In a deleted scene from the 1994 Quentin Tarantino movie, Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace (played by Uma Thurman) tries to impart a little life philosophy to Vincent Vega (played by John Travolta) as they prepare to head out to dinner.

“There are only two kinds of people in the world, Beatles people and Elvis people,” she tells Vega. “Now, Beatles people can like Elvis, and Elvis people can like The Beatles, but nobody likes them both equally. Somewhere you have to make a choice and that choice tells you who you are.”

There’s no doubt, though, that for Elvis people, this year marks a milestone in the life and legacy of Elvis Aaron Presley. It’s the 80th anniversary of Presley’s birth (he was born on Jan 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi) and last month fans celebrated on a grand scale, complete with an eight-tier cake and family at Graceland. While friends recalled memories, collectors bid on memorabilia.

But the Presley commemorations haven’t ended yet. Legacy Records announced plans to release Presley’s music throughout the year, starting with The Complete ’60s Albums Collection Vol 1 on iTunes. The set has all 15 albums Presley recorded between 1960 and 1965 (with newly mastered sound, of course), including Elvis Is Back, G.I. Blues, Blue Hawaii and Girls! Girls! Girls!, among others. Legacy also launched a playlist on Spotify, called #Elvis80: The Fan Favorites Playlist, as well as hinted at a new project later this year that promises “Elvis like he has never been heard before”. Meanwhile, a new website called ElvisTheMusic.com was also launched and fashion brand Country Outfitter released a collection of shoes and boots called — wait for it — the Blue Suede Collection.

In Singapore, the Singapore Philatelic Museum (SPM) launched its exhibition Return To Sender (named after the 1962 hit). The exhibition doesn’t only feature stamps bearing Presley’s visage — most notably the 1993 stamps from the United States and several prints from South Africa — but also traces the life of the singer, via items on loan from a collector in Singapore.

“It took a few months to put all of this together and some of the items are quite unique,” said SPM’s education and public communications executive Adelene Lim.

These include nuggets such as a report card (“He scored straight Es — but here E means ‘excellent’,” said Lim) and an early job application form, in which the interviewer remarked that Presley’s dress sense was too flashy and that he was probably a “playboy type”. There are also movie posters, photos with accompanying documentation of his life as well as memorabilia such as LPs, singles and trading cards. There’s a “wall of music” where you can choose to listen to several recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s, and if you want to, you can also purchase Presley singles, which come with a trading card.

Presley’s music, of course, is the one thing that has galvanised fans all over the world. They can’t get enough of the songs that shaped a generation and kick-started rock and roll, whether it’s Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Tender, Suspicious Minds, The Wonder Of You or Burning Love. Which is why decades after his death, people still throng to see tribute shows, such as the coming Ultimate Tribute To Elvis show at Marina Bay Sands in early April. It’s part of the Legends In Concert series that will feature Presley’s music throughout his career, but it’s more than only Elvis impersonators taking the stage, said Milan Rokic, managing director for Base Entertainment Asia.

“There are many Elvis impersonators — by many estimates, more than 150,000 around the world today — and many Elvis tribute shows,” he said. “However, (this) show is different for the following reasons: It’s the only show that includes the entire touring cast of Elvis Lives, including the three different world champion Elvis tribute artistes, an Ann-Margret tribute artiste, a four-piece live band, four back-up singers and dancers. The three Elvis tribute artistes each competed and won a contest produced under the auspices of Graceland against thousands of different Elvis tribute artistes held in dozens of cities around the world … (so) the quality of this show is without any parallel.”

The performers — Bill Cherry, Dean Z and Jay Dupuis — provide audiences with a different Presley era in what is the only tribute event sanctioned by Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises.

The show also involves Mark Kogan, who is not only a long-time member of the Legends In Concert marketing team, but also part of the concert promotion team that produced all of Elvis’ touring shows in the US in the 1970s.

“Hearing these singers for the first time, I felt like I was back on tour with Elvis,” Kogan told the Cleveland News-Herald in a recent interview. “There are some purists who might not be interested in tribute artistes, but Elvis himself, a month before he died, wrote a letter to a young man named David who was doing a tribute to him.

“Elvis said he was flattered and thrilled that David was doing a tribute to him (and) said for this young man to give his own imprint to it. That spurred the Elvis tribute artiste concept and the tour came out of that.”

“This is a full production show featuring a rocking band and fantastic visual effects that will make you feel like you are at an Elvis Presley concert,” said Rokic. “The Singapore audience has been vocal with their demand for high-quality tribute shows that deliver a high-energy tribute to their favourite performers of yesteryear.”

Still, if people think this hoopla is all too much, they might want to recall that John Lennon once intimated that without Presley, there wouldn’t be rock and roll — and certainly, there wouldn’t have been The Beatles.

“I’m an Elvis fan because it was Elvis who really got me out of Liverpool,” said Lennon. “Once I heard it and got into it, that was life, there was no other thing.”

If you really need more evidence of Presley’s legacy, well, as that old 1959 album once declared, 50 million Elvis fans — although it’s millions more these days — can’t be wrong, can they?

Return To Sender runs at the Singapore Philatelic Museum until July 1. The Ultimate Tribute To Elvis runs from April 2 to 5 at the Sands Theatre, MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands. Tickets from SISTIC.