Previous Page Unfortunately, the 1967-1968 studio recordings failed to spark an interest among record buyers the way the 1966 session had done. Likewise, Elvis’s latest movies continued to struggle. The only interesting project on the horizon was a TV Special, which the Colonel had organized and sold to NBC as a Christmas-themed broadcast. Radio stars hosting Christmas specials was a common occurrence (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and more had produced such shows to great success), but it was something Elvis had never done. In fact, after his 1960 special that celebrated his return from the Army, Elvis had not done any TV work. Considering how television had played a critical role in expanding his fanbase throughout the 1950s, this was always a strange strategy by Colonel Parker, but he felt if Elvis was going to be seen it would need to be paid for (in the movies) and not give away for free on TV. By the end of the ’60s, however, there weren’t enough people willing to pay to see Elvis, and his new music—which was far and away superior to his mid-60’s output—was failing to be noticed. A Christmas special might seem like a no-brainer in hindsight, but it was in fact a gamble: Elvis’s recent holiday-themed single “If Every Day Was Like Christmas” was a poor seller. Likewise his post-How Great Thou Art spiritual-release, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was a sales dud. There was little reason to have optimism in a Christmas-themed TV special, but the Colonel was determined to see it through. NBC suggested Steve Binder to produce. Though he was just twenty-three years old, Binder had already proven himself as a music-TV producer. He had spearheaded the musical-variety show “Hullabaloo,” which was a big NBC hit between 1965-1966. He had also directed the motion picture/concert film The T.A.M.I. Show which spotlighted The Supremes and The Rolling Stones and also introduced white America to James Brown. If Elvis was going to be presented to the music-loving youth of the late sixties, there was no better director to follow. From the outset, however, Binder knew the Colonel’s “Christmas Special” idea was a non-starter. For one thing, Elvis’sTV special would be the first “one-man show” of its kind. Previous themed-shows always featured a variety of musical talents and stars with one superstar emcee (like a Frank Sinatra or Bob Hope), but this would feature Elvis in all his glory; something special was needed to highlight what a remarkable performer Elvis was. Parker, however, had his team gathering new holiday songs for Elvis to perform, and sent Binder a tape of a Christmas radio special Elvis had hosted in 1967. The special was little more than Elvis welcoming everyone (and later, thanking everyone for listening), followed by some of his previously-released holiday music, but the Colonel wanted nothing more than “that, on-screen.” Binder had other ideas, but found Parker too inflexible. It wasn’t until he and Elvis finally met that he was able to pitch a different vision. Binder was relieved to find that Presley was likewise preemptively frustrated by Parker’s holiday theme. Though Binder warned Presley that Parker and NBC had certain expectations, Elvis assured him that they would do what he wanted and not to worry about it. Elvis forced NBC to sign Binder as “musical director” as well as producer, ensuring that he’d have greater autonomy in deciding how the show would take shape. With that, Binder and his team began crafting a special focused on Elvis as a singer past and present, as a contemporary artist with attitude and sex appeal that the many toothless movies he’d made had hidden from audiences for almost ten years. If Elvis was going to be the first “one-man show” on a TV special, they were going to focus on the “man” and not some hockey “theme.” Parker was naturally livid at Binder for not following his instructions, and threatened to force NBC to remove him from the production. Instead, it was Parker that was put in his place: The show’s primary sponsor, Singer Sewing Machines, threatened to pull out if Binder’s idea wasn’t kept; without a sponsor, there would be no show at all. With that, Parker relented, and the “comeback” special was on. Originally the show was to feature two key elements: A concert performance in front of an intimate audience (which took some convincing as NBC originally wanted only Elvis and no live audience of any kind), with Elvis singing songs from his vast library of hits, and—interspersed throughout—a series of musical skits focusing on some of Elvis’s more contemporary recordings. After nightly rehearsals, Elvis and his band would do what they always did during downtime after a recording: They jammed. And as Binder listened to his typically introverted and shy star shooting the breeze, laughing and reminiscing, he was struck with an idea, and pitched a third segment to his show: Sit Elvis down with a circle of his closest musical companions, and a very very small audience, and just let the camera roll; no rigid format, no overly-scripted structure, just Elvis and his naturally-magnetic personality shooting the bull, talking music and jamming. It was MTV’s Unplugged, twenty-years before its time. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Elvis was extremely wary of being put on the spot to have to “talk.” More than once he asked Steve “What if I run out of things to say?” Even on the day of filming, after several days of rehearsals, Elvis was still worried about drawing a blank when he was expected to carry the conversation. To ease his worry, a list of topics was placed on the music stand in front of him, and his companions were also informed to cue him as needed. It would be needed, but when he would get rolling, Elvis’s charisma and ease-of-charm overcame his natural introversion. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content In order to secure a crowd to gather at the feet of Presley, Binder merely had to walk up and down the streets of Burbank and approach any pretty girl he could find and ask them “do you want free tickets to an Elvis Presley concert?” In just one lunch break he had his audience. Elvis performed with an effortless gusto and raw passion for his music, the likes of which had not been seen (nevermind heard) since he hopped and bopped from the waist up on Ed Sullivan. The song selection was almost exclusively limited to numbers from the 1950s, although Elvis did sneak in a version of “Are You Lonesome Tonight” and performed, as his show-closer, the new Mac Davis number “Memories.” More important than the music, however, was Elvis talking, and even though that was the part the singer was most nervous about, that was the part that Binder wanted to spotlight. The director knew that this TV Special had the chance to reintroduce Elvis to America, and that his mischievous, boyish personality was as big a part of his original appeal as his music. Toward the end, Elvis looked over to Steve (off-camera) and inquired about strapping up his guitar and standing up. Of course, the whole point of that mini-concert was that Elvis sit down and talk as much as play, but once Elvis got going it was hard to stop him. He got his wish and tore into a blistering rendition of “One Night” before sitting down in the crowd and serenading them with “Memories,” ending the experiment a glorious success. