Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick; 1999. Hardcover. (First Edition)

Careless Love is the full, true, and mesmerizing story of Elvis Presley's last two decades, in the second volume of Peter Guralnick's two-part biography.

Beginning with Presley's army service in Germany in 1958 and ending with his death in Memphis in 1977, Careless Love chronicles the unravelling of the dream that once shone so brightly, homing in on the complex playing-out of Elvis' relationship with his Machiavellian manager, Colonel Tom Parker. It's a revelatory drama that places the events of a too-often mistold tale in a fresh, believable, and understandable context.

Elvis' changes during these years is the quintessential American story, encompassing elements of race, class, wealth, sex, music, religion, and personal transformation.