Ed. Note: There are two main events for the Elvis faithful: his birthday in January and his deathday in August. True believers from around the world trek to Memphis for both of those dates and pay tribute: gathering at Graceland, watching performances of Elvis' music, walking around town in white, sequined jumpsuits. It can often be a surreal experience for the uninitiated.

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In Tupelo, Miss., the town where Elvis Presley was born on Jan. 8, 1935, there’s a McDonald's with Elvis images done in stained glass. Leonard Piskoiski visits Tupelo and the McDonald's every year. He helps pack up the family minivan plastered with Elvis bumper stickers and hits the road, heading south from his home in Michigan.

Like many of the other pilgrims who gather in Memphis to celebrate Elvis’ birthday, Piskoiski stands out as an Elvis disciple. His shades are gold and his sideburns are thick. The rest of Piskoiski’s hair isn’t so lush, but his weathered features afford the slightest resemblance to Elvis. He’s an older Elvis, perhaps even as old as the King would have been in the year 2000: 65.

Piskoiski is AARP Elvis, senior discount at Shoney’s Elvis, Grandpa Elvis. He just joined an Elvis band back in Michigan and often croons solo, singing favorites from the Big E’s Vegas years, songs like "It’s Now or Never" and "I Can’t Stop Loving You." But he's here today, like the others, to commune with the original spirit of rock 'n' roll.

Piskoiski says he never stops being Elvis. "This is me. This is always me. I never change," says Piskoiski, his stringy gray and black hair shifting in the breeze across the street from Elvis’ lavish home and resting-place, Graceland. He walks among other pilgrims onto the Graceland grounds where Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout declares this day, Jan. 8, 2000, Elvis Presley Birthday Celebration Day.

Using words like "whereas," Rout translates Elvis’ legend into the language of an official proclamation. He unscrolls the many influences that shaped Elvis, from "the gospel music he heard in church" to "the black R&B he absorbed on historic Beale Street as a Memphis teenager."

Then Rout mentions another milestone in Elvis’ life–his birth as a rock star. "Whereas in 1954," proclaims Rout, "it was the beginning of his singing career with the legendary Sun record label in Memphis, which was to be the advent of an international sensation."

In several languages, the crowd cheers. Eyes water. The song begins: "Happy birthday to Elvis, happy birthday to you."

When the singing stops and the crowd of believers breaks apart, clusters of middle-aged women continue to cling to each other. Dressed in gaudy Elvis windbreakers and wearing too much make-up, some appear moved by the echo of their own screams. They were once teenage girls driven to hysterics by the sight and sound of a gyrating young Elvis. They’re now pilgrims. Every year, they celebrate the birth of their own fanaticism by visiting Graceland.

June and Colin Kirby came all the way from Essex, England. A thoughtful and articulate pair in their 40s, the couple attends Elvis fan club get-togethers once a month back home. This is their third trip to Graceland. Marking the occasion, they’ve placed a crepe paper wreath along the walk leading to Elvis’ burial site.

Propped up by a stand like those used in funeral homes, the home-craft tribute reads: "Elvis. The brightest star in heaven… how great thou art."

For June, that greatness comes across brilliantly in a photograph of Elvis she saw inside Graceland. It’s sometime early in his career. Elvis is a newborn star. June says, "He’s laying on the stage with a microphone. In the 1950s, that just didn’t happen, did it?"

Of course, hip shaking, shimmy-step rock superstars didn’t exist before Elvis. Sun Studio put out what many consider the first rock and roll record in 1951: "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston, featuring Ike Turner on piano. And while black musicians like Turner and Chuck Berry were among the first to advance the rock cause, Elvis is credited with stealing the show. The King had it all: He was good-looking, he was talented, and he was white.

On July 30, 1954, Elvis played his first live show at Overton Park in Memphis. "This was a hillbilly crowd," recalls biographer Peter Guralnick in his revered account of Elvis’ early life, Last Train to Memphis.

"When Elvis went on stage, his knees were knocking so loud you could almost hear them," continues Guralnick, describing how Elvis broke into his first hit, "That’s All Right Mama." The nervous 19-year-old raised up on the balls of his feet, leaned forward, and cut loose. "His lips twisted involuntarily into a sneer, as his legs began to quiver."

The crowd went wild.

Forty-six years later, it’s still giving Elvis a standing ovation. Paying $65 apiece, they come in droves to "Elvis–The Concert," a multi-media resurrection of the King on stage. It’s the climax of E-Day this year and diehard fans flock to the Mid-South Coliseum, not far from the Liberty Land amusement park where Elvis once threw lavish birthday parties for his daughter Lisa Marie.

Using a two-story video screen flanked by two other large screens, "Elvis–The Concert" offers fans a larger-than-life resampling of video footage from Elvis’ concert specials such as Aloha from Hawaii and The Lost Performances. Unfortunately, at $65, the price of admission also seems larger than life. Indulgent even, but that’s Elvis.

Next: The Last Place on Earth

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