There’s Good Rockin’ at the 10th Annual Bash Celebrating Elvis’ Birthday : Have You Heard the News?

The annual Elvis Presley Birthday Bash, begun in the cozy Club Lingerie as an antidote to all the morose preoccupation with the singer’s death, marked its 10th anniversary on Monday at the upscale, 1,000-capacity House of Blues.

The event, in which a host of performers each takes a stab at a couple of Elvis songs, has by now assumed a life of its own--and a form as predictable as a blues progression. The bulk of the acts that plunged into the Presley canon for some six hours on Monday were repeaters, with a small sprinkling of new faces.

The rebel in the rockabilly heart might like things all shook up to a greater degree, maybe with some invitations going out beyond the hard-core community--after all, the Presley influence is universal in pop music, and there are punk-rockers and hip-hoppers out there who would bring fresh perspective to the music.

But this is also an audience that treasures tradition, and the Bash’s ritualized nature provides a comforting setting in which the dancers can gyrate and the listeners can groove.

And as Elvis devotees, they aren’t inclined to question success. The move to the House of Blues last year increased the capacity for the always-packed event with no sacrifice of credibility (this year’s beneficiary, the Union Rescue Mission, will receive an estimated $5,000), and more than ever it is the key touchstone of the Southern California roots-rock and rockabilly scene--their senior prom, if you will.

“It’s the great unifying force of Elvis,” Bash co-founder Art Fein said Monday before the first chord was struck. “It’s a symbolic thing. Elvis symbolizes what we like best about the music of the ‘50s, really . . . the good, innocent beginnings of rock ‘n’ roll.”

True enough. No spoofs, no cynicism, no signs of the Legend’s dark strains seeped in to spoil Monday’s party, which was memorable primarily for one of the few segments by female performers. Following young rockabilly favorite Rosie Flores to the stage, Wanda Jackson made her Bash debut as perhaps the series’ only performer who actually dated Presley, who would have been 61.

Jackson, 58, was an Elvis counterpart dubbed “The Queen of Rockabilly” in the ‘50s. Lively and outgoing, she got her fringed outfit shaking with a version of her Elvis-covered hit “Let’s Have a Party,” and she drew rapt attention when she recalled the night Elvis gave her a ring. She held it up on a chain around her neck and let the fans near the stage touch it like a talisman.

The show also sported the usual highlights: a fierce performance by country star Dwight Yoakam, his guitarist Pete Anderson and their band; Los Lobos’ Cesar Rosas offering his gruff, bluesy take; the jittery, eccentric Phil Alvin leading the Blasters’ intense turn.

An array of increasingly confident and proficient rockabilly outfits bespoke the vitality of their scene, including Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, the Dave & Deke Combo and the Rockin’ Rebels. James Intveld, who co-founded the Bash with Fein, did his charismatic, Roy Scheider-as-Elvis romp through “Viva Las Vegas.”

This year’s other faces from the mists included the ‘60s country figure Johnny Tillotson, best known for his pop hit “Poetry in Motion,” doing his composition “It Keeps Right on A-Hurtin’,” which Elvis recorded for 1969’s “From Elvis in Memphis” album. Ben Wiseman, who wrote 57 songs recorded by Elvis, mainly from his movies, sat in on keyboards with King Cotton’s group.

Here’s to 10 more years, for starters. And to more women.