FIRST TIME HEARING Elvis Presley - In The Ghetto [REACTION]

This song was written by Mac Davis in 1969. RCA and Col. Parker told Elvis not to record this song. Elvis said "I'm recording this song" and walked out. Plus, once his backup singers, the Sweet Inspirations, were with Elvis down South for a show. The hotel Elvis was going to stay in said his back-up singers had to stay somewhere else. Elvis told the manager, if they can't stay here neither will I. Elvis was born in Tupelo MS. in a 2 room shack. He moved to Memphis with his parents when he was 12. They were dirt poor and lived in the projects. Elvis used to go to the black church sometimes, just to listen to the Gospel music. He loved R& B also. He was good friends with BB King and used to go to his club in Memphis. Elvis was color blind. He respected all people and shame on some of the young black entertainers who talk trash about him. Elvis broke barriers back in the day. How many entertainers would go on a stage in Las Vegas full of a predominately white audience and sing "In The Ghetto", only Elvis. He was also good friends with Sammy Davis Jr. This country will never really be at it's greatest until people come together as Americans and stop letting Political Parties divide us for their own personal agendas.

Exactly he's talking like that in 1970. This dude wasn't doing social justice warrior BS for Instagram brownie points. He grew up in plight and he felt connected to his fellow people that were born with obstacles.

He grew up poor in A black neighborhood. He loved everybody and I lived this era. This took guts in A charged racial climate. He was the first white dude to hire a lot of black singers to sing with him. He was inspired by black gospel music and actually wanted to be a gospel singer. Thank you for remembering Elvis he was a nice guy. Another great song "Walk A Mile in My Shoes" Vegas 1970. Thanks Be Blessed

No one would record this Mac Davis song IN THE GHETTO as it was too raw, especially during the race riots in the 1960s. A top RCA executive said we can't release it. Elvis heard it and said, "That's my next single, son" and walked away. The great Sammy Davis Jr famously turned it down. Only Elvis was willing to risk his career to get that record on the air-waves. Only Elvis could have performed it and gotten the radio play when it came out in the late 1960's, during the Civil Rights Movement. He made it his platform. One of his major public statements on the issues of racism and poverty. Without uttering a single press release or public statement. Not a single political word or comment. Amazing power of song by a very brave and loving human being.

What a lot of people don't know is before this performance the producers of the show said that he could not have his background singers on stage with him because they were African-American. Including Whitney Houston's mom who was one of Elvis's background singers. And Elvis turned to them and said if they cannot be on stage with me then I will not do the show. And as you see the show went on so Elvis has always been a advocate for equal rights and opportunities for all people

This song was originally written by Mac Davis. He wrote it and asked Sammy Davis Junior to record it. Mr Davis told him I can’t sing that song because I didn’t grow up this way, but I know someone who did, Elvis Presley grew up in the ghetto. The rest is history as Elvis Presley stood in the gap in the 60s and 70s. The 1st to have black singers in his band has a white person. The 1st to sing a tribute song to Martin Luther King Junior, after he was murdered ( If I Can Dream) and was honoured to be asked to record In The Ghetto. Great reaction!

They don't call Elvis the King for no reason. He never let anyone stop him from singing the truth.

Elvis wasn’t from Chicago but he grew up dirt poor In Tupelo Mississippi . They lived in a two room wooden house. He knew what it was to be desperate. That’s one of the reasons he was so generous with his money. He could really relate to poverty and never forgot where he came from .

Elvis knows exactly what he's singing Elvis was raised IN THE GHETTO!!

Elvis genuinely looks so heartbroken singing this.

The cycle unbroken. Elvis had a way of speaking out for social justice. He grew up in poverty.

