Elvis in Las Vegas Page #4

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"Isn't that right, Elvis?"

And Elvis was standing next to me and he wouldn't move a muscle.

He was standing, to me, like a child would stand,

being reprimanded by the teacher or his parents.

He sort of mumbled, "That's right, Colonel."

As we're walking down the hall, Elvis jammed me in the ribs and said,

"Screw 'em." We'd go right on with what we had planned, ignoring him, basically.

But he never confronted the Colonel and said what he felt.

The beauty of it was, it was the first time anybody had ever seen the real Elvis Presley.

I kept all that stuff in the programme, all the making fun of himself,

the movies he had made, where he kept quivering his lip.

I've got news for you, baby, I did 29 pictures like that.

But up to the moment the show aired on network TV,

Elvis was uncertain whether Binder or the Colonel was right.

We watched it air that night.

Nothing was said.

He watched it so intensely,

as if he'd never seen it before.

Leg was shaking, bottled water drinking constantly.

And a smile would go on his face a little bit. The phone would ring.

He felt like, my God, I did it.

This is gonna be a whole new Elvis again.

The show became NBC's highest-rated programme of the year.

I think the '68 special was important to Elvis

because, first of all, it proved to him that again, it wasn't

publicity that made him the superstar that he became.

But it was really because of his talent.

So he believed in himself again.

# Well since my baby left me

# I've found a new place to dwell

# It's down at the end of Lonely Street at

# Heartbreak Hotel

# I've never been so lonely, baby

# I've been so lonely

# I've been so lonely I could die... #

Elvis had triumphed on television

but during the years he had been cocooned by the Colonel in Hollywood,

the music world around him had been turned on its head.

Following the British invasion,

the group sound was in and solo artists were mostly out.

# Roll up for the mystery tour

# Roll up... #

Elvis thought maybe the days of the solo performer were over.

And he said that I was the only one, at that time,

that was doing it, so it was giving him confidence to sing live again.

He came to Vegas in '68 to watch me work.

# Show me a woman that's got a good man... #

Seeing me and hearing me sing live and moving,

with the body movements, which were similar to what Elvis had done

and was still doing.

So he wanted to see it and hear it firsthand, in Vegas.

# Oh, though it's always crowded

# You still can find some room... #

Elvis was ready for the next step - playing to a live audience.

Something he hadn't done for almost eight years.

Arriving in Las Vegas, he was still unsure,

recalling his first big failure there in '56.

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