Elvis? Roy Brown? Big Joe Turner?

The marketing arm of the rock 'n' roll business is trying to rewrite history.

BMG Records, which distributes the Elvis Presley catalog, has decreed July 5, 1954, as rock's birth date -- making tomorrow the 50th anniversary of rock 'n' roll. What's so special about that spot on the calendar? Elvis recorded his first single, "That's All Right," on that day in Memphis.

Much of the media is buying into the anniversary hype. Rolling Stone just released a special issue devoted to the musical milestone. So did England's respected Q Magazine. Even TV Guide includes a CD of "That's All Right" in its latest issue.

But something's not all right about this.

The splash is convenient for BMG, which is using the anniversary to push more Elvis product -- namely, a CD of Elvis during his early Sun Records period ("Elvis at Sun"), plus two Elvis DVDs and a compilation disc, "Memphis Celebrates 50 Years of Rock 'n' Roll." The city itself is capitalizing on the date by staging a concert tomorrow by Memphis singers Justin Timberlake and Isaac Hayes. Sun Studio will broadcast the recording session of "That's All Right" at 11 a.m. Central time tomorrow, and radio stations around the world will play it simultaneously.

But the marketing blitz, by BMG as well as other companies, reopens a nagging debate: Just when did rock really begin? It's an issue that has long been tinged with racism, specifically the notion that it took a white man to make it rock 'n' roll, whereas before it was only R&B and what was then described as "race music."

"I think Elvis was given a lot of credit for introducing rock to the masses because he was white and gorgeous," says singer Sheryl Crow. "Not to take anything away from him, but I think you could easily trace the true beginning of rock back to the late '40s and early '50s with artists like Big Joe Turner, who did `Shake, Rattle & Roll,' which was undoubtedly a rock song, as well as Ike Turner with `Rocket 88.' "

Crow is not the only artist to note that not enough credit is given to black music pioneers such as Roy Brown, Fats Domino, Ike Turner, Little Richard, Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Bo Diddley, and Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, who wrote and first recorded "That's All Right" way back in 1946.

"A lot of people say `Rocket 88' " marks the birth of rock 'n' roll, Aerosmith's Joe Perry says of the 1951 release. "But it's hard to sit down and pronounce any day as the given day."

Still, the July 5, 1954, anniversary is being pushed regardless of any contrary beliefs.

"It's when rock started from a commercial standpoint," says Joe DiMuro, executive vice president of BMG's Strategic Marketing Group. "The song `That's All Right' brought true fanaticism to the masses," he adds. "You could argue that Bill Haley & the Comets also popularized rock before Elvis, but they never had the magnitude of Elvis. Elvis put rock on a pedestal."

The BMG executive is not alone in this perspective. Some music critics, such as Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times, agree with the significance of the "That's All Right" date. "You go from that record to John Lennon to Bruce Springsteen to U2 to Tom Petty to White Stripes," says Hilburn. "You don't get there from `Shake, Rattle & Roll' . . . or `Rocket 88.' " Adds rock historian Arthur Levy, a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "Let's face it, rock 'n' roll would never have emerged . . . unless white hillbilly cats had started playing it."

That's a bold comment, and it slams the door on too much music that preceded Elvis. Rock 'n' roll is widely believed to be music of freedom, of partying, and of dancing to a sound that is heavy on the second and fourth beats of a 4/4 tempo. And such backbeat music was definitely going on long before Elvis.

"The term rock 'n' roll was already out there -- just like the term `sock it to me,' it was out there," says Boston's Peter Wolf, the ex-J. Geils Band singer, who is a serious student of music history. "It was a colloquial term and it evolved from be-bop lingo." Terry Stewart, CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, says, "Rock doesn't rise up from some primordial mud with one record. If it did, then why not with `Good Rockin' Tonight' by Roy Brown [1947], or `Rock This Joint' by Bill Haley [1952], or `Crazy Man Crazy' by Haley [1953]?" Even pop-music historian and acclaimed Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick admits, "Elvis was part of a revolution that could have happened without him."

There is no denying that Elvis had talent (much more than onetime biographer Albert Goldman gave him credit for), but he also helped launch, however unwittingly, the ugly side of a trend. "Everybody ripped off black acts back then," says guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

Music pioneer Eddy "Chief" Clearwater points to Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" in 1947 as the possible beginning of rock 'n' roll (Wynonie Harris had a hit with it, Elvis also recorded it, and Bruce Springsteen later played it in concert). He further cites LaVern Baker and Louis Jordan, who did "Caldonia."

"America at the time wasn't ready for a black hero," says Clearwater, a Chicago native who headlines Johnny D's July 30. "No matter how good a black [artist] was, the time wasn't right for him to be accepted."

But rock was picking up steam, Guralnick says, through Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" in 1952 and releases by Fats Domino and Little Richard.

"Also, at the same time that Elvis was recording `That's All Right,' Ray Charles was working on `I Got a Woman,' which was as revolutionary as `That's All Right,' " Guralnick says. "But while some of those artists never got their full due, they did get more genuine attention because of Elvis."

That said, there's every reason to believe that Elvis, were he still around, might be skeptical of this 50th anniversary hype. He saw himself as "part of a continuum," Guralnick says, and always had a respect for the cultural diversity that preceded him. Long after he made it big, Elvis enlisted black artists such as the Sweet Inspirations for his Las Vegas show.

Frankly, it's encouraging to see BMG's marketing strategy being questioned. It suggests that people still care about the music and aren't going to accept being passive consumers.

"Many of the roots run deeper and are older than [BMG's] unfortunate marketing strategy implies," says Ruben Guevara, who just finished teaching a course at UCLA titled "Development of Rock: Slave Songs to Eminem." He argues persuasively that rock really had its start in Africa's ancient griot/

poetry tradition and in African-American slave, work, and prison songs. One might ask dozens of people to pinpoint rock's inception and get different answers from each. The bottom line is that it's not going to stop the marketing machine. All the 50-year-anniversary talk may be "just another promotion," according to Newbury Comics co-owner Mike Dreese, but it's also an opportunity for the Newbury chain to jump in and offer "50 essential rock albums" from the likes of AC/DC, Pearl Jam, and Metallica at discount prices.

Business is business. But it's not too late to remind audiences that rock was about artistic and cultural expression long before it became a commodity.