Today: Elvis Presley released “Elvis (NBC TV Special)” in 1968, 45 years ago

elvis nbc tv special

I want everyone to know what I can really do
~Elvis Presley (to producer Bob Finkel)

Elvis delivered an incredible performance throughout the television special. His vocal performances were loose and gutsy…
~John Bush (allmusic.com)

elvis nbc tv special

I want everyone to know what I can really do
~Elvis Presley (to producer Bob Finkel)

Trouble/Guitar Man:

From Wikipedia:

Released November 22, 1968
Recorded June 1968
Genre Rock and roll
Length 44:27
Label RCA Records
Producer Bones Howe

Elvis (NBC TV Special) is the thirty-fourth album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Victor Records in mono, LPM 4088, in November 1968. Recording sessions took place in Burbank, California at Western Recorders on June 20, 21, 22 and 23, 1968, and at NBC Studios on June 27 and 29, 1968. It peaked at #8 on the Billboard 200. It was certified Gold on July 22, 1969 and Platinum on July 15, 1999 by the RIAA.

elvis nbc tv special2

Heartbreak Hotel / Hound Dog / All Shook Up :

 

From allmusic.com – John Bush:
……………   Although he exhibited more nerves than he ever had in the past — a combination of the importance this chance obviously presented plus the large gap between the psychedelic music culture of 1968 and the rather quaint rock & roll of ten years earlier — Elvis delivered an incredible performance throughout the television special. His vocal performances were loose and gutsy, and his repartee was both self-deprecating and sarcastic about his early days as well as his moribund film career (“There’s something wrong with my lip!…I got news for you baby, I did 29 pictures like that”). He was uninhibited and utterly unsafe, showing the first inkling in ten years that there was life and spirit left in music’s biggest artistic property. The resulting LP, NBC-TV Special, combined sit-down and standup segments, but probably over-compensated on the standup segments. What impresses so much about NBC-TV Special is how much it prefigures the rest of Elvis’ career. Dramatic, intense, driven, and earthy, frequently moving, but not without the occasional cloying note, Elvis during the ’70s was the apotheosis of rock music, a righteous blend of rock and soul, gospel and pop, blues and country. …
~Read more over @ allmusic.com

elvis nbc tv special3

This album also happens to contain one of Elvis Presley’s best songs…..

If I Can Dream:

Personnel:

  • Elvis Presley – vocals, guitar
  • The Blossoms – backing vocals
  • Tommy Morgan – harmonica
  • Mike Deasy, Al Casey, Tommy Tedesco, Scotty Moore – electric guitar
  • Larry Knechtel – keyboards, bass
  • Don Randi – piano
  • Charles Berghofer – bass
  • Hal Blaine – drums
  • John Cyr, Elliot Franks, Frank DeVito, D.J. Fontana, Alan Fortas, Jack Sperling staff drummer NBC Orchestra – percussion
  • Lance Legault – tambourine
  • Billy Goldenberg – orchestra conductor

Album of the day @ spotify:

Other November 22:

  • Steven Van Zandt (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin, and an actor in the television drama The Sopranos (1999–2007), in which he played the character Silvio Dante. Van Zandt also had his own solo band called “Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul” in the 1980s.
    StevenVanZandt
  • The Beatles is the ninth official album by the English rock group the Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is also commonly known as the “White Album” as it has no graphics or text other than the band’s name embossed (and, on the early LP and CD releases, a serial number) on its plain white sleeve.
    Released 22 November 1968
    Recorded 30 May – 14 October 1968, EMI andTrident Studios, London
    Genre Rock
    Length 93:35
    Language English
    Label Apple
    Producer George Martin

    beatles_white_album

  • With the Beatles is the second studio album by the English rock group the Beatles. It was released on 22 November 1963, onParlophone, and was recorded four months after the band’s debut Please Please Me. The album features eight original compositions (seven by Lennon–McCartney and “Don’t Bother Me”, George Harrison’s first recorded solo composition and his first released on a Beatles album) and six covers (mostly of Motown and R&B hits). Most of the songs from the album were released in the United States by Capitol Records as the Meet the Beatles! LP on 20 January 1964, and the remaining that were not, featured on their next US album,The Beatles’ Second Album.
    Released 22 November 1963
    Recorded 18 July – 23 October 1963, EMI Studios, London
    Genre Rock, rock and roll
    Length 32:24
    Label Parlophone
    Producer George Martin

-Egil

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