The Story of Bill Haney, the First Elvis Impersonator

Natural Born Elvis: The Story of Bill Haney, the First Elvis Impersonator

Published in The Oxford American, all-music issue, Summer 1997

This long profile of Bill Haney originally appeared in the first all-music issue that The Oxford American put out. That issue outsold all previous issues of The Oxford American combined. It was so successful that the magazine subsequently put out over ten years of annual all-music double issues.

I'm proud to say that this article, which I always considered one of my best pieces of nonfiction writing, was selected for The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing, an anthology due this November. I will be very excited to see this article in book form, finally.

Bill Haney, I should say up front, certainly wasn't the first entertainer to get up on a stage and do an impression of Elvis Presley. He was, however, the first person to put on a rhinestone jumpsuit and ask his audience to pretend he was Elvis for two solid hours. He put on his Elvis show long before Elvis was dead and he did it in Memphis, in Elvis's own backyard. Haney was the only Elvis impersonator that the King himself went to see perform, which is described in all its surreal glory in my article.

I remain a fan of Bill Haney. He is a great musician and entertainer and one hell of a great subject. Do yourself a favor if you love music writing and pick up The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing. You won't be sorry.