Elvis in Concert (album)
| Elvis in Concert | ||||
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| Live album by Elvis Presley | ||||
| Released | October 3, 1977 | |||
| Venue |
Omaha, Nebraska (June 19) Rapid City, South Dakota (June 21) |
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| Genre | Rock | |||
| Label | RCA Records | |||
| Producer | Felton Jarvis, Elvis Presley | |||
| Elvis Presley chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| MusicHound | |
| Rough Guides | |
Elvis in Concert is the soundtrack album released by RCA Records in October 1977 in conjunction with the television special of the same name which featured some of the final performances of American singer and musician Elvis Presley. Videotaped and recorded in June 1977, both the special and album were broadcast and released on October 3, (the single "My Way"/"America the Beautiful" was released the same day) six weeks after Presley's death. The album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard chart in late 1977. It was certified Gold and Platinum on October 14 and 3x Platinum on August 1, 2002, by the RIAA.
The show was recorded over two days at concerts in Omaha on June 19 and Rapid City, South Dakota on the 21st. Longtime RCA/Elvis producer Felton Jarvis produced the recordings, which were done to 4-track multitrack. According to Elvis: The Illustrated Record by Roy Carr and Mick Farren, the shows were taped with the intent of producing a television special, but Presley's deteriorating physical condition put the project on hold. After his death, they write, it was decided to go ahead with the special as a tribute. Although both the June 19 and 21 concerts are the last official live professional ones ever recorded of Presley alive, Vernon Presley, Elvis' father, recorded a message that was broadcast at the end of the special and included on the soundtrack album, in which he erroneously states that the performance featured was his son's last appearance; in fact Elvis made five more concert appearances after the filming of the special. Elvis' last concert was in fact on Sunday, June 26, 1977 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana. No professional recording of this last performance has ever been issued, but bootlegs of amateur recordings have.
During the special, Presley performs a selection of his hits, along with songs not normally associated with him. Although it was a regular part of his repertoire for years, Presley requires a lyric sheet when he performs Paul Anka's "My Way" (noted for its opening lyric, "And now the end is near/And so I face the final curtain"). He also loses his train of thought during "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", although Darrin Memmer's book "Elvis Presley – The 1977 CBS Television Special," published in 2001 by Morris Publishing, makes a strong case that Elvis regularly played around with the words during the spoken portion of the song when performing it on stage, rather than it being a case of poor memory. Indeed, a concert recording of Presley similarly joking around during the monologue section of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" dating from 1969 has been reissued by RCA several times (dubbed the "Laughing Version", it even made the UK charts after Presley's death), and he also poked fun at the song during his 1968 Comeback Special. Nonetheless, the documentary This is Elvis uses this performance to illustrate Presley's poor condition at the time.
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