This concert is presented exactly as it is on the original cassette tape in RCA's vaults, and it is dated as being the midnight show from March 22 1975. The audience recording of the same concert however, only matches this tape from 'If You Love Me (Let Me Know)' onwards, and has Elvis singing a few lines of 'Roses Are Red' before 'Love Me'. The first four songs were thought to come from the dinner show of March 20, although Ernst Jorgensen has stated there is no explanation as to why they are on this tape with the rest of the March 22 midnight show if this is not one complete show.

Another explanation of course could be that the audience recording is spliced with the beginning of another concert!

This Soundboard recording is incorrectly listed in RCA's vaults as being from the Dinner Show on Sunday March 30.

When comparing this show to audience recordings from this Vegas season, it could also be that the opening to 'C.C. Rider' is from the Midnight Show on March 30 and 'Can't Help Falling In Love' could be from the Midnight Show on March 31 on FTD's Big Boss Man.

March 31 1975 Dinner show
Review by Caroline Zetland - Elvis Monthly, Issue 187 (August 1975)

I got quite a shock when Elvis walked on tonight. He looked very pale; his hair was a bit of a mess; his eyes were half shut and he looked very tired, and, in fact, quite ill. I felt very worried.

He went straight into 'C.C Rider', the usual format. No break but straight into 'I Got A Woman', with just a cursory "Thanks." He started with the usual "Wells" then looked around and said, "Quite a dim crowd" and this brought on a few sniggers. He went on to do some more "wells" in a very deep voice and someone shouted out, "I love you, Elvis," and Elvis immediately answered back in the same deep key he was singing in, "I love you." The "wells" commenced again, still very deep, then he stopped again, and in the same key said, "Good night folks" and there was quite a bit of laughter. He then stopped dead, whirled round on The Sweet Inspirations and said, "Did you girls get any rest last night? Really, because you look like worn out door nails. And Kathy looks like Getlow, my dog", then he whirled on Kathy and said, "What did you do last night? You find Lee Majors again?" Kathy was quite embarrassed and didn't know where to look. Elvis then swung round to face the audience again and started the song yet once more. In the break there was some heavy drumming and Elvis did a lot of moving. I must admit it was the first time I had really seen him move. And he moved everything. His hips, his legs, his head, very slowly, and every time he jerked he turned round to see what effect he was having. He was waiting for the audience to get with him, but they weren't very with him. He was getting a few squeals and shrieks and he was really trying. He did the aeroplane bit, great. It was fantastic to see. The vibrations, the bit where he pretends to hold on to the throttle, he was going like crazy. He combined this with an enormous amount of pouting. like from years ago. Anyway, when the song eventually finished he got quite hefty applause.

He looked not in a good mood. He said, "Thank you very much. Good evening ladies and gentlemen," he usually said "folks." Then he went on, "I don't care what Jackie Kahane told you, I'm not gonna be with him. I don't really like him that much anyway. you know. Don't even know him. I've never seen his act, just like I've never seen The Sweet Inspirations' act. I don't wanna see them. I'd rather watch The Supremes." Somebody then shoved something on the stage, although I couldn't see what it was and he said, "What's that? Looks like my dog shrunk." He then crossed the stage towards J.D. with a very puzzled expression on his face. He looked half amused and half annoyed. He looked down at J.D.'s feet and he said. "Yeah, we do a very casual show folks. We just sit around and J.D. wears his house shoes on the stage. Think I'm kidding ?" And he bent down and pulled off one of J.D.'s slippers! He was really wearing slippers! He held it up above his head to show everyone and said, shaking his head, "Highest-paid musicians and singers in the world and he's out here with his house shoes on". He whirled round to J.D. and gave him the slipper back, then said, "Do me a favour, J.D. Don't wind me up no more like you did last night, O.K. ?" Then he gave a little laugh and continued, "I wound up with a young daughter, a middle daughter and a mother, son." (Nobody knew what he was talking about, but he was just talking to J.D. as if nobody else was there and went on) "And that's only the half of it. Nobody there but me and my dog, and my dog can't talk, he can't explain nuthin'." Then he started to say something that sounded like "What I..." but never finished because he burst into a fit of laughing which he had trouble controlling. When he stopped he said, "I'll be OK. I just need to wake up a little bit." Now I don't know about the rest of the people there, but when Elvis laughs, his laugh is terribly infectious. The fans pick it up very quickly and you find you can't help it. When he laughs you just have to laugh with him. This doesn't usually apply to the rest of the audience, but to the fans his laugh is totally infectious. Whilst he was laughing he suddenly stopped and let out a ridiculous loud "Whooo," then laughed again and said, "Oh God, help me" He must have decided that the rest of the audience had had enough of the messing around and walked across to James Burton and said, "On, lead guitar ..." he tapered off, and putting his hand on his head, said, "Oh my God, I'm not doing the introductions! I thought I was doing the introductions, I forgot I was just talking to them," and without another break shot into 'Love Me'!

He gave out a few kisses and scarves during this number, but for a change did it almost straight, with just a few comments and handing out of things. At the end of the song, someone handed him what looked like a tapestry to me, and he said, "What did you do that with ?" The girl must have backed down because he said, "No don't hide. You've had twenty-seven scarves." Everyone laughed and he said, "Did you make all this? I don't want to embarrass you. She's from England." He took this gift to hand to Charlie, and there was another present he had been given on the stage and Ronnie said something to him. Elvis said, "Is that a Japanese warrior's head dress, that other thing? Is that what it is? Ronnie nodded and Elvis said, "Oh, I didn't know what it was. Thank you, Ronnie." He turned again to Ronnie and went on, "He's the only one who got any sleep last night. The only one. Let's do the next song and see if we can wake this audience up." Obviously something must have been going on the night before. He never said what it was, but just left it to people to imagine. Whether there was a party or whatever, I don't know, he never said. He was talking mostly to the people on the stage.

