''Elvis'' is the

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' ...

for American

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm ...

singer

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

's 1968 television special of the same title, released by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also ...

. It was recorded live at

NBC Studios NBC Studios may refer to: * NBC Studios (New York City), 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, home of NBC TV, NBCUniversal, MSNBC, WNBC * 10 Universal City Plaza in Los Angeles, home of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment * NBC Tower, office building i ...

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, who ...

, with additional studio work taking place at Western Recorders, in June 1968. The album peaked at #8 on the ''Billboard'' 200; along with the TV special, it revitalized Presley's career after years of diminishing commercial and critical success. It was certified Gold on July 22, 1969 and Platinum on July 15, 1999 by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

Content

The live album from the '' Elvis'' special is the audio-only version of the special, and consists of a mixture of studio and live recordings, the live material itself a mixture of "sit-down" tracks with a small group and "stand-up" tracks with an orchestra. Unlike the drudgery of the

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

soundtrack recordings, Presley was genuinely excited by the project. For the album, the musical format presented Presley in three different settings: production numbers featuring medleys of his material; an informal small band featuring full songs in front of a live audience; and the two original numbers with Presley backed by an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

in front of a live audience. The two

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

tracks from this album were issued as singles. "

If I Can Dream "If I Can Dream" is a song made famous by Elvis Presley, written by Walter Earl Brown for the singer and notable for its similarities with Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. The song was published by Elvis Presley's music pu ...

" being released earlier in the month, backed on the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

with a song from his movie in theaters at the time, '' Live a Little, Love a Little'', making it a double promotion on one record. It peaked at #12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, his highest charting single since 1965.Jorgensen, pp. 416-418. " Memories" was released over two months after the broadcast, backed with the title song to his next film, ''

Charro! ''Charro!'' is a 1969 American Western film starring Elvis Presley, shot on location at Apacheland Movie Ranch and Old Tucson Studios in Arizona. This was Presley's only film in which he did not sing on-screen; the film featured no songs at all ...

''. By making it to the top ten on the album chart after his previous album had charted at a dismal #82, this LP resuscitated his recording career at a time when it seemed practically moribund. Presley insisted the mono mixes for these songs were retained for the album.Jorgensen, p. 262

Reissues

Several hours of music were recorded for the special, and the unused material has been reissued in many different formats over the years. *On August 27, 1991, RCA released an expanded version for

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in O ...

, ''NBC-TV Special'', including unedited versions of the medleys in several cases. *Two extensive compact disc releases appeared in 1998, '' Memories: The '68 Comeback Special'' featuring more comprehensive versions of the production and orchestral numbers, along with the complete first informal small band show of June 27, and '' Tiger Man'' featuring the complete evening show of the two informal small band concerts of June 27, 1968. (Both small band shows would be issued on vinyl as ''The King in the Ring'' for

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

2018.) *On August 5, 2008, Legacy released ''The Complete '68 Comeback Special'', a 4-CD compilation of the complete recording sessions for the special. It was later expanded and re-issued as '' '68 Comeback Special - 50th Anniversary Edition'' on November 30, 2018, adding new stereo mixes of "Memories" and "If I Can Dream" as well as a bonus disc of sessions and alternate takes and two blu-rays worth of video.

Track listing

Original release

1991 CD reissue

''Memories''

''The Complete '68 Comeback Special''

Personnel

on June 20–23, 29 1968 *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

The Blossoms The Blossoms are an American girl group that originated from California. During their height of success in the 1960s, the group's lineup most famously consisted of Darlene Love, Fanita James, and Jean King. Although the group had a recording ...

–

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

Tommy Morgan Thomas Morgan Edwards (December 4, 1932 – June 23, 2022) was an American harmonicist and session musician, who had been active since the 1950s. He was considered one of the most heard harmonica players in the world, playing in over 500 fea ...

–

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...

* Mike Deasy –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

* Al Casey – electric guitar * Tommy Tedesco – electric guitar *

Larry Knechtel Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles-based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Simon & ...

– keyboards,

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

Don Randi Don Randi (born February 25, 1937) is an American keyboard player, bandleader, and songwriter who was a member of the Wrecking Crew. Career Randi was born February 25, 1937 in New York City. He was raised in the Catskill Mountains and studied c ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* Charles Berghofer –

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

* John Cyr, Elliot Franks –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Frank DeVito – bongo * Billy Goldenberg –

orchestra conductor Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties ...

on June 27, 1968 *

–

, acoustic and electric rhythm guitars,

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the fe ...

Scotty Moore Winfield Scott Moore III (December 27, 1931 – June 28, 2016) was an American guitarist who formed The Blue Moon Boys in 1954, Elvis Presley's backing band. He was studio and touring guitarist for Presley between 1954 and 1968. Rock critic ...

–

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

* Charlie Hodge –

, harmony and backing vocals *

D.J. Fontana Dominic Joseph Fontana (March 15, 1931 – June 13, 2018) was an American musician best known as the drummer for Elvis Presley for 14 years. In 1955, he was hired to play drums for Presley, which marked the beginning of a 15-year relationshi ...

–

*Alan Fortas – percussion * Lance LeGault –

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called " zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, tho ...

Charts

Album

Certifications and sales

References

*Jorgensen, Ernst. ''Elvis Presley A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998;

External links

*
LPM-4088 ''Elvis''
(a.k.a. Elvis' TV Special, Elvis' Comeback Special, or Elvis' NBC-TV Special) a
The Elvis Presley Record Research Database
{{Authority control Elvis Presley live albums 1968 albums Albums produced by Bones Howe Albums conducted by Billy Goldenberg