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Contrary to popular sentiment, rock 'n' roll will die. Matter of fact, it already has. Only the date is in question.

Could be 1963, the year before the Beatles invaded American shores. Or it could be 1959.

By then, Elvis had trudged into the Army, Little Richard had found religion, and Jerry Lee Lewis had scandalized the world by marrying his 13-year-old cousin.

Topping things off, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in 1959.

All four performers were pivotal to early rock 'n' roll, and their absences created huge gaps, says Alan Kruse, who recently gave a talk on the golden age of American rock 'n' roll to a group of seniors.

Yes, seniors. You know, the folks who grew up swinging to Benny Goodman and the big bands?

Then again, maybe not.

"We had people up to age 70," says Kruse, who gave his presentation for the Oasis senior program that meets at El Con Mall.

Face it: Anyone who rocked to "All Shook Up" back in the '50s probably has an AARP card in the wallet.

It's only a matter of time before "Peggy Sue" replaces "Sentimental Journey" inside the elevators of all those assisted-living "campuses."

Ah, well. Long as we have the memories, we'll be easy marks for guys like Kruse, 61, who spends most of his time giving historical tours around Southern Arizona, occasionally dressing up like early educator John Spring or legendary coach J.F. "Pop" McKale.

The rock 'n' roll thing popped out after he took a six-week class almost a year ago with KXCI disc jockey Dave "Kidd Squidd" Squires.

Great class, but he wanted more detail on the mid-1950s, says Kruse, whose vast CD collection features everything from doo-wop to rockabilly.

And the great thing about CDs, says Kruse, is that most of them include some written material about the artist.

Kruse also relies on such "bibles" as "The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll" by Charlie Gillett, as well as Joel's Whitburn's "Top Pop Singles: 1955-2002."

Growing up with the music also gave great background.

Spring of '57 finds 12-year-old Kruse running around his hometown of Schenectady, N.Y., with a transistor radio hung around his neck sending out tinny tunes by Elvis and the rest of the pack.

"And every day after school, I'd come home and watch 'American Bandstand' on TV."

While the golden age of rock 'n' roll may have ended in 1959, you gotta remember that the girl groups like the Shirelles and the guy groups like the Four Seasons rocketed to fame in the early '60s, says Kruse, who is considering doing a program for the years 1959-1963.

"They still called it rock 'n' roll until 1963; then they just called it rock," says Kruse, whose musical tastes also lap up against everything from Broadway tunes to folk music.

Matter of fact, he's offering a March program at Oasis titled "The 1960s Folk Music Revival in America," focusing on such artists as the Kingston Trio, Bob Dylan and Judy Collins.

Meanwhile, you can still hear good ol' rock 'n' roll on some radio stations and in commercials and movie soundtracks, says Kruse.

So why do we long so much to savor this stuff?

"We always remember the good times. And the lyrics were so simple back then," says Kruse, who's hoping to mine this historical field for some time to come.

"I might do an all-Christmas rock 'n' roll program. Or one on the San Francisco sound," he muses.

"But I'm not going into disco. There's a limit."