  What a weird time it was in 1977. Let's see, there was the New York Blackout, Star Wars was first hitting the big screen and changing the world.
Son of Sam was running amok. John Wayne died. And the King of Rock & Roll passed away on this day in 1977. I was 15 at the time back then and I remember my parents were HUGE Elvis fans. We had quite the collection of Elvis albums my Mom would play all the time. It was weird though that the "King of Rock &amp; Roll" was only heard on Country & Western radio stations back then.
Actually, dying was the best thing to happen to Elvis. Think about it, if he was still alive today, not only would he be very old, he would probably be out there performing oldies shows...showing up in cameos in movies and generally still out there on talk shows. If he died today, I doubt there would have been such a big outpouring of grief for him as there was in 1977.
Marlon Brando just died and he was a HUGE icon in movies. If he had died back then, perhaps the same thing would have happened to him as it did with Elvis, James Dean, Monroe and others. As it was, when he died two months ago it was a major story to be sure, but now it's died down. The tributes are over. Elvis' tributes are STILL going on! As Neil Young said: "It's better to burn out, then to fade away" 
