HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELVIS

Music news bureaus have reminded us today that had the King of Rock 'n Roll not abused his body into an early death when he was just 42, he'd now be 77 years young.

My own history with Elvis dates way back to my grade school years when I watched him on black and white television swiveling his sexy hips on the "Ed Sullivan Show." I was too young to go goofy over him---those days would be reserved for The Beatles in the early 1960s--but my older sibs were fans and had some of his 45s, like "Teddy Bear" and "Blue Suede Shoes."

The first Elvis tune I remember really "digging" was "Can't Help Falling In Love." I was an 8th grader at Teentown dancing cheek-to-cheek with the boyfriend of the week, thinking that swaying together back and forth to this song surely meant that, at age 13, I'd found my one true love for all time. --But in later years I always thought the words "Because I'm So Stupid" should have been added to the end of the song title.

I actually made the crusade to the Presley mansion in Tennessee many years ago. What's it called? Graceland. I had my 13-year-old nephew Brandon with me and we were visiting my old college pal Walter who lived in Memphis at the time. The two guys absolutely refused to pay hard-earned money to hop on a tour bus--maybe $10.00 or so at the time-- and walk through the joint, so I had to settle for peeping through the wrought iron gate. We also perused the Elvis souvenir crap shop across the street from Graceland.

This place had EVERYTHING you can imagine with Elvis's image, in either the skinny blue jeans version or the chunky white, jeweled jumpsuit variety, take your pick. At one point I began laughing at all the crass commercialism, and Walter advised me to put a lid on it since I was at risk of offending the crowds of Elvis-philes. "This is like a religion to some of them," he warned. So, I shut my mouth, opened my billfold, bought a cheap ballpoint pen that contained an Elvis image (jumpsuit) that floated around in some liquid, and left the building.

But--I am sorry that Elvis Presley is not around to celebrate his 77th birthday today and shake along with the rest of us. He would probably be amazed that so many fans, after so many years, still "can't help falling in love" with his music.