He then did 'If You Love Me (Let Me Know)', and then straight into 'And I Love You So', and as that finished, before the applause had even died down, he said, "Thank you," then turned to the band and said, "Take it out" and he did 'It's Midnight', and as soon as this finished (he was singing the songs well, please don't get me wrong, but it wasn't with his usual enthusiasm) he said, "Let's do 'Burning Love'". Someone on the stage had said 'Promised Land', and he said, "I don't want to do 'Promised Land" and he didn't do it; he did 'Burning Love'. At the end of this Charlie gave him a glass of water and he said, "Thanks Charlie, I needed that." Then he started on 'My Boy', and this didn't sound at all right at the beginning and he re-started it a couple of times. However, something had amused him, and he kept laughing all through the song, in fact at one point he turned his back on the audience to try and pull himself together. When the song finished he didn't wait again for the applause to finish, but said, “That song's good enough out here folks. It's good enough. I never did like it. That's why I laughed." He then walked across the stage and sat on an amplifier, crossed his legs and said, "I'm just going to sit here and talk to you for a minute because I don't want to sing right now," and then looked around the showroom where some waitresses were trying to clear some tables and went on, "You know, I just want to hear those dishes rattle like that. Charlie, the fact is son, we just gotta do that next song whether you want to or not. You probably don't want to do it, do you?" At this point I think Joe Guercio called out something and Elvis said, "Fairy Tales ?! You kidding me? I know you love it, Joe, but I don't feel like singing it, you know." Then someone shouted out "Elvis," and he replied, "Yes dear." The girl shouted, "Sing 'If I Can Dream'," and Elvis said, "Honey, I don't know 'If I Can Dream,' that was another guy. No, that was a guy by the name of Ral Donner" (I've never heard of this one), but he went on, "Really. He just sounds like me." He then got up and walked across the stage to Charlie and said, "Charlie, you wanna sing something?" and Charlie shook his head. Then he turned to Voice and said, "You boys wanna sing something?" and then he said, "Give me a break, I just got out of hospital, I don't feel like anything." Somebody on stage mumbled something to him and he said, "Oh, OK, that's given me an idea" and he did 'I'll Remember You'.

This was followed by the real introductions, after which he did 'Let Me Be There', getting some of his words in the wrong order, which for Elvis isn't unusual, but it was the first time I had heard him mix some of the words up. When this was finished he looked around and said, "Thank you very much," and walked over to Kathy, looking quite pathetic and holding out his hand, he said, "Kathy, you gonna sing something for me, baby." and she nodded. He said, "I'm gonna ask Kathy to come out and sing a song. It's a beautiful song that she does called 'My Heavenly Father'." He took her hand and led her to the microphone and gave her the stage and walked into the background behind Charlie; the lights were out completely except for Kathy's spotlight and you could barely see Elvis' outline. One got the impression that he was relieved to be at the back of the stage and not be doing anything.

This short break must have done him good, because he returned to the front of the stage in a much better humour, took Kathy's hand and gave her a scarf. He told her she must go and kiss someone and give them a scarf; he said, "I'll find someone for you to kiss." He got her over to the edge of the stage and she kissed someone. After this she took another scarf from Charlie and she found someone else and kissed them. (Believe me, there were no shortage of volunteers to be kissed by Kathy! She is really very lovely). Meantime, Elvis was standing there with his hands on his hips, shaking his head in disbelief, and he said, "Look at this! She's done a couple of songs, and now she's taking over the entire show." Eventually, he very politely took her hand and led her back to her seat and made sure she was comfortable before returning to front the stage. (The perfect Southern gentleman !!).

He then did 'Hound Dog' and he was handing out some more scarves when he looked over at J.D. and said, "What's the matter? Are you jealous? You want someone to kiss, don't you?" He then pulled J.D. over to the front of the stage and said, "Charlie, give him a scarf." Charlie gave him one J.D. took it and bent down to kiss someone, then changed his mind and instead of bending, he laid down on the stage and grabbed two girls and kissed them! Elvis started laughing and picked up a bouquet of flowers which someone had handed him earlier, which I must admit did look rather like a funeral bouquet, and as J.D. went to get up, Elvis pushed him back on the stage and put the flowers on his chest and he said, "You stay there" and he put his foot on J.D. and made him lie there for a while, during which time Elvis and everybody else had a good laugh. Eventually he let him get up and then went on and finished 'Hound Dog'. He was, as usual, making a lot of "chung, chung" noises and generally trying to liven things up, but you couldn't help feeling that the majority of the audience weren't with him and this in turn was reflecting on him.

Although there had been a lot of messing around during the last song, I must admit that all the fans had thoroughly enjoyed it, but this obviously did not go for the balance of the audience, because as he finished someone shouted out what sounded rather like, "Get on with the show," and Elvis snapped. He took a step forward and shouted, "There's a guy back here yelling, 'Go on with the show. You leave me alone son. I'll go on with the show when I get ready, OK?" and he was really annoyed. The next moment somebody passed something up to him on the stage and he said, very shortly, "I've never seen one of these before" (I don't know what it was either), but he just said, "I really haven't." Then he turned to the band and said, "OK, take it out," and went straight into 'Can't Help Falling In Love'. As he finished the song (it had none of the usual finish to it, how he usually goes on at the end of it), he just barely finished it and the curtains started coming down. The four men stepped to the front to hold it up in the usual square for him to come through, but he didn't. He just gave a cursory bow where he stood and just turned and ran off-stage to the right. He literally ran. He didn't wait to take a proper bow and the men were just standing there holding up the curtain. They looked at one another, shrugged their shoulders and dropped the curtain and Elvis was gone.

One had the impression he couldn't get off quickly enough. He just wanted to get the show over. He knew he wasn't going down well and the audience wasn't with him and this was making it worse for him. The hardcore of the fans were with him, but it was just not on for him. I felt terrible. If this had been the first show had seen, I would have been really upset. The people at my table were not Elvis fans, but they had seen him before, and they were very disappointed. They said to me, "I thought you said he was good." All I could say was that he had been fantastic and I had not seen him like this before. I said that he didn't look well and I hoped he was alright. But they were very disconsolate about the show and they thought they had wasted their money coming. Believe me, it hits you hard when people are disappointed in Elvis. Well it does me anyway. You feel so much that you want him to be good for other people, especially when they're not fans. Let's face it, we accept whatever he does and if he has an off-night, well, he's a human being like anyone else. Sometimes we feel good, sometimes we don't. And he obviously didn't feel good. One didn't have to be a doctor to see that he didn't feel well. Either that, or that there had been some rave-up upstairs the night before and he was just dead tired.

Whatever it was the show disappointed a lot of people. I did not go into the midnight show even though I'd made a reservation for it, because, and here I will not go into details but suffice it to say that I had a difference of opinion with the maitre de and, in the end, I was so upset that I walked out. However, I did hear that the later show was something else and he was different again. Perhaps he had overslept or was just exhausted (he certainly looked it), but I really don't know.

It was impossible to get a straight answer from anyone. I spoke to Tom Diskin the next day but he said no, Elvis was fine. He did a great show at midnight. He's OK. He's OK. But whether they would tell you if he wasn't I doubt anyway.

