POP/ROCK - Jan. 26, 1987

On tap for tonight’s American Music Awards (starting at 5 p.m. in Los Angeles) will be a special award of merit for Elvis Presley--the award’s first-ever posthumous presentation. The pyramid-shaped plexiglass trophy, inscribed to Presley for lending “revolutionary new energy and excitement to music and its performance,” will be displayed at Graceland, Presley’s estate in Memphis, Tenn. Previous recipients have included Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Irving Berlin, Chuck Berry, Berry Gordy Jr. and Paul McCartney. As for the awards themselves, Janet Jackson is nominated for nine; Whitney Houston for seven, and Billy Ocean and the Judds (a country duo) each have five.