POP/ROCK - Sept. 30, 1987

Elvis Presley has been denounced in Pravda as an overfed, fat “monster,” a “mediocre” singer and a good reminder of the decadence of the American way of life. The Communist Party daily quoted from what it described as an American-written biography of the King: “In the space of two years he became the idol of the public and 20 years later the public turned him into a winded dog” weighing “235 pounds.” Presley died Aug. 16, 1977, at age 42 of heart failure after years of abusing prescription drugs.