Just take a walk down lonely street to Heartbreak Hotel...

Upon arrival at the Heartbreak Hotel, the official accommodation affiliated with Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, it became apparent with his music blasting from the front entrance and into the foyer, that "The King" was still very much alive. Arguably, he is more active now in the hearts and minds of millions of fans than in his heyday, for people like myself, born four years after his death, have discovered his music post-humously. Certainly, alongside other long-gone stars such as Kurt Cobain and John Lennon, he still manages to amass a fortune each year in sales.

Graceland, his family home, is smaller than I imagined, though no less grand for it. I think, because the man was larger than life, that I expected his house to equal such gravitas. But Graceland-at odds to the ''big is better'' American way of life-has an atmosphere that far outweighs its size. Elvis bought it for a modest $100,000 in the 1950s, and though he owned other property, this remained his primary home right up to his death in 1977. Adding to his affection for the place, he is buried in the grounds alongside his mother, grandmother, and father. There is also a moving plaque dedicated to the memory of his twin brother, who was stillborn.

My visit coincided with the last day of 2007, which also meant, with evening plans ahead, that the visit was rushed at best. Not that the tour guides rush you along, to the contrary, they encourage you to stay as long as you wish - especially if you go for the wallet-busting VIP package, which includes unlimited trips to the house, a look around Elvis's extensive collection of costumes and vehicles, a behind-the-scenes tour, as well as access to his private jet, titled "Lisa Marie" - after his daughter, and a rather odd exhibition called "After hours" devoted to his nocturnal activities. Elvis, we learn, was an insomniac. Even his concerts sometimes began at the midnight hour.

Like many a tourist attraction, which Graceland undoubtedly now is, there is bias in the information presented and clearly Elvis, the man, was a great deal more complex than any information plaque would lead us to believe. There was the breakup of his marriage to Prescilla Presley, and later the drug and food binging and, as mentioned, the fact he couldn't sleep. Likewise, he was universally adored, he reached the echelons of fame that befitted his talent and influence, and perhaps Graceland isn't the place to discuss the darker aspects of his life, but this is what I was most interested in.

Having never been a fan of Elvis in any sense of the word, my trip to Graceland, indeed Memphis as a place, changed all of that. It instils a respect.

Born Elvis Aaron Presley in 1935, the man that would grow up to be arguably the most influential modern music artist in history, came from humble beginnings. I will not bore you with a recounting of his early life-I never have much time for the childhood bits of biographies, only the juicy bits-and the fact he cut his first record at Sun Studios as a gift to his mother, implying almost that his talent was discovered almost by accident, only adds to the enigma. What if there had been no Elvis? I recall Lisa Marie, upon hearing about her father's death, immediately expressing how would the world cope WITHOUT The King around?.

Like any high profile death (Monroe, Diana, JFK, Luther King), the world stops for a moment and inevitably moves on - because of course it has to. Also, dying young tends to make a martyr of someone, canonizing them into an object of reverence.

Perhaps then, the most interesting element to Elvis, certainly for me, is the impact he had (and continues to have) on people around the world. For some, a trip to Graceland is like a pilgrimage, almost a religious experience. Why is this? Yes, there was the music, but this is only part of the story. Why is he impersonated? Did men want to be him and women want to sleep with him? Absolutely. In many ways he's an idealised form, almost unreal. Even the decor to Graceland is fabulously OTT, bordering on tacky and tasteless, but strangely apt and enduring.

Much of what I say has been endlessly debated I'm sure, but none of us will ever get to walk in his shoes (notice I resisted the temptation for blue suede there), and most of us are unlikely to garner the level of reaction and adoration he enjoyed. Though he died in his early 40s, he had achieved everything the majority of us will only ever dream of and had nothing left to prove. Yet, by dying young, he was denied the fruit of his labour and ultimately, we were all robbed of this incredible man and musician.

It's interesting that we can all live on in music, on film, in pictures and (ahem) in Elvis's case, through merchandise, though the latter can ultimately cheapen a legacy. Not so with Elvis. For the ill informed, he is a caricature, but to the rest of us, he is much more than that, living on in the minds (and dancing feet!) of many, and crucially, affecting generations yet to come.