GoElvis.com,

No matter what you think about Elvis Presley, you still think about Elvis Presley.

That’s how fame works. A person wiggles his or her way into the world’s consciousness, and in time thinking people say, `Hey, this would make a great museum exhibit.’ ”

Now, you might be the most famous person at your office or on your block. But you’ll never be the most famous person on Elvis Presley Boulevard.

You see, Elvis abided by all the rules of entertainment stardom. In case you want to walk a mile in his shoes, here they are:

– First, make a Top 10 hit record. Do it 38 times.

– Then star in a feature film. Do that 31 times.

– Then stage a TV “comeback” special followed by more music. BUT! - and here’s the key: The second time around, create a unique sense of fashion that gives rise to a whole cult of impersonators.

Last but not least, die youngish. Sorry to say, but this is almost as important as all the other rules.

With his 2001 induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the King became the first artist to gain entry into all three music-related halls of fame. So before you start your career as a rock/movie/cult star, do some research in the following places:

Rock and roll

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum overlooks Lake Erie in Cleveland, the city where Elvis played his first concert north of the Mason-Dixon line. What better reason to locate a museum there?

Although the museum didn’t open for business until 1995, the hall of fame idea was hatched in 1986. Elvis was among the first class of inductees.

“It was basically a no-brainer that he got in right away,” said chief curator Jim Henke.

Elvis is also a no-brainer for a museum display case. The man could shuck off historical artifacts like a jeweler in King Tut’s funeral parlor. For that reason - along with the vastness of his reign - Elvis’s legacy sprawls out all over the museum.

The main exhibit is the two-sided display case where one can currently find the “Tiger” jumpsuit from 1973, some paycheck stubs and the honorary police badge presented to him by the Memphis Police Department, ensuring no surprise visits by the Green Team to Graceland.

In another part of the museum, a decade-by-decade display about rock and roll, one finds another jumpsuit and a Martin acoustic guitar Elvis “played” on his final tour in 1977.

In the actual “Hall of Fame” portion, Elvis gets considerable representation in a documentary film. His likeness appears again in an exhibit about Sun records and again in a section on the great cities of rock and roll - Memphis being one of them.

Five exhibits. Now that’s fame.

“Pretty much when people come here, Elvis and the Beatles are sort of the two artists that a lot of visitors ask about,” Henke said. “We’ve made sure from the start there’s always Elvis’s presence in the museum. Every year or so we go back to Graceland and see if there’s something they want to trade out.”

Henke says the museum tries to focus less on Elvis’s sometimes controversial biography and more on the music.

Country music

Based in Nashville, The Country Music Hall of Fame has been around much longer than the rock hall. But Elvis didn’t swivel his way into it until 1998.

The reason it took nearly four decades, says senior curator Mark Medley, is that Elvis was partially to blame for a country hall of fame in the first place.

“It was a kind of circling of the wagons,” Medley said. “In 1957, country music was so impacted by rock and roll that the Country Music Association wanted to keep its traditions intact. That’s how the hall of fame was born. They wanted to preserve their share of the market. That goes a long way in explaining why it took so long for Elvis to get into the hall of fame.”

Although the King idolized Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams - two of the first inductees in 1961 - admiration didn’t flow the other way.

Despite his looks and his moves, however, Elvis had country in him. His first song on the country charts was Baby, Let’s Play House in 1955. He would eventually have 84 country chart singles, 11 of which hit the No. 1 position.

“I think that there was a perception that Elvis wasn’t country,” Medley said of Elvis’s lockout. “But also as country performers Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, people said, `Why the heck is Elvis not in the Country Hall of Fame?’ He charted country all the way up until his death.”

His last song to chart before his death was Way Down in 1977.

Nestled in Nashville’s new entertainment center downtown, the new museum opened in 2001.

“We look for things that tell a story,” Medley said of the Elvis exhibit. “A stage costume is really neat, but if you go to Graceland, you’ll be on overload looking at stage costumes.”

Currently, one exhibit celebrates the 25th anniversary of Elvis’s passing. Elvis’s gold piano is near session player Reggie Young’s guitar, heard on Kentucky Rain and Suspicious Minds.

The permanent exhibit’s centerpiece is Elvis’s gold 1960 Cadillac limousine, which the singer donated in 1976.

“I think that country music fans have always thought of Elvis as country. There was a sense of `Gee, this is overdue’ when he was elected,” Medley said.

Gospel music

Although the Gospel Music Association has yet to build a temple for its hall of fame, plans are in the works for a museum, most likely in Nashville.

Meanwhile, type “Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum” into Google.com, and you’ll discover an operation out of Detroit that doesn’t include Elvis on its list of inductees.

Ask if Elvis has been mistakenly left off its list, and the voice answers with a you-must-be-joking “No!”

“There may be some legal issues involved the future,” says Tricia Whitehead, a public relations rep for the real Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame, into which Elvis was inducted in 2001, making him the first person to cover all the bases. “I think they’re strictly black gospel.”

The GMA has only recently begun to induct black artists into its hall of fame, which might explain, given the accusations that Elvis copied black styles, why it took 30 years for him to get in.

Elvis had a long and affectionate relationship with religious music, as did those at Thursday night’s Candlelight Vigil. He recorded more than 50 gospel tunes throughout his life. He even insisted on performing Peace in the Valley on the Ed Sullivan Show “for his mother.”

Elvis won three Grammy Awards during his life. All were for gospel records with the exception of his lifetime achievement Grammy in 1971.

- Christopher Blank: 529-2305