April 1 1975 Closing Show
Review by Len Leech - Elvis News Service Weekly, Issue 202 (May 14 1975)

The Hilton showroom was packed to beyond capacity as the lights went down for '2001'. This was to be the end of Elvis' 12th engagement in Las Vegas, and Elvis was up for it from the moment he walked out. Wearing a white two-piece tuxedo styled suit with the usual high stand-up collar, with light blue and silver trim in a yolk-like effect across the chest, shoulders, and halfway down the back, and a pale blue shirt, Elvis acknowledged the tremendous applause and went over to Charlie for his guitar.

Taking centre stage with a big grin on his face, Elvis proceeded into 'C.C. Rider'. "Well, well, well this is the last time I ever do this song". "But we like it." Going right to 'I Got A Woman'. After the 'Amen' part of the song, Elvis went into a self-parody of himself. Instead of doing the slow, gradual bumps and grinds he had been doing in this part of the song, he moved everything at once at extreme speed while Ronnie frantically tried to keep up with the drums, cracking the audience and himself up in the process. J.D. did a fantastically low bass slide while Elvis made like an airplane crashing into the ground. "Thank you very much. Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the last show." This line brought a chorus of "aaahhhh"s from the audience, "No, no, no, no, the last show of this engagement, you know. It's really been a drag, nah, it's really been ----, ahhh honey, I'm gonna make the rounds." A girl stood up from ringside holding up a plaque with a picture of Graceland. Elvis noticed it and said, "Ohh, that's my home, isn't it. I love my home, wish I was there. What do you want in return for this? Naah, ah we're only kidding you really because we really enjoyed this engagement, everybody's been really great." Giving the girl a kiss and taking the plaque back towards centre, Elvis held it up and said, "That's my home, and a picture of my little daughter, annnnnnd ah, three thousand pictures of me. Here's a picture of me when I was two years old." The Sweet Inspirations instinctively went "aaaaaahhhhhhh". "Now look Sweets, this is the last show, so straighten up, okay. The audience expects a show, and I want you all to do it. I'm tired, I don't want to fool with it."

There were some chords of music in the background and Elvis said, "I'll start when I'm ready, Joe, you know. The last show was so bad, no, no, no, no, no, from my standpoint. We had to behave, you know all those big shots were in the audience. You know, all those biggies were out there, asking 'What's he do, what's he do?' I wanted to show 'em, but, I figured they'd get a shock. Sitting out there, eating a big dinner, saying, 'entertain me, you son of a bitch'." The audience was in hysterics laughing about this, and Elvis went into 'Love Me'. During the first part of the song he went to a girl sitting near centre stage, and gave her a scarf in exchange for a bright yellow metal helmet with a revolving red light on top. He continued to sing while wearing the helmet, replacing a few of the lyrics with, "That's my brains going around up there". Finishing up the song with the hat still on his head, he jokingly made believe he had forgotten how to end it, forcing the Sweets and Stamps to hold the last note so long they were turning blue from the strain. He then remarked to Charlie, "I know I need a haircut, but this is ridiculous. I look like Alice Cooper. I was going to say something, Estelle, what was it? You usually know, you usually know things, you think you do. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta have gospel singers to hold those notes out like that. You should have seen it, standing up there going uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, " (Elvis screamed out a long, low screech) "Ten guys going aaahhhhhhhhh," (Elvis imitated the ten guys in agony by leaning over, with his legs crossed, and his hands crossed over the zipper on his pants). "And the Sweets are doing this, " (as Elvis wrapped his arms across his chest). At this point the audience was almost on the floor with laughter, as Elvis' delivery of this description was so appropriate.

Next came 'If You Love Me (Let Me Know)', quickly followed by a stunningly beautiful version of 'And I Love You So'. Then a powerful, driving 'Big Boss Man', with Elvis' leg moving like pistons at the end of the song. "This next song was on a new single we put out called 'It's Midnight'." Elvis sang the first two words, coughed, and said, "Wait a minute, start over again." Then getting a case of the giggles, he repeated the beginning twice more, cracking up and saying, "This is a song called Midnight." Finally into the song, he decided to play around with the lyrics a bit, "Wishing I could be the man I tried too, I'm gonna be gone from Vegas, about two." Controlling his giggling, he finished 'It's Midnight' straight with a power house ending.

Then right into a rocking version of 'Burning Love', really getting into it at the end, twirling his right arm like he used to do in 'Polk Salad Annie', stamping his foot almost through the floor and ending up with some karate movements to cut off the song. Great response from the audience for this. "I'd like to introduce you to the members of my group." At this point somebody yelled out something from near the centre section of tables. "Uhh, what kids selling all what stuff? What are you talking about? Oh, yeah, you guys did that, didn't you. These are the guys that, ah, yeah, but I mean you guys have to sell it. We do a thing here for charity where they sell all the stuff outside; I haven't seen it but they tell me, they won't let me out of my room, you know that. So ah, everybody that's bought all that stuff, I'd like to thank you. The fellas standing here, they were selling it, and they've been doing a really good job of it, you're really out of sight, thank you very much."

Elvis then ran through the first of the introductions, stopping and letting James Burton take a guitar solo, while singing a few verses of 'What'd I Say' along with the Sweets. While Elvis was still singing during Burton's solo, one of Elvis' group, standing centre stage in the audience, slid something across the stage. It went right on by Elvis and came to rest on the floor next to Kathy. Elvis, not knowing what it was or who threw it, continued on and introduced Ronnie for his solo. A few seconds later, another object came sailing across the floor in front of Elvis, who quickly stopped it with his foot. Looking down at it, Elvis gave a small devilish grin. It was a loaded water pistol. He picked it up and instinctively turned around and aimed for the V-neck-line of Kathy's halter blouse top. Kathy was momentarily caught off guard and needless to say, Elvis hit his target. Elvis was so delighted with Kathy's reaction that he went wild and started shooting the Sweets and the Stamps. At this point Kathy leaned over and grabbed the first water pistol from its resting place on the floor next to her. She waited for Elvis to come closer, and to his utter surprise she let him have it in the chest, as the audience cheered her on by screaming, "Get him, Kathy, get him." During this whole scene Ronnie was still doing his solo, when Elvis turned around and remarked, "Ronnie's working his brains out and nobody's watching him." Ronnie ended his solo, Elvis thanked him and then turned around to Duke with his water pistol in hand, saying, "What're you going to do now?" Duke already had his own water pistol, reached for it and exchanged fire with Elvis. To Elvis' dismay, he was suddenly out of water and Duke got him good. Elvis' dodged the water streams and made it over to his water table, and grabbed a full bottle of Gatorade. Holding the bottle out to Duke in a threatening position, ready to throw the juice at him, Elvis said, "You got an electric bass, son, what are you going to do? You're gonna drink a lot of Gatorade, that's what you're gonna do." Duke backed off as Elvis was too close for comfort, so Elvis. continued on and finished with the introductions. "I'd like to tell you that, ahh, what's his name, aahh Johnny Cash opens here tomorrow night, ahh I think, so come in and see him. I just work here, they just tell me things, I don't know man. I'd like you to meet, ahhh do you guys know 'Jingle Bells'? I'd like you to meet my manager, Colonel ------" The band started playing 'Jingle Bells' as the Colonel entered dressed in his Santa Claus suit, with a huge bag of gifts over his shoulder, along with Lamar Fike who was leading Elvis' dog on a leash, Elvis commenting, "That's my dog, that's Get-Lo. Come on, Get-Lo." Elvis took the leash and paraded Get-Lo around the stage for a minute while the audience cracked up, and then the Colonel and La mar exited the stage with Get-Lo being half dragged away from his master. ''I think my dog was nervous, you know that? I don't know why. Maybe because he had a rope around his neck, choking him." Elvis' dog was on the small side, weighing about twenty-five pounds, and had the appearance of a miniature lion, including a full mane around his neck.

