Though the real Elvis Presley's infamous pelvis hasn't swiveled in 32 years, his music remains popular, proven once again by this holiday season's best-selling "Elvis Presley Christmas Duets" album and the "new hit" radio status of Presley's pairing with Martina McBride on "Blue Christmas."
Further proof is the continued success of the annual "Elvis Birthday Tribute Spectacular" produced every January by Omar Farag and his company O.M.A.R. Presents to honor the 1935 birth of the Tupelo boy who would be king.
This year's series of show dates marks what would have been Presley's 74th birthday and again features three of the world's most popular Elvis impressionists -- Donny Edwards, Ryan Pelton and Shawn Klush -- along with Presley's original drummer D.J. Fontana, who kept the beat for the first 14 years of Elvis' career.
"The idea for 'The Elvis Birthday Tribute Spectacular' was conceived 22 years ago to satisfy the throngs of Elvis fans," Farag said.
Additional show dates have been added over the years. Chicago-area dates at Skokie's North Shore Center and Aurora's Paramount Theatre, on Jan. 8 and 9, respectively, will precede the Jan. 10 Star Plaza date.
The concert starts with the rockabilly segment, Farag said. Then come segments spotlighting Presley's military years, the Hollywood movie years, his triumphant 1968 comeback TV special and, finally, the Las Vegas years.
Opening the show as Elvis circa 1956 is the youthful-looking Donny Edwards (donnyedwards.net), ABC-TV's Blue Suede Elvis as seen on "The Next Best Thing" and a finalist in Elvis Presley Enterprises' "Ultimate Tribute Artist Contest." A Dallas resident, Edwards has been a professional Elvis performer since 2002.
"As a fan, Elvis has always brought joy to my life," Edwards said. "As a performer, I try my very best to bring that same joy to my fellow Elvis fans."
When it comes to representing the well-groomed Elvis of the silver screen who sang, fought and always won the girl during the 1960s, Ryan Pelton (ryanpelton.com) does a great job marching about the stage in his "G.I. Blues" uniform crooning about "black pumpernickel for chow." But Ryan, a Cleveland native, excels when he slips into the skin-tight black leather for the electrifying '68 Comeback/Memphis Recording Session segment of the show.
A former U.S. Marine and Ohio State University graduate with degrees in English lit and marketing, Cleveland's Pelton has a facial resemblance to Presley that is downright uncanny.
Those stunning looks recently landed Pelton on screen as Elvis in the controversial indie film, "Hounddog," starring Dakota Fanning, Robin Wright Penn (also executive producer) and Piper Laurie, which is due out on DVD in 2009.
"I love it all, but it's always special for me to look back and see DJ (Fontana) up there playing with me on the '68 Special' stuff, because he was actually there with Elvis on the TV special," Pelton said.
Fontana was house drummer for "The Louisiana Hayride," a popular live radio concert show in the 1950s when he first met Elvis.
"Elvis liked the way it sounded and asked if I wanted to do some dates with them in Texas. Since I was only playing the 'Hayride' on Saturdays, I had plenty of free time to go with them," he said.
After several weeks as a hired gun, Fontana became a full-time member of Elvis' band, along with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black.
"We'd all climb into this old car and drive lickety-split through the night down country roads to get to the next show. Then we'd do the show, climb back in the car and drive all night to the next show. It was exhausting and exciting at the same time," Fontana said.
The most popular era of Elvis' career comes alive as Shawn Klush (shawnklush.net) storms the stage to the strains of "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001: A Space Odyssey)" in a white jumpsuit with scarves.
Klush, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., was named "The Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist of 2007" by Elvis Presley Enterprises and that same year was named "The World's Greatest Elvis" by the BBC1 in London. Klush also portrayed Elvis on the hit CBS television miniseries, "Shake, Rattle & Roll" a few years back.
"I close out the 'Birthday Tribute' show by recreating Elvis' mid-'70s Las Vegas years," said Klush, who has been shaking his leg and grinding his pelvis in tribute to the fallen rock king since the 1980s.
"I do from 'That's the Way it is' (the Elvis concert film) on up to around the 'Aloha in Hawaii' era. I don't go past 1973, because after that, Elvis was starting his decline, and I want to present him at his very best."
Klush's dad was a radio DJ in the 1950s where he grew up in the coal mining town of Pittston, Pa.
"Dad used to play Elvis and all sorts of great records at the house all the time, so I was raised with music as a child," Klush said.
"I think Elvis would be very flattered by all this and that all these years later people still care so much," Fontana said.
