Elvis Presley worked.
Elvis Aaron Presley ( January 8 , 1935 -- August 16 , 1977 ) was an American singer-songwriter and actor . His music career began there in 1954 , when he recorded a song with producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records . He resumed his recording career two years later , producing some of his most commercially successful work before devoting much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and their accompanying soundtrack albums , most of which were critically derided .