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content After the sit-down concerts were recorded, the so-called “stand-up” concert was a walk in the park. Though Elvis had not taken the stage in any formal way since his Pearl Harbor concert in 1961, he took to the role like a duck to water. It was in these shows that his now-famous “black leather” outfit was really shown off. He had been wearing it for the sit-down shows but it was hard to get a good look at it with so much blocking him. Standing in the middle of the red-and-white square stage, Elvis’s trim frame never looked better. He’d lost a good twenty pounds for the show and had continued to grow out his sideburns after ten years of being told by studio executives it was “not proper” to have them. He was finding freedom again and liking the taste of it. That “look,” defined as “messy jet black hair, thick sideburns, cheekbones sticking out like mountains on a well-tanned, half-smiling face and book-ended by a massive raised collar” would define him, for better or worse, for the rest of his life. It was born here, with Elvis asking designer Bill Belew to give him something memorable, with a collar that looked like Napoleon. The all-leather two-piece outfit looked equal parts 1950’s retro and like something out of the future. The high collar is the outfit’s most striking feature, as it was designed to swallow up Elvis’s neck (for some reason Elvis was, according to Priscilla, always self-conscious about the length of his neck). If there was any hiccup in the stand-up show it was the fact that Elvis was left alone on stage and his orchestra and band accompaniment were prerecorded. This caused technical problems here and there, most notably at the beginning of one set, when he missed his cue (to the opening of “Heartbreak Hotel”) and had to do three takes to get it right. You’d never it know it by the TV edit, but bootleg recordings reveal it and it would be something Elvis kept in mind as he planned his Las Vegas career; in the future he would have his accompaniment right behind him, trained to perfection to follow his every improvised whim. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content The other segment of the show featured scripted skits, depicting Elvis as a guitar-playing drifter, and mostly featured Elvis more-recent studio output, such as “Let Yourself Go” and “Big Boss Man.” The former song had only been released a month before the special’s filming, but Elvis’ second crack at it blew the original away…although NBC forced half of it to be cut (probably because half of it featured Elvis singing in a brothel). Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content The connective tissue that linked the various skits was “Guitar Man,” which co-opened the show (after a rousing rendition of “Trouble”). If there was any doubt that Binder had the right idea with the TV Special, that electric opening eased all worries. The original studio version of “Guitar Man” is hopping enough, but Elvis is working on an entirely different level of excitement here. His comeback is complete before the show’s first commercial break. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content There was also a medley of Gospel songs, introduced in the broadcast by Elvis during the sit-down concert, as he discussed rock-and-roll’s roots as “rhythm and blues-infused with Gospel soul.” A song from his How Great Thou Art album, “Where Could I Go But to the Lord” was given a livelier arrangement here, and was accompanied by the old black spiritual “Up Above My Head” and a Leiber and Stoller number, “Saved” which was originally written as almost a parody of religious-conversion, but Elvis sang is straight, sang it with conviction, and blew the roof off with it. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Originally, when Colonel Parker envisioned the TV Special as Christmas-themed broadcast, the show-closing number was to be “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Even as Binder took the show in a new direction, Parker kept insisting on getting Christmas music into the script. Binder relented in only one place; Elvis sang “Blue Christmas” and a half-forgotten version of “Santa Claus is Back in Town” during the sit-down show; Binder included “Blue Christmas,” although NBC edited it out of future (non-holiday) broadcasts. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Parker was adamant that “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” remain the final number of the special, however. But when Binder showed Elvis the song he wanted to close the show, Walter Earl Brown’s “If I Can Dream,” Elvis decided on the spot that it would be the song’s farewell number. The song featured quotes from Martin Luther King Jr., who had died in Memphis only two months before the special was filmed, and whose death had caused a halt on the Live a Little, Love a Little shoot, as Elvis reportedly wept extensively at the news report announcing his death. Binder had asked Brown to write the song, intending it to replace “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” but when Parker heard it, the petulant manager dismissed it flippantly, telling its composer “that ain’t Elvis’s kind of music.” Elvis however encouraged Brown and said he was going to try it anyway. He did, and sang with such emotion and passion in the first take that his backup singers were weeping at its conclusion. If the orchestra had not missed a note in the final moments, the first take would have been the master; Elvis nailed it on his first try. The sight of Elvis in his stark white suit, standing behind the lit-up shape of his unique name, is just as iconic as the black leather suit, and ended the special with an unforgettable image. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content After recording the song, Elvis declared that he would never again sing another song he didn’t believe in. The song was released as a single in conjunction with the special’s premiere, and peaked at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Elvis’s best-charting single since “Crying in the Chapel” reached number-three in 1965. So much for “it ain’t Elvis’s kind of music.”
