The pop-culture mecca you should visit in Memphis at least once in your life

Elvis fans still flock to Graceland, nearly 50 years since his death.

Every time I hear Can't Help Falling in Love, it takes me back to watching an Elvis rerun special of Blue Hawaii at the Albury movie theatre on my first date, years ago. I was smitten by both Elvis and "Phil" and considered the song most appropriate, until I saw Phil at the theatre the following week, smooching with another.

Now I am deep in Elvis territory at his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee, and I can't get that song out of my mind, although memories of two-timing Phil have long faded. It's a slick operation as Elvis fanatics and the plain curious line up at the entrance for pre-booked tickets. There's a group of five women from Kansas wearing "I squealed for Elvis" T-shirts in our group. We're given an iPad with information about Graceland and Elvis, photographed for security and bussed to the mansion that Elvis paid $102,500 ($155,600) for in 1957. Once a farm where cattle roamed, now the national historic landmark attracts 600,000 visitors a year and is the US's No. 2 most famous home after the White House.

Once inside, we traipse through Elvis's living room, his parents' bedroom, kitchen, TV room, pool room, the famous Jungle Room, his father's office, the newly enhanced Trophy Building, the Racquetball Building, restored to how it looked in 1977, and the Meditation Garden. Interesting as it is to wander through, it is the story boards that reveal the secrets about life when Elvis was in the building. It's not hard to imagine he and Priscilla in the dining room sitting under a gleaming Italian chandelier. He liked to dine between 9pm to 10pm on Noritake China which is laid out today. A portrait of Priscilla and Lisa Marie, aged two, is a poignant reminder of family time.

I'm told there's a secret bell where Elvis sat at the table head that alerted the kitchen staff for service and it seems he kept them on their toes. A list of food that had to be available "at all times-every day" included lean ground round steak, one case of Pepsi, one case of orange drink, six packets of biscuits, pickles, wieners, peanut butter, banana pudding, ingredients for meatloaf and sauce, brownies and fudge cookies.

We wander through the music room with a grand piano where late-night gospel sing-a-longs were common. Memphis interior designer Bill Eubanks helped Elvis with the 1974 re-decorating of the pool room with 366 metres of pleated cotton fabric on the walls and ceiling, and a billiard table where Elvis often played. Legend has it that it was an unwritten law that the King of Rock and Roll always won. But it's the den nicknamed the Jungle Room that brings the most gushes - Elvis filled it with Tiki-style furniture in 1974 because it reminded him of Hawaii. It had a built-in rock waterfall and green shag carpet on the floor and the ceiling, and was considered the nerve centre of the mansion and where he often recorded.

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