When I first heard this in 1969, I cried like a baby. Mac Davis wrote this for Elvis. I was 17 and not looking forward to my eighteenth birthday. Vietnam was raging and tearing the soul and the fabric of America apart. I was brought up in the projects, and I have seen this song play out more than once. Poverty breeds a sense of hopelessness which then turns to anger. I was almost beaten to death when I was six years old by a thirteen-year-old boy. He knocked out all my teeth and kicked me in the dirt like I was less than a human being.. Ya'll we have to love one another. Thank you for a great song that needs to hit the charts again today. I did go into the army and watched Vietnam tear our nation apart, and its soul is still wounded. This is your boy in Tennessee trying to spread the love of Jesus Christ. If we all lived for him and loved one another, hatred would stop, and there would be no crime.

Thanks for your reaction. Elvis was born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, in a 2 room shack of a house his dad built with money he borrowed from his boss. That's how dirt poor they were. He was one half of identical twins; the other boy - Jesse Garon - was stillborn. They were so poor, that Jesse Garon was buried in a shoebox in an unmarked grave. At Graceland they have a plaque with his name on it in his memory. Elvis always got along with the black community and learned a lot about music from his friends of color. Also, according to the one drop rule, Elvis would not be considered white, since he has Cherokee ancestors on both the Smith (his mother) and the Presley (his father) sides of the family. His paternal grandfather, Jesse Dunning Presley, was not happy that his two sons, Elvis' father Vernon and his brother Vester, married two sisters, Gladys and Clettes who were known to have Cherokee blood in their family tree. J.D. Presley was quite the racist a-hole, often drunk and a philandering husband to Minnie Mae (they were actually separated long before they finally divorced in 1954) who was always competing with his sons Vester and Vernon and who was known to abuse his kids when drunk. J.D. was was publicly against race mixing and was in denial about the Cherokee blood in his own family tree. It was more publicly known that the Smith family had Native blood in their family tree, so when both his sons fell for 2 Smith sisters and Vernon, on top of that, was still a minor at 17 when he eloped with Gladys who was 4 years older than him, Jesse was totally pissed off. As a child, Elvis already had many friends in the black community at the time his family was one of 4 "white" families that lived in the predominantly black neighborhood The Hill, just across from Shake Rag. His childhood friend Sam Bell said that some of the (black) kids in that neighborhood had lighter skin than Elvis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrFCyNMvZWk). One of Elvis' bodyguards once said that he thought it was a miracle Elvis got into Humes High School in Memphis, because it was "lily white". Elvis wanted to be more open about his Native ancestry, but his manager "colonel" Tom Parker (real name Andreas van Kuijk) was against it because he was afraid it might cost Elvis fans (and himself money). They did have Elvis play characters in his movies though where he had Native American blood (Flaming Star, G.I. Blues, Stay Away Joe). Once Elvis had his own (apprentice) job learning to be an electrician, he saved up his money and bought his clothes in the same style that many of his friends of color wore. He was called a (forgive me, just stating facts here) "n-lover" and got beaten up several times too. Later, when he was an established star, he would not perform at places where the members of color of his back-up band/orchestra weren't allowed.

He's talking about the cycle of violence in Chicago; one man dies, and another one is born. WOW. He was ahead of history talking about Chicago.

Elvis was born into desperate poverty in a shotgun shack in Mississippi that his father built. He knew very well the tragedy of ghetto life. The movie Elvis by Baz Lurhman gives a good impression of him learning black people's music as a child. This song is so emotional because Elvis feels it from his personal experience.

Elvis was the truth; He lived that life when he was young. They called him the king for a reason.

Elvis respected everyone...he didn't care about race. He was pure. His backing singers were beautifull black women and that was very progressive in that time. He was more than just the King of Rock 'n Roll...he was The King...full stop!

He lived it.

Elvis had legit love for Black America, growing up in poverty himself, his friends were mostly poor Black kids, he attended the good ol fashioned Gospel Churches of the day, he identified with their Faith and Plight. Elvis was a good man, period.

The genius of the songs writer, Mac Davis, is that race is not mentioned at all. Mac later became a huge star in his own right.