--- title: Elvis Presley: Read 1977 Obituary on Anniversary of Death description: Elvis Presley, the King of Rock n Roll, died on Aug. 16, 1977. He was remembered as "an immediate, and ultimately irreplaceable, phenomenon." canonical: https://time.com/4883334/elvis-presley-obituary/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-16T13:00:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:49:42.523Z article:section: History og:title: Elvis Presley: Read 1977 Obituary on Anniversary of Death og:description: He was "an immediate, and ultimately irreplaceable, phenomenon" og:url: https://time.com/4883334/elvis-presley-obituary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54144931777f2dea/6988d889656a3f3fcebd122a/elvis.jpeg?branch=production&width=636&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 636 og:image:height: 358 og:image:alt: Elvis Presley with his guitar og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elvis Presley: Read 1977 Obituary on Anniversary of Death twitter:description: He was "an immediate, and ultimately irreplaceable, phenomenon" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54144931777f2dea/6988d889656a3f3fcebd122a/elvis.jpeg?branch=production&width=636&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read TIME's 1977 Obituary for Elvis Presley > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 16, 2017 1:00 PM UTC  Elvis Presley poses for a portrait while playing his acoustic guitar in 1956 Elvis Presley poses for a portrait while playing his acoustic guitar in 1956 Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 16, 2017 1:00 PM UTC When Elvis Presley died 40 years ago — on Aug. 16, 1977 — TIME’s music critic Jay Cocks turned to one song to memorialize the king of rock ‘n’ roll: the 1955 tune [“Mystery Train,”](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/elvis-presley-mystery-train-20110526) the lyrics to which began Presley’s obituary. It was one of the last of the early Elvis tunes released before he changed the world with _Heartbreak Hotel_ and launched a new era for American music. Only about two decades passed between that fateful recording session and the day he was found in his bathroom, on the floor, and could not be revived. His death struck TIME’s critic as yet another chapter in the same old story about celebrities who die too soon, victims in part of their own success — and of the battle to be everything to everybody. In Elvis’ case, the struggle with being a sex object to his fans and a good Christian to their parents took its toll, as Cocks explained: --- > “” --- But the legend of Elvis, Cocks noted, would continue to grow (and not just because [many of his fans and true crime enthusiasts ](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/garry-rodgers/elvis-presleys-death-what%5F1%5Fb%5F9157820.html)are still coming out with theories about what really happened to him). He had helped to define a generation, and now that generation could go on without him. **_Read the full remembrance from 1977, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Last Stop on the Mystery Train](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-08-29/page/60/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4883334/elvis-presley-obituary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4883334/elvis-presley-obituary/"},"headline":"Read TIME's 1977 Obituary for Elvis Presley","datePublished":"2017-08-16T13:00:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:49:42.523Z","description":"He was \"an immediate, and ultimately irreplaceable, phenomenon\"","url":"https://time.com/4883334/elvis-presley-obituary/","keywords":["Music","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54144931777f2dea/6988d889656a3f3fcebd122a/elvis.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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