Elvis Presley humor: Doghouse rock

Doghouse rock

I do not get it. Why do so many people want to dress up and impersonate Elvis Presley?

A couple of years I wrote that I am the only person I know who has not seen Elvis Presley in a supermarket aisle.

"Heck," I said. "I have not even seen anyone who looks remotely like Elvis Presley; not even Elvis Presley impersonators."

Well, this is still true.

Maybe I am unlucky but I still have not met anyone who looks the littlest bit like Elvis.

Yesterday, however, I had an e-mail from an American woman in response to that old column which she found deep in my web site archives.

"Umm, there is one out here in South Carolina that looks just like him ... how do I know? I'm married to him! His name is Elvis D Clements. He has been doing a tribute to Elvis going on 18 years now. "

Wow. Married to Elvis!

According to the death certificate, the real Elvis died of heart failure at his Memphis home, Graceland, on August 16, 1977.

Not everyone believes this. He has been allegedly spotted in all kinds of places, including supermarkets.

I heard that there an album in the United States that purportedly claims he even penned some of the songs - written AFTER his death. With a ghost writer presumably.

And then there are the impersonators.

Hundreds of them. From different countries. Black ones, white ones, Asian ones.
They even have Elvis Presley conventions.
And concerts, for which Elvis fans pay good money.

Hey, I am not criticising them.
It is just that I cannot begin to understand why people would want to take of the persona of another person. I have enough trouble just coming to grips with being me.

You do not hear of people trying to impersonate Milli Vanilli, do you?

I can imagine the reaction if I went to my wife Katherine one day and told her I wanted to be a professional Elvis impersonator.

"I've been working on my repertoire in the shower," I'd say. "You've probably heard some of them - Heartbreak Hotel, Blue Suede Shoes, Love Me Tender, Teddy Bear, Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock."

My guess is that with that she would throw me out of the house, with my pillow, blanket and blue suede slippers in hot pursuit.

"If you ain't nothing but a hound dog, you know where you can sleep until you've come to your senses," she would say.

Or maybe not.

Perhaps she would not mind dressing up as Priscilla.

NB: I called this site Dunno because I kept drawing a blank when I had to put a name to it