The Colonel

The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley

By: Alanna Nash, Alanna Nash - introduction

Narrated by: Gibson Frazier

In The Colonel, Alanna Nash, the author of Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch, explores in depth the amazing story of Colonel Tom Parker, the man behind the legend and the myth of Elvis Presley. The result is like the most riveting of real-life detective stories - one that will completely change your view of Presley's life, success, and death.

While scores of books have been written about Elvis Presley, this is the first meticulously researched biography of Tom Parker written by someone who knew him personally. And for anyone truly interested in the performer many consider the greatest and most influential of the 20th century, it is impossible to understand how Elvis came to be such a phenomenon without examining the life and mind of Parker, the man who virtually controlled Elvis' every move.

Alanna Nash has been covering the story of Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker since the day of Presley's funeral in Memphis, Tennessee. She was the first journalist allowed to view Presley's body, a compelling and surprising sight. But the profile of Parker attending the funeral in a Hawaiian shirt and a baseball cap was even stranger and led her to investigate the man behind the myth.

It has been known for 20 years that Thomas Andrew Parker was in fact born in Holland as Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk. But Nash has dug much deeper and, in a masterpiece of reporting, unearthed never-before-seen documents, including Parker's army records and psychiatric evaluations and the original police report of an unsolved murder case in Holland that lies at the heart of the Parker mystery. In the process of weighing the evidence, she answers the biggest riddle in the history of the music industry, as it becomes clear that every move Parker made in the handling of Elvis Presley - from why he never allowed Elvis to perform in Europe, to why he didn't halt Elvis' drug use, to why he put him in so many mediocre movies and even the Colonel's direction of Presley's army career - was designed to protect Parker's own secrets.

Filled with startling new material, her book challenges even the most familiar precepts of the Presley saga - everything we presumed about Parker's handling of the world's most famous entertainer must now be reevaluated in the light of information Nash reveals about Parker.

Elvis Presley, as one of Parker's unwitting victims, paid a major price for the Colonel's past and his overwhelming need to be more important than his client. As a result Presley was never allowed to reach his potential and died in drug-induced frustration over his stunted and mismanaged career.

In this astonishing, impeccably written, and vastly entertaining book, Nash proves that the only figure in American popular culture as fascinating as Elvis Presley is Colonel Tom Parker, the man who shaped Elvis, who in turn helped shape us.

©2017 Alanna Nash. All rights reserved. (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Colonel

A lot of time and research went in to the making of this book and that was evident. It was nice to hear more about the Colonels upbringing and past. In my opinion, he ran Elvis in the ground but there were also good qualities about him that Elvis and Vernon admired that kept the partnership going over 20 years. I enjoyed the book.

Parkers Story

Disliked Parker for his greed of money and did not care about Elvis Presley at all

A glimpse behind the curtain with great payoff

Really neat book and very interesting for any EP fan that wants to learn more about The Colonel. This is really well researched and Nash chose a very wise format in chronologically approaching the subject matter. It's a warm start but it picks up and helps to shed a great deal of light on the giant ambiguities of the King's career. I don't want to spoil any of this so I will just leave it at that.

If you are looking for a book that just burbles on about Elvis, you won't like this. But if you enjoy books that go into the lives of his entourage (the Memphis Mafia, his lovers, etc.) this is an absolute must.

Excellent book

Excellent book for the understanding of a great promoter little talked about. Explains a lot.

Great Audible Book

Book is written very well. Great author! I really loved listening to it on Audible!!!