Getting a kiss from a girl at ringside, Elvis started singing 'You Do Something To Me' The band started to try to find the key when Elvis said, "Naaah, I don't want to do that". "Let's do 'The Wonder Of You', or 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me'." Glen hit the opening chord, and Elvis went directly into 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' quickly followed by a shortened version of 'The Wonder Of You', Elvis hitting an extremely high note at the end. Then came a rousing version of 'Let Me Be There', with Elvis going up and down the scale throughout the song with tremendous vocal power, repeating the ending a second time because of the wild audience response. Somebody from the rear of the showroom yelled out "Don't Be Cruel", to which Elvis, replied, "I won't," and then jokingly started 'An American Trilogy', singing "Oh, I whoosh, whoosh, wish I was in the land of cotton." Tremendous applause at the end of this, then Elvis decided to surprise everybody, including the group, by starting 'Help Me Make It Through The Night'. Toward the end of the song he wandered over to the side of the stage in the midst of giving out scarves and kisses. A girl reached up and handed him a pair of Mickey Mouse ears in exchange for a scarf. Elvis promptly stuck the ears on his head and finished the song over by Charlie while the audience roared. Unable to keep a straight face, he started singing 'The Mickey Mouse Club' song. "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse, forever let us wave your banner high." Elvis stopped completely at that point, and to ELVIS surprise the Sweets continued on in the background, with ''Now it's time to say goodbye to all our company." Elvis broke in to say to the Sweets, "I'd figured you'd know it." Sweets ------" M-I-C," Elvis --- "See you real soon, " Sweets ---- "K-E-Y," Elvis --- "Why? Because we like you." Then everybody joined in for the final "M-O-U-S-E" at the end, with Elvis going up for some ridiculously high note. The audience was al most in tears from laughing so hard, and Elvis and the group were almost rolling on the floor with hysterics.

Elvis was in such a happy weird mood at this point that he signalled Glen to begin the old Diamonds song 'Little Darlin'. Throughout the whole song Elvis did nothing but play with lyrics, throwing in extra words in falsetto and bass tones. In the middle of the song Charlie took one of Elvis' white scarves and put it over his own head, tying it under his chin. Charlie stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at Elvis and fluttering his eyes. Elvis stood with his face inches from Charlie's, staring down at him with a love-struck look on his face as he tried to finish singing 'Little Darlin' to Charlie, both of them trying to keep from breaking up completely. The whole interaction between Elvis and Charlie was too hilarious it's impossible to fully describe. "Somebody wanted to hear a little of 'Don't Be Cruel'," and Elvis quickly went into it, imitating a bass and starting it himself when the group failed to respond to his cue, calling out over his shoulder, "Remember it?" Then the audience started yelling out requests. Somebody screamed out "Stuck On You", and Elvis commented, "Stuck On You, good Lord have mercy". Another fan yelled for Steamroller and Elvis liked the idea and quickly signalled the band to start it. It was the most driving powerhouse version of 'Steamroller Blues' I've ever heard Elvis do, and the audience loved every second of it.

"I'd like to say something now, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to thank everybody on stage with me, really. I've been kidding them now for a couple weeks but ahhh, Voice, my back-up musicians, The Sweet Inspirations, Kathy and The Stamps Quartet, Joe Guercio and his fantastic orchestra; I want to thank you very much because you've been really fantastic this past two weeks; it's been a pleasure. Thank you. I'd also like to thank all the people who came to Vegas, and aahh, with the economy of the country the way it is and everything, it's really nice to see you when I walk out here on this stage. Till the next time we see you, ----- we love you, ----- be careful going home." Into the closing song, 'Can't Help Falling In Love', Elvis making his way to ringside for the final kisses and scarves. Toward the very end of the song, Elvis walked over to his water table and grabbed a whole pile of white scarves and threw them out into the audience as far as he could. As the curtain came down he stood smiling on the edge of stage, reaching out and shaking as many hands as possible as the entire crowd got to their feet and gave him a justly deserved standing ovation.

June 2 1975 - Mobile, Alabama
Review by Martha Collins - Elvis News Service Weekly, Issue 207 (June 15 1975)

When we arrived at the Mobile Downtown Holiday Inn on Sunday June 1, the only sign that Elvis would soon be in town was a sold out notice in the newspaper. But late the following morning, I looked out the hotel windows and saw a bright yellow hertz rented truck in the parking lot - my Elvis conditioned mind quickly calculated that the stage crew and bands were staying at the Holiday Inn as well! When we entered the restaurant for lunch, my hunch was confirmed. John Wilkinson was sitting (eating a cheeseburger) with two stage hands; Jd Sumner, Tom Diskin, and Felton Jarvis were paged during the meal! (when Felton Jarvis is around, one wonders if Elvis is recording some of the concerts?) "Big Al" Dvorin the show announcer, wandered in as we left and I felt I'd fallen through a time warp into the Elvis world! (much as in Las Vegas, it is always super-exciting for the fan to find him or herself surrounded by "Elvis-people!!"

