Did Scotland give the world rock n' roll? Three doctors and a contralto made the tongue-in-cheek suggestion in an Edinburgh Fringe festival performance of "The Secret Life of Robert Burns".

Their production started with a serious academic discourse and ended in a hilarious rendition of extracts from some of the best known works of the poet Rabbie Burns to the beat of some of Elvis Presley's best known songs.

The king of rock 'n' roll, who died 30 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee, is only known to have visited Scotland once. He set foot on Scottish soil briefly at Prestwick airport near Glasgow in 1960 on his way back to the United States after doing his army draft service in Germany.

Scottish humour writer Allan Morrison, however, claims in his 2004 book The Presley Prophecy that he had traced Presley's ancestry back to blacksmith Andrew Presley and Elspeth Leg, who were married in the tiny village of Lonmay in the northeast coast county of Aberdeenshire on Augusr 27, 1713.

He says their son, also named Andrew, fled Scotland after the 1745 Jacobite uprising in support of Bonnie Prince Charlie for North Carolina in the United States. He claims to have traced the line down to the birth of Elvis in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935.

So, did Elvis's singing genius trace back to the 18th century Scottish Enlightenment?

The secret life of Burns starts with retired medical professor and Burns expert David Purdie uncovering fresh images connected with the poet from Scotland's National Library and Portrait Gallery.

Burns died in 1796 before the age of photography, but there is a photograph of his youngest sister Isabel in 1843. Purdie hopes to put together an accurate depiction of Burns with computer technology using portraits, silhouettes and Isobel's photograph.

Aileen Drife, who has been interested in folk songs since her teens, sang several of the poet's works in what is thought to be the authentic style of the day.

Then Doctors Jim Drife and Walter Nimmo, who have been performing irregularly at the Fringe for over 30 years, hit the stage.

Drife said recent musical discoveries concealed for over two centuries in the cellars of a country mansion in the Scottish Borders indicated rock rhythm was developed in 18th century Scotland, and that Burns was undoubtedly aware of this.

The duo, with guitar and electronic harpsichord belt out a series of songs from "It's a sheep sale baby, it's a sheep sale", through "the world's first commerical jingle." Canny Scots know what's what with the Encylopaedia Britannica (first published in Edinburgh between 1768 and 1771) to a medley of songs Tae a Louse, Tae a Mouse, Tam O'Shanta and Auld Lang Syne to a mixture of Presley's rock tunes and shouts of laughter.

Even Benjamin Franklin, American diplomat, philosopher, inventor and general man about the world, makes a fleeting appearance in enlightenment Edinburgh: Howdy Scotland! Call me Ben!
I'm one of them renaissance men...