Elvis in Las Vegas Page #3

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But as he didn't have a band, Elvis had to build a new style of show band

that would win over a possibly sceptical Vegas audience.

I meet Elvis for the first time, really, up close and personal

and we just immediately had a great rapport.

Just... I got to see the charisma that everybody talked about was all about.

We started playing and I just zeroed on him, just watched every little thing he did.

I tried to play with every little move.

It was like playing for a stripper.

In burlesque...

obviously the drummer's role is to...accent the movements of the dancer.

In a way, what Elvis did was a dance too.

All of his movements were very much emphasised.

That was very much the way he expressed himself musically.

He stood right in front of me most of the time so he could not only hear

what the drums were doing but he could also feel it.

So it was like a two-way communication in that sense.

# All alone...

# And I'm missing you... #

We never lost eye contact with him

because he was so aware of

what's going on in his audience and had total control of the stage.

There was always this eye contact and we watched every move he made.

# Sail on by

# Your time has come

# To shine... #

Elvis watched everybody on stage. He knew what each one of us was doing.

He would call out your name, you'd be making a little whisper

and he'd go, "Myrna, don't do that."

And you'd go, "How did he see me?!"

It's like he had eyes in the back of his head!

He could be facing in a different direction

and he could pick up on whatever you were doing.

# I will ease your mind

# Like a bridge over troubled waters... #

He was the most focused guy I've ever worked with.

He knew every entrance of every singer, every group,

every oboe entrance, every violin entrance and if anybody slipped up,

he knew it.

The horns are answering it...

# If you need a friend... #

Right on top of friend.

Right on top of friend.

# Need... If you need... #

We learned probably 50 songs before we even opened.

Many of them were sung one time,

after many hours of rehearsal on that one song.

He would just decide, hey, I don't like this song.

And we never did the song again!

While the music was being shaped,

so were the designs for the jumpsuits that would become the most visible symbol

of the reinvention of Elvis Presley, Vegas style.

Elvis had his own perfect body concerning a stage suit.

The way he was built made a perfect V.

He went from wide shoulders down to perfect hips.

Which you can't ask for more than that when you're trying to do a sexy outfit for stage presentation

for a gentleman.

The way he used it, the way it became part of his presentation,

lighting, staging, back-up singers, it became as integral a part.

The International Hotel was gearing up for the big event.

Kill that blower!

Or blow that killer, whatever.

During 24 days of rehearsals,

Elvis surrounded himself with the Memphis Mafia,

a protective ring of hometown jokers, courtiers to keep the king amused.

James, one minute, man.

Wait a minute.

They don't tell you when to start.

They were like the disciples. I'm not comparing Elvis to Jesus,

but it was the same sort of overall premise.

We were the group around him.

We lived in our own little world that was pretty special.

Pretty cool.

Vegas liked us and we liked Vegas.

# In the morning

# When through a sleepy haze... #

The Colonel kept well away from their high-spirited jinks.

He devoted himself to a blitz of publicity the likes of which Vegas had never seen.

Audiences who had flocked to Elvis in the 1950s

would be here to see a teen idol reinvented.

Colonel Tom Parker awakened the whole town to the fact that

Elvis Presley is going to be here.

Colonel's an old carnie.

He used a lot of the carnie tricks.

Colonel even put billboards out in the neighbourhoods.

He said he wanted the employees who work at the hotels

to know that Elvis is here.

He said, "I even want the gophers out in the desert to know Elvis is here."

Though Presley was impatient to open the new theatre,

the Colonel knew better.

He encouraged Barbra Streisand to open it

and iron out the technical glitches,

so that everything was right for Elvis's wildly-anticipated star-studded opening night.

I know he's not been on stage for 10 years, everyone's waiting,

I know he's going to be a winner.

True to his name, the Colonel had planned it with military precision,

employing a stand-up comedian to encourage the 2,000 strong audience

to spend a small fortune on Blue Nun with baked lobster tails

while waiting for Elvis.

In Vegas, you had the dinner show.

Then the comic would come out and then the star.

The comic got the people that were eating.

By the time Elvis or the star came out,

they were finished eating and they were ready.

We had to go through the plates, the noise and the people.

That's what was tough about being an opening act, especially for Elvis Presley.

I walked off and Elvis was standing in the wings, white as a ghost.

I looked at him and shook his hand and said, "Elvis, they're great, they're waiting for you out there."

And his hand was wet and clammy. He was nervous, too.

It was huge. I mean, would he be able to fill it?

What happens then?

There were a lot of questions that he had,

a lot of questions that he wasn't sure whether or not he was gonna...

be able to pull this off.

# You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

# Cryin' all the time

# You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

# Cryin' all the time

# Well you ain't nothin' but a...friend of mine

# You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

# Cryin' all the time

# You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

# Cryin' all the time

# Well, you ain't never...

# You ain't no friend of mine... #

His old hit from the '50s, Hound Dog, was given a whole new suit of clothes.

Elvis was an absolute master on stage.

He was a perfectionist.

Ultimately, what he wanted was the best possible product.

He wanted the fans to hear what he knew that he was capable of delivering.

# Why can't you see Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

# What you're doing to me? Oh-oh-oh

# When you don't believe a word I'm sayin'

# We can't go on together

# With suspicious minds

# Suspicious minds... #

For many, Suspicious Minds defined the mature Vegas Presley.

# So if an old friend I know... #

And his acclaimed live shows were accompanied by another triumph.

His first number one hit for seven years.

In its slower version, recorded at the American Sound Studio,

in his hometown, Memphis.

I had heard that he had booked the studio for two weeks,

came up with about 40 songs.

So I was just trying to capture that one song.

Every time I'd go in the studio,

my publisher would say, "You know Elvis is coming?"

I said, "Yeah, I know."

Throughout the '60s, Colonel had insisted that all new songs

belong to the publishing company part-owned by Colonel and Elvis.

They didn't want anybody having anything to do with

Presley making choices about songs.

They wanted that to be a fait accompli.

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