Comeback by Simon Goddard

‘An irresistible biography’ Evening Standard

It remains the greatest comeback in music history. The Lazarus-like saga of Elvis Presley’s fall and rise, from Army discharge through Sixties Hollywood hell to divine black-leather resurrection.

As 1968 dawns, the once ‘King’ of rock’n’roll faces cultural oblivion, a fading star lost in a 24/7 delirium of women, pills and holy mumbo-jumbo, isolated from an America unravelling in its own chaos of war, racism, riots and assassinations. Until, against all odds, his world and theirs collide in the performance of his life.

First published four years before Baz Luhrmann’s dramatisation of events in the Oscar-nominated 2022 biopic Elvis, Simon Goddard’s The Comeback is no less a vividly cinematic, pelvic-thrusting blockbuster. This Remastered edition includes a foreword from musician and journalist Bob Stanley.

A genre-busting modernist rock ‘n’ roll fable; the King regains his crown in Simon Goddard’s rip-roaring account of Elvis’s late sixties comeback.

About the Author: Simon Goddard has been writing about music for nearly 30 years, both as a journalist and as the author of over a dozen books published across three continents. His Bowie Odyssey series has twice made the Sunday Times Books Of The Year (2020, 2024) while his other titles have made best-of-year lists in Mojo, Q, Uncut and Pitchfork‘s Top 60 Music Books Of All-Time. Simon is based in North London.

23 Apr 2026
 

The Comeback: Elvis and the Story of the 68 Special by Simon Goddard ISBN 9781917274029