion of country, blues, gospel, and pop music to pioneer the birth of rock'n'roll. Often these drew upon African-American influences young white musicians had seldom tapped, as well as songs by African-American and Jewish composers. We will explore these connections with some of the earliest film clips of Presley in performance.

About Our Instructor

Richie Unterberger is the author of books on music history and travel, and reviewer of too many albums to count for various books, publications, and databases. Richie has been writing about little-known and well-known rock and popular music of all kinds for more than 25 years. He has also contributed travel and music pieces to various publications, including MOJO, Record Collector, Pulse, rollingstone.com, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the Rough Guide to Rock, the East Bay Express, and 100 Albums That Changed Music.

About OLLI Plus at San Francisco State University

OLLI Plus is a premiere Interest Group at OLLI SF State; a membership in OLLI SF State is required to join. OLLI Plus offers on-campus lectures twice a month from September through July, each meeting is followed by social time with coffee and cookies. The cost is $35 for the series of approximately 20 hourlong talks. A half year (March - July) costs $20 for 10 talks. Read more about OLLI Plus. Learn about membership at OLLI SF State.