That's All Right With Elvis

Half a century after its initial release, Elvis Presley's version of "That's All Right," considered by many as the start of the rock-n-roll era (please spare me dissertations about how it ain't so; note the fudgey, highly qualified language in which the claim is made) is hound-dogging Usher's "Burn" for the top slot on the singles chart. Read the Ananova report here.

(As a simultaneously ironic and unironic fan of the later Elvis, I keep wondering when a DJ and/or rapper will do a mash-up/updated version of "In the Ghetto"–and keep Mac Davis off food stamps until The Sting III starts filming.)

During a weekend viewing of Spider-Man 2, I started thinking about how long-lived much of contemporary pop culture really is. Spider-Man and other popular Marvel-based comic-book characters are 40 years old, most of Elvis older still. And the stuff not only holds up but continues to increase its audience and, in some ways, influence. Which is pretty interesting for artifacts generally conceded to be crap or fluff.