"Let me tell you about when I met Elvis ..."

Apart from the obvious human tragedy of Presley's early death, there is also a great sadness that the creative world was deprived of his memories and personal stories. We'll never know what it felt like to be the most famous person on the planet from the age of just 21.

What fabulous tales might he have told as an old man sitting on a chat show sofa talking about sharing a stage with Frank SInatra, or Bill Haley, or Lowell Fulson? How would he have remembered the saga of turning down a role opposite Barbara Streisand in "A Star Is Born"? What were his memories of the night he "spontaneously" started singing "That's All Right" at Sam Phillips' studio in Memphis.

These and so many other stories are lost to us, but it's a measure of the man's importance that almost every superstar of a certain age has told and re-told their own story of meeting Elvis, working with him, or even just hearing him for the first time. The Beatles, Muhammad Ali, James Brown, Frank SInatra, Alice Cooper, Richard Nixon, and hundreds (thousands?) of significant people from all walks of life have written about or recorded their thoughts on this most charismatic of men.

This 8 minute video captures the story of when Led Zeppelin (at the very height of their immense success) paid homage to the King in 1974, through the excellent storytelling of lead singer and Presley devotee, Robert Plant. Listen to the tale but hear how Plant tries so hard to capture the sheer joy and excitement of being in the presence of a man who had changed the cultural world.