By mid-afternoon, the tension had become almost unbearable. I actually found myself remembering the calm atmosphere of the John Denver concert with longing! and between the two shows, Mobile was a city besieged! Television newscasts all over this part of the south advised motorists not to enter Mobile unless they had tickets to the Elvis shows! Traffic made automobile transportation an impossibility. Even that morning, the lobby of the Municipal Auditorium was, crowded with people looking for tickets - some simply sat and waited hoping for cancellations. We checked with the harried box office - both shows were completely sold out including all areas behind the stage. (we were also advised that no cameras would be allowed! at first the attendant said that this was an auditorium policy - then he said that the Elvis-people made all the rules, we smuggled one in anyway, and were gratified when big al announced as usual that still cameras were welcome!).

After the first show, many fans and most of the crew and hand headed for the dining room at the Holiday Inn, the mob was unbelievable, and we wondered if anyone would be ready in time for the second show, The Sweet Inspirations swept by us and joined Kathy Westmoreland at a table. Before I could say a word, my oldest daughter (age 8) ran after them and grabbed Myrna and told her how great the Sweets are and how much we all love Elvis! Myrna was very nice and thanked her - asked her name and said she'd tell Elvis about her!! As showtime approached, sheer panic set in. Donnie Sumner rushed by on his way to the auditorium as Voice opens the show - but the Sweets and Kathy lingered. Several groups of fans had not yet eaten and were frantically begging waitresses to hurry, I spoke to one group and told them Elvis wouldn't be on for an hour yet, and that some of his group were still eating. The look on the women's faces was typical of the feeling generated by an Elvis concert! They were pale, panic-stricken, and nearly in shock! When they found out I'd just seen the first show, they were also a bit miffed! There was no sense in trying to communicate! The hostess smiled at this - said all her family would be at the show, but she had to work. She was a grandmother and told us she had seen Elvis in person when he first started out- long before he was really famous. "we all love him,” she said, with tears in her eyes - it is a common reaction to Elvis, especially in the south.

The 4.30pm Show
The first show started right on time with Voice. Tim Baty has grown a beard and the group has new costumes (white suits with green patches) and sang a couple of different songs. Then Jackie Kahane came out in a fancy t-shirt his clothes get wilder each time, but his act stays about the same! The Sweets sang 'Philadelphia Freedom', and 'Lady Marmalade' (which, interestingly, Jackie had just criticised for its lyrics) and did a medley of Stevie Wonder hits. They were excellent, as usual. The opening acts last about forty-five minutes, on tour, then comes a fifteen minute intermission. Big Al jumped up on stage once again to hawk souvenirs, when a rotund man in a white shirt (not tucked in) and a blue baseball cap, landed on stage beside him. Al took the opportunity to introduce Colonel Parker to the crowd! Believe it or not, I led 10,620 people in a round of applause for him - No one else seemed to know how to react!! (the colonel never seemed to notice the audience anyway!) Elvis was late in arriving-we saw no sign of Charlie Hodge...... until intermission had dragged or an extra ten minutes. Al Dvorin kept warning the crowd to get in their seats so the show could start - which sounded strange after the aisles had been cleared for 10 minutes!! Charlie rushed on stage at last and the band was ready to go immediately. At the dimming of the lights, the crowd began climbing the walls - they were not to come down until Elvis left the stage an hour later.

Elvis walked out briskly from stage left in a dark blue two-piece suit with silver lapels and silver stripes down each leg, and an Indian-style silver bird on the back of the jacket. The audience was wild, and from the first note of 'C.C. Rider', Elvis was in top vocal form. I have never heard him sing better! The voice is superb and he is in total control. Even more exciting was the look of intense joy and love or his face - here was a fan having a BALL - not the least bit sick or tired!! He is definitely heavy around the middle - those who say he isn't don't remember how he looked in '69! - but the middle is the only place where there is extra weight, and it doesn't slow him down at all.

After 'C.C. Rider' Elvis adjusted his guitar and said: "Thank you very much, Good afternoon. Good afternoon? I want to tell you something...1...I...OK..." After teasing a couple of girls at the edge of the stage, he started "Well-ing" - bowed - "That's it. Thank you." - and into 'I Got A Woman' and 'Amen' amidst laughter and screams. Before the final 'Amen', he did his leg wriggling to Ronnie Tutt's drumming (and wild audience response) - then told JD to "Go get it!" while doing his airplane gestures to the low rotes. (He did not, for a rare change, make JD repeat the exercise!) It is a great theatrical gesture at the end of this when he throws that guitar, without looking, to Charlie - never fails to impress the audience!

"Thank you very much. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Johnny Cash". (laughter) "We hope you have a good time. What is this - Monday afternoon!! I never in my life" (his voice went high with emphasis here) "did a show on Monday afternoon:" (Great cheers and applause,) "Good grief," he went on, "I want to know how you got off from work and how you got out of school. I shouldn't ask that!! Anyway, I hope you have a good time. We're going to sing a lot of songs; old ones, new ones, middle-aged, and in-between. Some of them go back as far as JD's age, We hope you have a good time so just hang loose. I'm sorry, JD - they didn't have Songs back then." Then he slid into 'Love Me', handing out scarves and kisses as he roamed the stage. He refused to add the "Oh, yeah" at the end of the song and let the Stamps and Sweets hold the note for a while, then finished up with a devilish grin on his face, "I'm sorry I made you guys hold that note that long. But I - I know you can do it! If you couldn't do it, you wouldn't be working here, right? We'd have the Supremes or Flip Wilson or somebody up here. What am I doing next? OK, I don't know. I just work here," Then into 'If You Love Me (Let Me Know)'. "Thank you. Thank you very much. My first movie was Love Me Tender". The audience responded with a loud "Ah-h-h-h-h!" ! "I'd like to sing a little of that for you now". After letting the band play the vamp a bit, he smirked and said sweetly, "I just said I'd like to - I'm not going to SING it, you know!" When the audience literally moaned, he quickly--and somewhat guiltily-added, "Naw -- go ahead." It was another scarf-kiss song: he first kissed a little girl, saying "Just on the cheek now - you're too young!" Then he wandered over to the edge of the stage by the balcony and shook his head saying, "No way!" Another woman grabbed his arm and said something that really made him laugh, then he finished singing and continued handing out scarves. He knelt by the edge of the stage and said brightly, "I've got to use this first!" and wiped his face, his chest and under his arms, and then handed the scarf to a frantic young woman while the audience roared! He was up in a flash singing 'All Shook Up' and breaking up completely towards the end.

