Elvis Costello

Mary McCartney

Elvis is everywhere.

Related Content

• Ten ways to enjoy newly decadent peanut butter
  November 2, 2011
• Reader: Peanut butter is best enjoyed at home, like this...
  November 4, 2011
• The Dirty Lookers
  August 25, 2011
• Velvet Elvis's Top 10 favorite Elvis songs in honor of The King's passing 34 years ago today
  August 16, 2011
• Jonny Barber putting Velvet Elvis to rest with one last gig and a candlelight vigil next week
  August 8, 2011

More About

• Elvis Costello
• Allen Toussaint
• Elvis Presley
• Ska
• Punk Rock

His name isn't really Elvis Costello. The London-born iconic pop figure popped out of the womb christened with the desperately un-romantic and very un-rock-star handle of Declan Patrick MacManus. The young MacManus outgrew his given appellation by his early twenties and adopted the combined names of Elvis (straight from the hip-shaking King) and Costello (his mother's maiden name) for his debut single "Less Than Zero," released in March 1977. Rock and roll hasn't been the same since. Over his decades-old career, Costello has dabbled in new wave and no wave, post-punk and ska revival, country folk and folk rock: The dude has the Midas musical touch, apparently, and it has yet to do him wrong. His latest purge into the genre cornucopia finds his sticky organ fingers at the helm of R&B prodigy Allen Toussaint. Catch the pair at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass festival, where Costello and Toussaint will fire off soulful, bluesy selections from their recently released collaborative effort The River in Reverse.