Elvis: My Best Man
by George Klein With Chuck Crisafulli

An honest and heartfelt tribute to a friend

That respected Tennessee disc jockey Klein has a commemorative musical note on Beale Street, the Memphis equivalent of a star on Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame, right next to Elvis’s own, suggests he’s perfectly placed to write a book about The King. This is no quick cash-in by one of the many sycophants around the kitchen table at Graceland as, though the author was a long-standing member of the Presley “Memphis mafia”, his association goes way back to when they attended the same school as 13-year-olds.

Indeed, as Klein tells it, he was often the singer’s first port of call when faced with difficult decisions that required more than a fawning nodded agreement. He was instrumental in getting Presley away from the treadmill of diminishing returns that the wimpish movie soundtrack material brought him, and was also there when police caught Elvis breaking into a vacant house while looking for a love nest in which to install Ann-Margret.

It’s this mix of career turning points and casual friend reminiscences that make the book such a page-turner, Klein never overplaying his role but modestly recounting what went down through the eyes of a pal who always had his boss’s best interests at heart. Presley emerges as an intelligent and witty man, though racked by fear of failure, besieged by the constant worry that it was his talent putting food on the tables of so many others. A personal memoir refreshingly free of muck-raking or manufactured outrage.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

ISBN 9780753539507, 307 pages

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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