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In 1960, a chart-topping Elvis Presley<\/a><\/strong> song did more than dominate the airwaves\u2014it unexpectedly turned the life of one young man around, setting him on the path to becoming a soul legend.<\/p>\n The King of Rock and Roll released “It’s Now or Never.” The song was a career-defining hit, released shortly after his tour of service for the United States Army concluded.<\/p>\n The song was written by Wally Gold<\/strong> and Aaron Schroeder<\/strong>, who based their version on a melody similar to the Italian classic, Eduardo di Capua<\/strong>‘s “O Sole Mio.” According to American Songwriter, Presley heard “There\u2019s No Tomorrow\u201d by Tony Martin<\/strong> while stationed in Germany, and wanted a song with a similar musical style.<\/p>\n Gold and Schroeder came up with “It’s Now or Never.” The song would become a worldwide smash, per the Elvis History Blog<\/a>, and reach the pinnacle of Billboard’s charts<\/a> in August 1960.<\/p>\n Parade Daily<\/strong>\ud83c\udfac <\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfac<\/strong><\/p>\n The song did more than become a worldwide hit; it changed the life of a future soul superstar who was spending time in a juvenile detention center for his crimes. American Songwriter<\/a> reported that, as a young man, Barry White<\/strong> spent four months in jail after stealing $30,000 worth of Cadillac tires.<\/p>\n White was midway through his sentence when he heard the Presley hit coming from another cellmate’s block. He recounted the moment in his book Love Unlimited<\/a>.<\/p>\n RELATED: Elvis Presley\u2019s Most Scandalous Song Ever<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The future soul superstar explained, \u201cI\u2019d heard [the song] before, I don\u2019t know, twenty-five, thirty times. But it never hit me like it did that night. It was, of all people, Elvis Presley!”<\/p>\n “The song? \u2018It\u2019s Now Or Never\u2019. It became my personal message, meant only for me. \u2018Stop wasting your time, Barry,\u2019 it said. \u2018When you get out, you better change your ways. It\u2019s now or never.\u2019 I sat up in my cell bed, and right then, and there took an oath that I would do just that\u2014change my life.\u201d<\/p>\n He concluded, \u201cI knew I was never going back in, that the life I\u2019d known on the street, all of it was history. I was going to change\u00a0everything, because the night before I\u2019d heard\u00a0the Voice and the Voice had heard me!\u201d<\/p>\n White stayed true to his promise. He turned his life around and began a career in the music<\/a> business, recording some of the best soul songs of a generation.<\/p>\n Barry White would go on to have six Top 10 Billboard hits<\/a>. These would include 1975’s “You’re The First, The Last, My Everything,” 1973’s “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby,” 1977’s “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me,” 1974’s “Never Ever Gonna Give Ya Up,” and 1975’s “What Am I Gonna Do With You.”<\/p>\n RELATED: 1972 Chart-Buster Elvis Presley Had to Be Convinced to Record<\/a> MORE: 1972 Elvis Presley Apology Ballad Ranks Among the Decade\u2019s Greatest Love Songs, But a Rival Artist Took it To No. 1<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Apr 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1960, a chart-topping Elvis Presley song did more than dominate the airwaves\u2014it unexpectedly turned the life of one young man around, setting him on the path to becoming a soul legend. The King of Rock and Roll released “It’s Now or Never.” The song was a career-defining hit, released shortly after his tour of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2370536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[460880,360760,460879,25615,460881],"class_list":["post-2370535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-aaron-schroeder","tag-american-songwriter","tag-barry-white","tag-elvis-presley","tag-wally-gold"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1960-Elvis-Presley-Hit-Turned-a-Future-70s-Soul-Superstars.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2370537,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370535\/revisions\/2370537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2370536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Elvis Presley died in 1977 at 42. Barry White died 26 years later in 2003 at 58.<\/p>\n