Elvis Presley is remembered as the “King of Rock and Roll”, despite longstanding debate over whether other pioneers such as Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard were equally or more deserving. The article argues that Presley’s lasting fame, image and influence made him the genre’s defining celebrity, while revealing that he reserved a different title—“The King of Cool”—for Dean Martin.

Presley admired Martin’s relaxed crooning style and recorded ‘I Don’t Care If the Sun Don’t Shine’ in 1954 after hearing Martin’s earlier version. According to Martin’s daughter, Deana, Presley told her that while he was called the King of Rock and Roll, her father was the King of Cool; the two later also became prominent figures in Las Vegas entertainment.