ANDY WELCH looks at the legacy of Elvis Presley as the anniversary of his death is marked by a double-CD release

BORN in the Mississippi backwaters on January 8, 1935, to a poorly paid truck driver dad and seamstress mother, Elvis Aaron Presley didnt exactly have the best start in life. Two decades later, with a shake of the hip and a curl of the lip, he changed the world, becoming the most famous man alive while doing so.

By the time he was 42, however, he was dead C although there are certain people who dont believe that to be the case C and weve been in mourning ever since.

On August 16, it will be 30 years since the great man passed away and the event will be marked on August 13 by the release of a double-CD, Elvis The King. The same day, Heartbreak Hotel will be reissued as a single, followed by Suspicious Minds on August 16. Over the coming weeks, 16 more of Elvis greatest songs will be re-released. Who knows, Elvis may reach the top of the charts once again.

Allan Jones, editor of Uncut magazine, says: Without him, rock n roll as we know and love it wouldnt exist. His cultural importance is indescribable.

Elvis was born an identical twin, but his brother was stillborn, meaning Elvis grew up an only child, described by those around him as unusually close to his mother, Gladys. Indeed, he was bullied at school for being a mamas boy and for his introvert nature and his prominent stutter.

His father, Vernon, was regarded as lazy, and was once jailed for forging a cheque, during which time the family lost their home.

Two years later, the Presleys moved to Memphis for Vernon to find work, and to allegedly escape a charge for transporting bootleg liquor, but not before Elvis made his first public performance aged ten. Standing on a chair to reach the microphone, he won second prize for singing Old Shep at a local singing contest.

After graduating from high school, young Elvis took a number of jobs, including one as a delivery driver. The turning point came when he went into the Memphis Recording Studios in July 1953 (later better known as the Sun Studios) where he paid $3.98 to record the first of two double-sided acetates.

Six months later, studio owner Sam Phillips, who had produced early blues records by the likes of Howlin Wolf and Junior Parker, was hatching plans to create a combination of white country music and black boogie woogie.

Asked to return to the studio, Elvis was unable to match the quality of the demo C a version of Without Love (There Is Nothing) C but did amaze with some of the other songs in his repertoire. He was teamed up with local musicians, guitarist Winfield Scotty Moore and bass player Bill Black. Elvis began performing his own take on Arthur Crudups Thats Alright (Mama), and when the other two joined in, Phillips began recording. The song received its first radio play on July 5, 1954. Six weeks later, Sun Recordings had received 6,000 orders for the single.

Although this was big news, it was nothing compared to what was around the corner. In 1956, Heartbreak Hotel was released and sold one million copies in America. Two months later, his debut album was released, Elvis Presley.

After witnessing the trio on rival The Milton Berle Show, Ed Sullivan paid an unprecedented $50,000 to book Elvis for three shows.

By 1957, he had enough money to buy Graceland mansion in Memphis, his home until his death, and still a mecca for millions of visitors each year.

Bob Dylan once said of how he felt on hearing Elvis voice for the first time: I just knew then that I wasnt going to work for anybody; and nobody was going to be my boss..

Its impossible to separate Elvis music from his cultural impact, says Allan Jones. The records he made, especially with Sam Phillips, set the tempo for all the music that followed. If they didnt influence things directly, it was that music that kick-started an amazing cultural change.

Id say he had a stronger impact than The Beatles, because there very likely wouldnt have been a Beatles if Elvis hadnt come first, even John Lennon admitted that, he says.

Between 1956 and 1969, Elvis starred in more than 30 films C an amazing tally, although to describe some of the films as poor would be generous. He turned his back on Hollywood in 1969 to return to music, which would always be his first love. He performed 1,145 times in Vegas between 1969 and 1977, although towards the end of his career he was often derided as a cabaret act.

His untimely death in his bathroom left a legacy that will live forever.

ñ The two-CD best of, Elvis The King, is released on Monday along with Heartbreak Hotel, the first of 18 Elvis singles to be re-released. Suspicious Minds follows on Thursday, 30 years to the day of Presleys death