reveal said:
John Lennon himself apparently once said something to the extent of, "Before Elvis, there was nothing," though the Beatles (and rock & roll in general) were also influenced by those that loki44 mentions, among others.
Here's how I see it:
Elvis was an entertainer, a performer. He had a charisma that may never be equalled. Even if what he did was influenced by those that came before him, and even if he had contemporaries that were doing the same thing, he was the focal point of a massive change in the nature of popular music.
But, he wasn't a songwriter, or a particularly gifted instrumentalist. He sang, and he played the guitar some.
The Beatles were, IMO, more complete musicians. At least three of them were gifted songwriters (one might debate Ringo's writing chops), as well as being more skilled instrumentalists. However, they were not particularly great performers (at least, not on a live basis, as if you could even hear them anyway from all the girls screaming), and they eventually stopped performing live entirely, to focus on producing studio music of a complexity that could never be replicated on stage. They, too, were the focal point of another tremendous shift in popular music.
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