Elvis Has Left The Barracks

Somewhere Colonel Tom Parker is smiling. The carnival huckster who managed Elvis Presley throughout the rock 'n' roller's career would love it that the King just topped the British singles chart for the 19th time — with a rerelease of Jailhouse Rock, timed to what would have been his 70th birthday. (RCA is rereleasing all of Elvis' U.K. No. 1 hits.)

The celebration is also taking place in Germany, where Bonn's Haus der Geschichte has mounted a show about Elvis' 1958-60 tour of duty as a U.S. soldier in the Hessen town of Friedberg . Some 300 items will be on display through Feb. 27, from Presley's scuffed Army jacket (filched by a fan from his [an error occurred while processing this directive] white BMW), to a lock of Elvis' dark brown hair. With its yellowed magazine and newspaper clippings, the show measures the impact of Elvis — and U.S. pop culture — on postwar Germany.

But Elvis brought back a little Germany to the U.S. , too. In his 1960 recording of the folksy Wooden Heart, he croons in English and German: "Muss i denn zum Städtele hinaus? [So do I have to leave town?]" He's right, he left, he's gone. tel: (49-228) 91650; www.hdg.de