Elvis In Concert is a posthumous
1977 TV special starring
Elvis Presley. It was
Elvis' third and final TV special, following Elvis (aka The '
68 Comeback Special) and
Aloha From Hawaii. It was filmed during Presley's final tour in the cities of
Omaha, Nebraska, on June 19, 1977, and
Rapid City, South Dakota, on June 21, 1977. It was shown on
CBS on October 3, 1977, two months after Presley died. It is one of the few videos of Elvis which remain unlikely to ever be released for home viewing and is only available in bootleg form.
On June 1, 1977, it was announced that Elvis Presley had signed a deal with CBS for a new television special. It was agreed that CBS would videotape concerts during the summer of 1977. The final special was culled from footage from two performances on June 19, 1977, in
Omaha, and June 21, 1977, in
Rapid City, although much of the footage from Omaha was considered unusable due to sound and performance problems.This concert has been heavily edited and bootlegs (possible stolen tapes) have appeared on auction web sites over the years. The show was shot on
NTSC videotape although many film conversions have appeared over the years. The crew also filmed footage of Elvis at the airport in
Indianapolis, receiving a golden record by
RCA, on June 26. This is the last known footage of Elvis ever filmed, and he can be seen wearing his favourite
DEA jacket.
During the special, Presley performs a number of songs spanning his career. A notable moment is his performance of "
Are You Lonesome Tonight" in which he appears to forget the words during the song's long monologue portion, improvising mumbled jokes instead; this footage was included in the later documentary
This Is Elvis to illustrate his poor condition at the time. Presley also sings his much-performed "
My Way" although he has to use a lyric sheet on this occasion (despite having played the song several years through the
1970s). Presley also omitted both of his then-current
singles, “
Moody Blue” and “
Way Down,” from the setlist; Presley had forgotten the former when attempting to play it earlier in the tour and never performed it live again.
According to
Roy Carr and
Mick Farren in Elvis: The Illustrated
Record, CBS officials considered postponing broadcast of the special in hopes of obtaining better performance footage of Presley, but his death in August 1977 rendered this moot. Its broadcast received mixed reaction;
Carr and Farren condemned it as a "travesty", adding, "Had it been shown during his lifetime, it would have caused more irrevocable damage to what was left of his career than almost a decade of starring in third-rate movies."
A misconception regarding
Elvis in Concert stems from a statement broadcast by Presley's father,
Vernon Presley at the program's conclusion (and also included on the soundtrack
album) in which he said viewers had just witnessed Elvis' final performance. In fact, Presley made five more concert appearances before giving what would be his final show in
Indianapolis, Indiana, on June 26. However the CBS special was Elvis' last professionally recorded concert. The special actually contains two messages by Elvis' father. One taped in a hotel room during the tour in June when Elvis was still alive, and the other taped in the back office of
Graceland shortly after Elvis death where he thanks the many who sent letters and cards after Elvis' death.
- published: 08 Nov 2014
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