Then quickly into 'Teddy Bear'/'Don't Be Cruel' and 'Hound Dog'. He is not as deeply involved in these oldies as in some of his newer songs, but he did not do these as perfunctorily as he has at times. In fact, he was quite inventive and sang them energetically. "Thank you very much. The next song is one we did about three years ago, called 'The Wonder Of You'." The band began playing. "Just a minute. Hold it. Hold it! Old Chinese proverb say: cannot sing with mouth in water, or water in mouth. Or whatever." (This while trying to drink, standing by Charlie). A powerful rendition of 'The Wonder Of You' followed with Elvis nearly crying some of the lyrics, much in his old Sun style. (Some other fans may have noted how Elvis does not always hold final notes on his own, but instead lets his background musicians end songs - he's been doing this especially in the last year or so when he's been so sick. He is not doing so now! The final note of 'The Wonder Of You' lasted for nearly ten full seconds - try holding a note that long yourself - and Elvis held it strongly and purely all the way through - fantastic!)

'Burning Love' was next - a wild and enthusiastic version! (Although Elvis forgot an entire line of the lyrics!) "Thank you very much. What's going on on the stage? Huh?" (Screams.) "What? OK - I'll do it in a minute. The bass is spinning around? They say the bass is spinning around! Goes like this - I've never seen a bass spin around. Lord have mercy!" Then followed the introductions, When he got to James Burton, he said in a deep voice, "And on the lead..." and James went into a wild version of 'Johnny B. Goode' with Elvis singing just off mic' - so we could ALMOST hear him - which is an upsetting thing, believe me! Ronnie Tutt did a great solo on the drums: Jerry Scheff played a bluesy number on bass; Glenn Hardin's solo on piano really rocked. The Joe Guercio Orchestra (mostly brass) did a "group solo" on Chuck Berry's 'School Day' with Elvis singing along, a bit more on mic' than before, for the entire last verse! When Elvis turned to Voice, he stopped and said, "You know what I dreamed last night? I dreamed that you guys didn't open the show, see. I don't know why I dreamed that but I dreamed it! No, but I dreamed that you didn't open the show. I dreamed that you were backstage and they wouldn't let you come on - do you think that might mean something? Like maybe the next show?! I dreamed that Joe Guercio didn't show up at all!"

"We have a new record out, ladies and gentlemen, that's been out for about ten days now. And I don't know all the words to it. And it's one of those type songs that if you miss a word you might as well forget it because you can't pick it up." He stopped suddenly. "Pick it up! There's an echo in this building! Pick it up!" (Playing. Then very deeply.) "Pick it up! Pick it up yourself!" Then be treated us to a perfect and rocking version of 'T-R-O-U-B-I-E'! Next was a sensitive and beautiful 'I'll Remember You' - although the audience - and frantic females in particular- nearly broke Elvis up in the beginning. The crying sound in his voice was present on the final chorus - most effective. "I'd like to ask JD Sumner and the Stamps to sing one of my favourite songs. 'Why Me Lord" JD rumbled into this one, but we knew what Elvis had planned by his answer to "What have I ever done?" (Elvis - "Not much!") in the first verse. At the chorus, Elvis joined in soulfully and the audience burst into spontaneous prolonged applause (- which happened occasionally in both shows - and for no apparent reason other than an overflowing of emotion!) As JD started the second verse, Elvis took on his "Geraldine" voice and fluttered "Get it, JD!". at him. Then, grabbing a white scarf from Charlie, Elvis put it over his head and holding it under his chin, walked over to JD, leaning on Estelle. "No way. Show me, baby. Come on, come on," All this in a very high voice - just like the Geraldine character of Flip Wilson! - and blinking his eyes romantically. Poor JD broke up, making Elvis help him with the words. Then a high "What's the matter?" from Elvis (Flutter, flutter!) and JD began laughing helplessly. Elvis finished up the chorus calmly, scarf around his neck - and the audience finally settled down a bit from sheer hysterical!

Next a rousing version of 'Let Me Be There', with Elvis playing around musically with the tune, and repeating the final chorus happily. Then 'An American Trilogy', with great response from the audience on the Dixie part - Elvis was applauded when he sang "Dixieland's where I was born"! It was during the Dixie part also that a pretty, long-haired young woman jumped up on stage and grabbed Elvis as he stood by the Sweets, She hit him running and simply threw her arms around him! Elvis put his free arm around her and with that one arm, lifted her right off the floor, but she was holding on to him so tightly, that they remained glued to ether, Sonny West gently pulled her off, and Elvis never stopped singing or missed a note. At the end of the song, he asked, "That girl who ran out here - Is she OK? You know what she did, she got a bunch of hair in my mouth! That's all! I sang 'wish I was - umpf-" (Much laughter.) "I'd like to turn the houselights up and take a look at you because I can't see up here". The audience screamed and yelled, and Elvis took the opportunity to give away more scarves and kisses. When a child approached the stage, Elvis squatted down and asked, "What do you want? Tell me what you want." (If you can recall the tone of his voice in Chance Of Habit, when he was coaxing Amanda, that is the exact tone he used to the child!) "A rough way to make a living," he joked, as he made the rounds, then into 'Funny How Time Slips Away',

Next was 'Little Darlin' - a wild, funny song, recorded in the '50s by the Diamonds. Elvis does not sing it seriously, but clowns all through it and he is hilarious! Before he sang "only you" - which in the original is sung falsetto and very high - he yelled "Estelle!" - apparently teasing her for her low voice, as he went right up there effortlessly! When he did the deep, low middle verse, he scarcely sounded like Elvis, and he staggered back and forth across the stage as if overpowered by his own voice! "To hold in mine, your little..." (he hesitated for effect) "...hand...I'll know we'll soon... do something grand!" (He laughed to himself - those were not the original words!) At the end, he "you-ed" right up the scale, It seems he can sing ANYTHING with that voice!! "I have no idea what that song says," he explained. "I don't know one word in it. Just so oopa, oopa, wella, wella, no-oop, oop." (The very high and feminine:) "La-la-la-la-la. We ought to play it back for the audience later," (So they WERE recording!!) "What do you want? What? 'Mystery Train'?" And he threw himself into 'Mystery Train' and 'Tiger Man', with the frantic movements in 'Tiger Man' that send audiences into a frenzy. With that he said, "Thank you very much; you've been a great audience. Until we see you again, be careful driving home, and God bless you," Then 'Can't Help Falling In Love'. The audience stood and cheered, yelling in vain for more.

The Evening Show
Elvis strolled onstage in the most beautiful white jumpsuit I've seen yet! It is so ornate as to be indescribable - multi-coloured jewels cover the chest and the sides of each leg, and the back was of geometric designs, tapering to feather designs around his waist. The colours were sparkling and pastel. When the audience caught sight of him, it literally exploded! We had tickets behind the stage - and were lucky to get them - and this, surprisingly, afforded us some terrific views and observations. Elvis turns to Charlie often, and also faces the band - the expressions on his face were priceless! Once again, he looked so happy and full of joy that it seemed impossible for him to contain it! Certainly the electricity that flowed between him and the audience was overwhelming!

