Noted Presley Biographer, Peter Guralnick, Returns With ‘The Colonel and The King’ Book
by Best Classic Bands Staff
The cover of the 2025 book from Peter Guralnick, The Colonel and the King.
Peter Guralnick, the author of an acclaimed two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, is publishing a new book on the much-loved icon, The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership that Rocked the World. The title arrives on August 5, 2025, via Little, Brown and Company. The book, described by the publisher as “a groundbreaking dual portrait of the relationship between the iconic artist and his legendary manager, Colonel Tom Parker, draws on a wealth of Parker’s never-before-seen correspondence to reveal that this oft-reviled figure was in fact a confidant, friend, and architect of his client’s success.” It’s available to pre-order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
From the book’s announcement: In early 1955, Colonel Tom Parker—the manager of the number-one country musician of the day—heard that an unknown teenager from Memphis had just drawn a crowd of more than 800 people to a Texas schoolhouse, and headed south to investigate. Within days, Parker was sending out telegrams and letters to promoters and booking agents: “We have a new boy that is absolutely going to be one of the biggest things in the business in a very short time. His name is ELVIS PRESLEY.” Later that year, after signing with RCA Records, the young man sent a telegram of his own: “Dear Colonel, Words can never tell you how my folks and I appreciate what you did for me…. I love you like a father.”
The close personal bond between Elvis and the Colonel proved impossible for outside observers to understand—not during their lifetimes, and not in the decades since. It was a long-standing, deeply committed relationship, founded on mutual admiration and support. As the Colonel wrote to Elvis in July 1973, several years before the star’s tragic death: “Without a doubt you are by far the greatest artist I have ever known, and can be even greater if you just believe in yourself half as much as I believe in you.” From the outset, the Colonel defended Elvis fiercely and indefatigably against RCA executives, Elvis’ own booking agents, and movie moguls. But in their final years together, the story grew darker, and the relationship strained, as the Colonel found himself unable to protect Elvis from himself—or to control growing problems of his own.
Featuring troves of never-before-seen correspondence from the Colonel’s own archives, revelatory both for their insights and—particularly with respect to Elvis—their emotional depth, The Colonel and the King provides a unique perspective on not one but two American originals. A tale of the birth of the modern-day superstar (an invention almost entirely of Parker’s making) by the most acclaimed music writer of his generation, it presents these two misunderstood icons as they’ve never been seen before: with all of their brilliance, humor, and flaws on full display.
As a self-invented American (born Andreas van Kuijk, Parker was a Dutch immigrant who arrived in America at just 19 years old, served in the US Army, and then went on to work the carnival circuit), Tom Parker was uniquely situated to understand the inner workings of the entertainment industry, both its complex machinery and its pulsing soul. By early 1955, Colonel Tom Parker—after managing both Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow, the two top attractions of that time in country music —heard that an unknown teenager from Memphis had just drawn a crowd of more than 800 people to a Texas schoolhouse and headed south to investigate. As soon as he saw him the Colonel knew he had found a unique phenomenon of unparalleled talent and potential.
Elvis and the Colonel’s close, almost father-and-son-like relationship proved impossible for outside observers to understand—not during their lifetimes, and not in the decades since. In their final years together, the story grew darker, and the relationship grew strained, as the Colonel found himself unable to protect Elvis from himself or to control growing problems of his own.
Guralnick’s books include the prize-winning two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love; an acclaimed trilogy on American roots music, Feel Like Going Home, Lost Highway, and Sweet Soul Music; the biographical inquiry Searching for Robert Johnson; and Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke. His books are available here.
Guralnick won a Grammy for his liner notes for Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club, wrote and co-produced the documentary Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll, as well as writing the scripts for the Grammy-winning documentary Sam Cooke/Legend and Martin Scorsese’s blues documentary Feel Like Going Home. His 2015 book Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ’n’ Roll was a finalist for the Plutarch Award for Best Biography of the Year, awarded by the Biographers International Organization. His most recent book is Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing.
Related: Presley’s ’68 Comeback: Burbank to Graceland
2 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationLooking fwd to another masterpiece! Can’t wait!!
I do a lot of research concerning Elvis Presley—mostly about the music he made and the records that contain that music.
While it’s probably not true, it often feels like there is more mis- and disinformation—more bullshit, if you will—about Presley out there than facts.
On the internet, there appeared to have been countless individuals who watched Baz Luhrman’s wonderful but factually challenged movie and then set up shop as “Elvis experts.”
More recently, AI-generated Elvis sites unintentionally (sic) blandly regurgitate much of the bullshit, apparently to new readers and fans.
And then there is Peter Guralnick. Read these books and you will know more about Elvis (and probably early rock & roll), than the vast majority of so-called “Elvis experts”:
• Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll
• Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley
• Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley
• Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music (with Ernst Jorgensen)
I have no doubts that “The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership that Rocked the World” will join that list …