Sometimes a sense of history gets to a man. For Doug, a first generation British teddy boy, visiting Nashville's famed RCA Studio B was clearly a very special pilgrimage indeed.

Not many 69-year-old pensioners get so excited by their surroundings that they literally turn cartwheels across the floor.

But then Doug - who did precisely that - is no ordinary OAP. For a start he's an Elvis nut. Always has been, he says, always will be. It's more than 50 years now since he first dusted down his new drape suit, greased back his hair and jived to the thrilling new sounds that had arrived from across the Atlantic.

Finally here he was standing with his wife Lindy - a girl he had eloped to Gretna Green with way back in 1964 - standing in the very room where so much of the soundtrack of their youth had been recorded.

This was the studio where Elvis cut It's Now or Never and Devil In Disguise, where the Everlys recorded Til I Kissed Her and Cathy's Clown where Roy Orbison created Only the Lonely and Crying.

No wonder Doug was in a spin. The memories were tumbling back - how he and 17-year-old Lindy had run away together, driving through the night in his pink Vauxhall Cresta, with parents and police in hot pursuit, it was quite a scandal. They were told it would never last.

But here, all these years later, they were still together, still very much in love and still jiving... right beside Elvis Presley's piano.

Doug and Lindy were just two of the travellers we met on an extraordinary journey to the heart of Elvis' world - a hugely popular six day coach tour that gives fans a special insight into the astonishing rags to riches story that was Elvis Aaron Presley's life.

We joined an intriguing mixture of besotted devotees, mildly curious music fans and a smattering of long-suffering partners on a trip that takes in Elvis's humble birthplace in the Mississippi Delta; the city of Memphis where he grew up and found fame and the hotspots of the Nashville recording industry where so much of his music was created.

If you want to go the whole hog you can even add a couple of nights in Las Vegas, Nashville or New Orleans.

However, whether your like your Elvis as a lean, mean Fifties rock n' roller or a full-blown demi-God playing cabaret in the pleasure palaces of Vegas, the centre-point of this tour is undoubtedly a visit to his Graceland mansion.

This glittering shrine to conspicuous consumption is where, on 16 August, 1977, bloated by junk food and weakened by prescription drugs, the King of rock n' roll met a tragic end at the age of 42.

It was his home for 20 years and, more than three decades after his death, fans still arrive in their thousands each day to weep at his graveside, offering flowers, prayers and undying devotion.

We stayed just a couple hundred yards away on the other side of Elvis Presley Boulevard. A few years back this road was known simply as Highway 51 but folks round these parts don't like to miss a trick. Which is why we were staying at the Heartbreak Hotel and guess what? It was at the end of Lonely Street.

What's more it's bar - called, of course, The Jungle Room - did a roaring trade in giant cheeseburgers and - "Elvis' favourite", fried banana and peanut butter sandwiches. A chance to live and maybe even die like him, too.

The real Elvis story has, of course, long been swamped by myths and distorted by misinformation. An entire industry exists that appears to be devoted to first parting people from their senses and then their money.

This it does with relentless efficiency as just a cursory glance at the souvenir business will confirm. It churns out Elvis tat that is astonishing in its tawdry inventiveness. You can buy anything from an ornamental Graceland snow storm to a replica Vegas-style rhinestone studded bat-wing collared jump-suit.

However for all the superficiality and artifice there's something genuinely moving about this tour which combines a fascinating journey through Tennessee with a big slice of social and music history.

The people on our trip came from all kinds of backgrounds and ranged in age from early 30s to mid-seventies. They were united by a common love of Elvis' music and a fascination for the story of the boy from the hillbilly backwoods who went on to conquer the world.

This tour included some wonderful experiences - a night out on Beale Street, spiritual home of the Memphis blues, a guided tour around Sam Phillips' famed Sun Studios, an afternoon at Nashville's extraordinary Country Music Hall of Fame and an evening at the Grand Ole Opry.

That's about as big a departure from Elvis as you get - and it's really not too far. Everything else is Elvis all the way including all manner of minutia like the stop at a hardware store in Tupelo, Mississippi, where, way back in 1945, a salesman called Forrest L. Bobo unwittingly wrote himself into rock n' roll history by persuading the 10-year-old Elvis that he didn't really want a gun for his forthcoming birthday he'd be much better off with a guitar.

The best surprise perhaps came back at RCA Studio B where our tour party got to make its very own recording.

Standing in the studio where Elvis cut more than 200 tracks we were invited to lay down a massed-voiced version of his heart-rending ballad Can't Help Falling In Love. To be honest it was dreadful, but we all had huge smiles on our faces as we got back on the bus knowing we'd soon be clutching our very own souvenir CDs.

Click here to watch the video of the recording

Factfile: Leading direct sell escorted touring specialist, Archers Direct, offers its 6 day 'Elvis and the Southern Sounds' itinerary priced from £969 per person. Price includes flights from Gatwick or London Heathrow with Delta, accommodation in Memphis and Nashville including the Heartbreak Hotel in Memphis and a whole range of sightseeing visits including Graceland, the Sun Studio, the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Optional extensions include 2 extra nights in Nashville (from £74,), 3 extra nights in New Orleans (from £314) or 3 extra nights in Las Vegas (from £244). Phone 0871 423 8508 or visit archersdirect.co.uk for further details.

7:53am Friday 28th November 2008

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