After 'C.C. Rider', he repeated his Memphis comment about people with binoculars looking like frogs. As with the first show, Elvis was on top of everything all the time. Absolutely buoyant! JD was forced this time to repeat his "jet-sounds", Elvis teased him saying, "Think you can do it better? You PRAY you can do it better! He's the world's lowest bass singer - he just lays down there," (Here Elvis imitated JD briefly) - "He can do it better! I hope..! Don't just look down, help me!!" After this, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Wayne Newton!" He expressed some confusion (as usual) on the time of day. Then spoke again of his amazement at doing a show on a Monday afternoon, and finding all those people out there!! "Tell you one thing," he continued, "I sure am glad you're here, son!" The crowd cheered. "We're going to do a lot of songs - some of them right, I hope!" Once again, he made the singers hold the last note of 'Love Me' - joking with the audience that "All these black guys turn white, you know?! Kathy turns purple" During 'All Shook Up', he was nearly pulled off stage by wild female fans - turning to Charlie, he collected several scarves at once and threw them all out, saying (in the midst of the song) "Blessed are the peacemakers!" When the song was done, he faced the women squarely and said innocently, "Honey, why are you-all holding your hands up in the air like that? Do you have to go to the bathroom?!" By the time Elvis tore into 'Burning Love', the noise level of the audience made it difficult to hear him! He paused to talk to fans crowding around the stage: "Did you get one? What is this now - double scarves??!!" (So innocently.) "What do you want??" Then he knelt down and asked one woman, "Do you want just a baby kiss or do you want to get serious?!" (Great audience response to that!) Breaking up; "She said it doesn't matter!!! If we kiss here, we have to be careful. Honey, don't laugh in my face! That's bad - when you go to kiss a girl and she goes" (high pitched) "ha-ha-ha! Straighten out, come on! Honey, you got a scarf - one to a customer!"

Then came the introductions, Elvis teased the Sweets again by calling them the "Crewcuts" (due to their short hairdos) and ruffled up Estelle's well-brushed coiffure, to her great displeasure! While standing by The Stamps, he asked a girl approaching him from the arena floor, "Honey, is that a - uh -a - uh - lei? Is that flowers?" (Here he chuckled, as he's well aware of the double entendre!) He let her put it around his neck, and he told her, "That's OK. You know, this makes the fifth one you've given me. Five leis from you, woman - I recognise you!" (The audience roared, to the poor girl's embarrassment!) Then he kissed her. "That's all right. It's beautiful!" Instead of introducing The Stamps individually, as usual, he said he'd like to introduce them, "but I'm not going to!" He left them laughing, and went on to Kathy. "I'd just like to tell you that they're staying at the Hilton Inn." (They weren't!) "Where's the band staying? At the Holiday Inn. How come you guys don't get to stay where we stay? You make too much noise, right?" The crowd was genuinely impressed with the fantastic solo displays of the band members - and Elvis had the good grace to sing more on mic' than at the earlier show! After Ronnie pounded the drums, Elvis commented, "He thinks they're his wife!" and he accused Jerry Scheff of "milking a coat"! When introducing Charlie Hodge (who is from Decatur, Alabama - which pleased the crowd immensely, ) Elvis picked him up by the arm (with one hand, mind you!) and partly threw him at the audience, rather than a scarf! Then when he let him down, Elvis gave Charlie a swift kick in the pants - which has been done many times before. The new thing is that Charlie isn't taking this lying down anymore - he kicked Elvis right back!!! Elvis turned to Voice and said they were "great, Well...I wouldn't say great. Maybe mediocre." Joe Guercio, who is actually from Las Vegas, was introduced as being from Montgomery, Alabama, and his orchestra Elvis called "The Alabama Wooly-bugers"!

Next came a strong 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' - spontaneous applause interrupted the song, more than once. When he announced 'T-R-O-U-B-L-E', he again worried about missing some of the words. "It has a whole lot of words in it and if you miss sumpin.." He stopped in shock. "Sumpin? SOME-THING," He shook his head. "You can take the boy out of the country..." As he started the song, all the people around us chuckled and patted each other on the arm, saying, "Yeah, he's a real country boy, you know..." They were absolutely delighted!! The screams nearly destroyed 'I'll Remember You' - Elvis ignored the noise until he got to the line, "every bright star we made wishes upon" - then he openly taunted with an almost defiant "Make a wish!" thrown in quickly! He then went to the edge of the stage once again, and wiped off his face, throwing the scarf into the crowd, and bent over to kiss a few girls, "I've got to tell you something," he be ran with mock seriousness, "The people that I've been kissing tonight. I kissed somebody up in Huntsville a couple of nights ago and I caught the 'creeping crud.' That's close to the jungle rot.' I got it and you - you are going to get it!" (Great laughter from the audience!!)

Before 'An American Trilogy', the crowd was really vocal, and Elvis teased them a bit, treating the adoration very lightly, even breaking up at some of the women. When he went into "Dixie," there were a couple of Rebel yells, and when The Stamps sang, "Oh, I wish I was in Dixie..." Elvis said quietly - but clearly enough for the audience to hear - "You are, you are." And the applause was deafening! When Elvis turned his back to the crowd, thus facing us behind the stage, he looked simply fantastic! The top of his jumpsuit was wide open - he was scarf-less, and his chest glistened; and his hair was tousled and damp. But the look on his face stopped me cold. I honestly couldn't tell if he were about to laugh or cry - he was, however, nearly exploding with emotion.!!!! He seemed as affected by the super-charged atmosphere as the audience!

