HOLLYWOOD — Can you believe that Elvis Presley died 47 years ago, on August 16, 1977? I’m almost 100 percent sure that if you’re of a certain age, you remember exactly where you were on that tragic day when you heard the news. So many decades have passed, but he is just as beloved today. His music and his myth will live on forever. Just last week, on August 9, the new Elvis box set “Memphis” was released, containing 111 tracks of Presley’s recordings in the city, from Sun to the Jungle Room. You may be wondering who owns Elvis Presley’s music these days? Well, the RCA Records label. Presley signed with the legendary label on November 20, 1955, after initially recording for Memphis-based Sun Records. In addition, RCA bought all of Elvis’ Sun assets.

The RCA record label was bought by the German conglomerate BMG in the 1980s. Then in 2004, BMG merged with Sony Music Entertainment to form Song BMG. In other words, Sony BMG owns Elvis’ recordings and continues to use the RCA Records label to release Elvis releases and projects. In addition, The Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc., a company, was created by the Elvis Presley Trust to conduct business and manage its assets. EPE was actually owned by the Trust/Lisa Marie Presley until 2005. Currently, Graceland Holdings LLC, headed by managing partner Joel Weinshanker, is the majority owner of EPE.

Last year, actress and filmmaker Riley Keough – the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and eldest of the late Lisa Marie Presley’s three daughters – became heir to the Presleys’ estate and owner of Graceland, the Memphis mansion the King of Rock n’ Roll bought in 1957. Lisa Marie’s other surviving children, twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, are teenagers and therefore unable to serve as trustees of the estate. Riley’s status was confirmed in June 2023 in Los Angeles Superior Court in a settlement between Keough and her grandmother Priscilla Presley, Lisa’s mother, and Michael Lockwood, Lisa’s ex-husband, the father and court-appointed guardian of the twins, who are Keough’s half-siblings.

Elvis Presley’s talent, good looks, charisma and humor endeared him to millions, as did the human kindness and talent he demonstrated throughout his life and career. The world knew him simply as Elvis, his first name was known around the world, he is considered one of the most recognizable figures in pop culture of the 20th century.

Elvis sadly passed away on August 16, 1977, at his Graceland home in Memphis. He was 42 years old. The death was so sudden and unexpected that hundreds of thousands of his fans were shocked. His death was due to heart failure, and the coroner said his death was due to “cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat and severe cardiovascular disease.” Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’ only child, died of an intestinal obstruction, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said. The obstruction was the result of adhesions caused by weight loss surgery she had years ago. She died on January 23, 2023, at the age of 54. Elvis Week will be celebrated at Graceland from August 9-17. Elvis Week is built around the annual Candlelight Vigil, where thousands of fans gather outside the gates of Graceland and then file up the driveway to Presley’s grave in the Meditation Garden on the south side of the Graceland mansion, where Elvis is buried alongside his parents, daughter Lisa, and other family members. The vigil begins on the evening of August 15 and continues into the early hours of August 16, the day Elvis died in 1977.

Rose’s Scoop: The governor of Tennessee declared August 14-20 as “Elvis International Tribute Week” and the city of Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis was born, hosted “Elvis Awareness Week.”