King Blelvis

An Elvis Obsession Has His Life All Shook Up

Andrew Wooten, better known as Blelvis, dazzles Julia Peck, left, Beth Blacklow, James Standefer and Juergen Seufert in Northwest Washington. (Photos By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)

Elvis recorded 1,112 songs.

Blelvis tells you this. He knows the words to them all.

Pick a song, any song, the more obscure the better. Pick a song that starts with Q --there's only one -- "Queenie Wahine's Papaya," recorded in 1965, released on "Paradise, Hawaiian Style."

Please pick her papaya, put Queenie Wahine

In perfect perpetual --

Don't like that one? Pick another. Blelvis will sidewalk-serenade you with any Elvis song you can think of, and all the ones you can't. He says he knows the dialogue to every movie, too.

Now. Let Blelvis, the Black Elvis, tell you what he is not doing. He is not begging, and he is not homeless. But Blelvis would never dream of denying you the opportunity to donate to his favorite charity, which, incidentally, is named Blelvis. So he'll just turn around, nice and discreet, while you see what you can spare. The best nation in the world is a do nation, and that's the truth.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Thanyavurramuch.

Hipster kids form a clumpy line outside the Black Cat on 14th Street NW. Blelvis, in jeans and a baseball cap, works small groups of two and three; when the King lives inside you, you don't need the leather suit. He's got huge feet and slumpy shoulders, which makes him lope rather than strut; when the King lives inside you, you don't need to walk the part. Aside from sprawling sideburns and a snarling upper lip, he doesn't try to resemble Elvis at all. He prefers the title of "Elvisologist" to Elvis impersonator, anyhow.

He sounds like the King, though. That Elvisian tremble in his voice? He's had it since he sang in the choir at Roosevelt High up on 13th Street. And he shares the King's birthday, 31 years apart. Blelvis will be 42 Jan. 8.

Blelvis spots his next audience: a trio of two men and a woman.