Under the management of the egregious Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s career was spinning down the drain after a succession of increasingly unpopular, bad to worse movies. The King of Rock ’n’ Roll was a jester in his own court. In 1968, he dug in his bootheels. Presley said no to Parker’s notion of an Elvis TV Christmas special and insisted that he’d only do the show if it was different from anything he’d ever done.
What resulted was a sensational restart to a fizzling career, a path-setting network television special whose audio highlights are sampled here. Presley was fortunately handed off to a creative team that understood something fundamental: the King would look foolish if he tried to emulate 1968 (hippie Elvis?) yet couldn’t pretend that the world hadn’t turned since 1958. The program they produced dynamically refurbished his image without losing his roots and became a more-or-less timeless artifact.
Elaborately choreographed numbers followed scenes of Elvis alone in the round, prowling a small stage like a caged panther as an unseen orchestra played the hits. For rock ’n’ roll fans, the best scenes featured Elvis and a small combo in the round, the audience barely inches away, with an amplifier the size of a suitcase and no drum kit. The percussion consisted of tambourine and sticks played against a solid surface. The hits are included on The Best of, with “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Blue Suede Shoes” and “All Shook Up” as highlights. The presentation was a good representation of Elvis’ diverse roots in gutbucket blues, gospel solemnity and show business hoopla. He was obviously enjoying himself. He even made a crack about the bad movies in which he was forced to play.
