Despite no longer being part of the corporeal world, The King of Rock’n’Roll is still selling records (over one million a year) and his estate is making money hand over fist.

Over 50,000 of his devoted fans made the pilgrimage this week to his beloved Tennessee mansion Graceland, one of the largest attendances ever, in commemoration of the anniversary of what many people believe was “the day the music died”.

It wasn’t, of course. Rock still rocks today as much as ever. And The King is still part of the scene, even if you don’t know it.

He appeared yet again this year on Forbes magazine’s list of Highest-Earning Dead Celebrities, raking in $US27 million ($A34 million). Some of that comes from record sales (he’s still earning gold, platinum and diamond awards regularly as his total sales heads towards 1.5 billion), while most comes from fans paying to see the home where he lived and died.

This anniversary, they paid a little more for the privilege.

Elvis Presley Enterprises earned the ire of many fans this year by charging $US28.75 ($A36) to be part of the Candlelight Vigil, the cornerstone anniversary-eve event where fans are allowed to walk up Graceland’s driveway to his grave.

Since it began in 1978, the vigil had always been free. But this year, citing “security concerns”, an explanation that didn’t wash with The King’s devoted following, Graceland forced fans to buy a ticket to the usual mansion tour, which included the vigil. Even though the pilgrims complained, they paid. Big time.

The outrage was exacerbated by the Graceland complex having recently undergone a major upgrade, and a majority of fans saw the vigil fee as extra gouging. The area across from the mansion now contains the Guest House at Graceland, a sprawling new complex of 450 hotel suites, a conference centre, restaurants and theatre. Of course, staying there comes at a price, but the faithful keep paying.

The general consensus from Elvis fans is that he wouldn’t take too kindly to such extravagance or the expense involved. His own attitude to money was simple. “It’s worthless as an old cut-up paper if it lays in a bank and just grows there without ever having been used to help a body,” he once said. And The King certainly lived up to that credo.

He was known for his generosity, giving away cars (usually Cadillacs) to friends, family and complete strangers. When Elvis died on August 16, 1977, he had less than a million dollars in his bank account. Not chicken feed by most standards, but had he lived another couple of years, he would have been bankrupt.

That’s why his former wife Priscilla Presley (all too often mistakenly referred to as his “widow”) and a committee of business associates opened the mansion to the public in 1982: to save it from becoming a Memphis-based white elephant.

This year will be Elvis’ biggest revenue earner yet, bigger than anything he saw during his all too short life of 42 years. We’re talking over $US100 million ($A126 million) big. The Presley juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down.

The recent worldwide tour by London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, playing alongside The King via video, and its two CD releases, generated big buzz and bigger sales. CDs, records, the classic velvet paintings and a wide variety of souvenirs and mementos all keep the greenbacks rolling in.

It (money) is worthless as an old cut-up paper if it lays in a bank and just grows there without ever having been used to help a body

The largest demographic of visitors to Graceland isn’t the first generation of fans, many of them grandparents now. It’s 20- and 30-somethings with families and money to spend.

His name and likeness are now a brand. Officially. In 2013, Authentic Brands Group, the same company which owns the rights to Muhammad Ali and Marilyn Monroe’s images, bought the exclusive rights to Elvis Presley for an undisclosed sum.

You can’t slap the King’s likeness on anything without going through the company and Elvis Presley Enterprises. They’re swift to put the kibosh on what they see as illegal product. Since ABG took the reins, global sales of Presley merchandise are up by 20 per cent.

Elvis and Priscilla Presley with their newborn daughter Lisa Marie in February 1968. The couple were married for about six years. Picture: AP

As to the future, EPE has plans for more enhanced releases, diversifying the Guest House to host conventions and non-Elvis-related events and even an Elvis hologram tour once the technology is in place.

The year after Graceland opened to the public, EPE acquired the shopping centre precinct directly opposite Graceland on Elvis Presley Boulevard. Yes, The King’s own street was named after him, in 1971, and you can buy replica street signs across the road for a reasonable $US10 ($A12). EPE then began policing the proliferation of “unofficial” vendors, those selling items not sanctioned by the estate. Those vendors were soon run out of town. Now, the dozens of shops surrounding the area are fully licensed.

But that hasn’t stopped illegal product altogether. In terms of his recordings, Elvis is the most bootlegged artist ever. There’s a whole underground of fans who produce, collect and swap CDs and vinyl LPs of unreleased concerts and outtakes of familiar songs. Hundreds are released each year. To combat this, EPE and Sony/BMG Records in 1999 launched the Follow That Dream label (named after one of his movies) with recordings only released through fan clubs and licensed dealers, not to the general public.

The fans, of course, lapped it up and the label still functions today with people shelling out to hear unreleased material. However, the cupboard is almost bare in terms of “new” stuff. Yet, the bootleggers still flourish underground. They’re still doing massive business in their own right.

Elvis Presley fan Eric Philiponska, from France, shows off his tattoo of The King before visiting Sun Studio, where Presley made his first recordings. Picture: AFP

Elvis Presley and his legacy are still very big business. So much so that earlier this month, the Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship at Berklee College of Music in Boston hosted a seminar focusing not just on his music, but also on the business model that helps keep his name alive today. Subjects included “Act local, think global” and “Diversify and conquer”, which is precisely what Elvis Presley Enterprises, for good or bad, seems to have done.

And it’s not just the estate’s coffers that are getting full. The thousands of tourists who visit Memphis every year contribute millions of dollars to the city’s economy.

There’s no doubt the man himself would be amazed by all the fuss, and the continuing devotion which sees his legacy grow each year. The sharecropper’s son who would go on to be the most revered entertainer of our time was born poor. Dirt poor.

He once said: “I’m still afraid to this day that one morning, I’ll wake up and find everything was a dream and we’re all still back in Tupelo (his Mississippi birthplace) with no hope of getting out from under the poverty”.

It was a fear that plagued him until his dying day.

Elvis’ motto in life was Taking Care of Business, or TCB for short. He even had a logo made up for it with TCB and a lightning bolt, signifying “in a flash”. Of course, that logo is copyrighted now and you can buy sew-on patches, T-shirts, ashtrays, shot glasses and paperweights emblazoned with it — but only from licensed dealers, naturally.

So while Elvis Presley may not be around anymore to be Taking Care of Business, you can be sure of one thing: there’s a monster-sized and ever-growing conglomerate to do just that.

Long live The King.