Thirty-three years after his death, Elvis Presley's extraordinary physical appeal, timeless music, and sexual charisma continue to captivate, titillate, and excite. Though hundreds of books have been written about the King, no book has solely explored his relationships with women and how they influenced his music and life . . . until now.
Based largely on exclusive interviews with the many women who knew him in various roles—lover, sweetheart, friend, costar, and family member—Baby, Let's Play House presents Elvis in a new light: as a charming but wounded Lothario who bedded scores of women but seemed unable to maintain a lasting romantic relationship. While fully exploring the most famous romantic idol of the twentieth century, award-winning veteran music journalist Alanna Nash pulls back the covers on what Elvis really wanted in a woman and was tragically never able to find.
Alanna Nash is a recipient of the Country Music Association Media Achievement Award and the Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism, and the author of seven books, including The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley (winner of the Belmont Award); Dolly: The Biography; and Elvis and the Memphis Mafia. Nash lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where she covered Elvis's funeral for the Courier-Journal.
Table of Contents
Introduction xiii
1 "My Best Gal" 1
2 An Ideal Guy 21
3 Blue Heartache 43
4 Dixie's Delight 63
5 "You Need to be Kissed" 79
6 "A Great, Big, Beautiful Hunk of Forbidden Fruit" 99
“Alanna Nash meticulously documents and explores all the relationships Elvis had with women that were ‘extremely special,’ as Ann-Margret so delightfully (and euphemistically) phrases it. I was delighted to see my stepmother, June Carter, make an appearance, as she always became uncharacteristically silent when Elvis’ name came up in conversation. Nash belongs in the pantheon of great music writers, and this book is a fascinating study
Philip Norman
“By far the best study of Elvis Presley I have read. ‘The King’ emerges more clearly from this mosaic of his troubled love life than from any linear biography to date.Impressively researched, writtenand felt.”
David Hajdu
“Deliciously gossipy but never mean, revealingly intimate but never leering, Baby, Let’s Play House is a masterwork of psycho-sexual history neatly disguised as celebrity journalism.”
Jimmy McDonough
“What’s left to say about Elvis? Plenty, if Alanna Nash is on the case. She rips the satin sheets right off the King, resulting in the most entertaining Elvis book ever. Ann-Margret! Raquel Welch! Barbara Eden! Tura Satana! This is very funny book.”
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