When he had the houselights turned up, someone handed him a box of "No-doze" tablets - and he acted very insulted. "What do you think I'm doing up here? Sleeping?!". 'Little Darlin' surprised and delighted the crowd. In the low talking part, he grabbed the hat off a policeman's head and put it on, marching around with it while everyone howled. 'Mystery Train' was requested again and Elvis was pleased to sing it! He thanked the audience profusely and added, "May god bless you, 'till we meet again." He accepted the frantic, wild standing ovation at the end of 'Can't Help Falling In Love' and raised both hands - Index finger out at all sides of the stage, then Joe Esposito reached for him at the far edge, and he was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

Later, when we reached the Holiday Inn parking lot, some orchestra members were chatting with Joe Guercio - he was telling them that there was no rush and they'd be there 'till morning at least, James Burton, still in his all-red costume, stood in cur path, talking with a very loud woman. There were by this time, two large chartered buses in the parking lot as well - the rented truck had been moved to behind the auditorium. The next morning, we bumped into Estelle (one of the Sweets) going into breakfast - I can report to the world that she wears glasses off stage!! Tom Diskin and Al Dvorin were eating breakfast together at a table in front of JD Sumner and the three current Stamps. Ronnie Tutt came in after we did and ordered tea with honey. As you can imagine, it was not easy to eat breakfast under these circumstances!) We asked the waitress if she knew if Elvis was still in town - she said she had heard from good sources that he was definitely staying in at least five different hotels! No one knew where he was!! By 9.30 the buses all disappeared and Mobile settled down to a more normal day, while Tuscaloosa, Alabama prepared for the Presley onslaught! We drove home, singing Elvis' songs, and wondering how long it would take to come down from the high to a trip through Elvis country!!!

June 4 1975 - Houston, Texas
Review by Christopher Brown - Elvis News Service Weekly, Issue 211 (July 1975)

I have just finished following Elvis on his past tour through Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. We saw seventeen shows in all -- and they were absolutely magnificent. Some of the matinees were a slight letdown, but the rest of the shows were very exciting. Elvis talked more to his audiences than he has in a long time - and most of his shows were over an hour long - usually seventy minutes; They were very funny and for the first nine shows he added at least one new song.

For the Houston, Texas show we bought tickets from the box office that afternoon for ten rows from the front on floor, wow! but some other shows we were even a lot closer.

Elvis came on stage to a thunderous, standing ovation. He walked back and forth across the stage, thanking people for coming. Charlie handed Elvis his guitar which he slides over his head. He sauntered up to the mic', leaning back Elvis blasted into 'C.C. Rider' as always, this is a terrific opening number and Elvis proved it to be a winner. Near the end, he would yell "two" and slide his left leg out, then he'd yell "three" and slide that leg out even further. He counted up to five, then ended the song thrusting his guitar towards The Stamps and The Sweet Inspirations. Smiling brightly, he walked back to the mic' and began "well well well well well.. that's it, thank you very much..." He then launched into 'I Got A Woman' and finishing, as usual, with 'Amen'. Before Elvis would let J.D, do his 'slide', Elvis would quickly snap his head and hips to the left, and then in an effort to fix what he had done, he would move his head and hips slowly to the right several times. He would then start to move his legs in and out -- Ronnie would hit his drums in time -- like in his early days. Elvis would then signal, with his left hand to stop, and then he would say, "That's enough of that. i just ate". The song would finish with Elvis doing his imitation of an airplane as J.D. did his thing. After finishing 'I Got A Woman' Elvis would throw his guitar over his right shoulder, without looking, to Charlie. (he only dropped it once, in Memphis.)

Elvis then said, "Hope you have a good time this evening. I'll turn around, just give me a chance." There were many fans sitting behind him who continually yelled to him to turn around. After 'Love Me', he said to a girl "I'll see you after the show." When 'If You Love Me (Let Me Know)' began, he hummed along to the music for the first time, during this song there was some feedback and Elvis turned to his sound engineers, with an angry - and I do mean angry -- look and simply said, "Come on!" "Ah, my first movie.. wait, I'd like to tell you something, we played the Astrodome, you know and this is a little big Astrodome and it's nothing like that big dude, whew.. I'm telling you, I sure knew what the Christians felt like when they were fed to the lions. I was in the middle of the stage going like this" (Elvis turned round and round) "I'd take a bow at the end of a song, swish, I'd get back up and I'd be facing a cow." When Elvis gave out scarfs, there was always a lot of screaming by the girls who were too far to even have a chance at them. "Can you imagine the Astrodome if I tried to give scarfs away." He did an unexceptional version of 'Love Me Tender' and a throwaway 'All Shook Up'. After 'Hound Dog' he started to sing "The eyes of Texas are upon us, all the live long day ..." a lot of people were disappointed that he didn't sing the whole song.

During 'The Wonder Of You' there was a little feedback and Elvis walked over to his sound engineers and said something. A fantastic version of 'Burning Love' followed, with a very exciting ending. The introductions followed. "First of all, the young ladies that opened.. they didn't open our show, they used to.." (screams) ".. what's the matter with you?... they used to be called the Crewcuts. you look like Flip Wilson.." (he's always kidding one of the Sweets by calling her Flip) "I've already told you that. one of the finest gospel quartets in the nation and some parts of Africa, J.D. Sumner and The Stamps quartet - I'd like to introduce these fellows individually, but it ain't worth it... on the rhythm guitar from Springfield Mass or is it Miss..Miss... Missouri ..." (he introduced James Burton, he played 'Johnny B. Goode' and Elvis sang a bit of that, Ronnie Tutt did a fantastic exhibition on the drums, Jerry Scheff on the bass played some blues).. "One more time Glen..." (Elvis, unfortunately, did not sing 'Lawdy, Miss Clawdy' on the whole tour).. "The guy who gives me my water and scarfs and the poor guys going to go blind, he can hardly see me on stage..." (Elvis squinted his eyes and put his hand out like he was looking for something in the dark, imitating Charlie Hodge)... "Hey, you know.." (talking to one of The Sweet Inspirations that he calls Flip)... "you're not supposed to yawn on stage, don't yawn, really. If you're tired, go to bed some where, but don't yawn out here"... (she got up to leave, but Elvis didn't see her, so she sat back down again.. "The fellows who opened our show tonight shouldn't have never done it. No! I mean.. my sound engineers over here, Felton Jarvis, Bruce what-ever-his-name is, are doing one of the worst jobs I've ever heard tonight. Our conductor is from Syracuse, New York. No no, Buffalo, NY. Joe is playing with the Texas Longhorns.. I mean .. he's playing with the Joe Guercio orchestra".

"We've got a new song out ladies and gentlemen and it is the kind of song that if you miss a word you might as well hang it up." 'T-R-O-U-B-L-E'.. "Ah, I'd like to ask The Stamps, just a minute, I'd like to ask the Stamps quartet to sing 'Why Me Lord' fellows, would you sing it for me?" (Elvis asked for it very politely.) J.D. would sing "Tell me lord, what did I ever do.." and Elvis would usually say "not enough." Elvis did one of his better efforts on this song, holding some of the notes longer than usual. At the end of the song Elvis sang, "So help J.D. you're mouths in your hand..." At the end, Elvis said "Don't go away. 'How Great Thou Art'." During this truly outstanding number (one of the highlights of any Elvis show, and maybe now, the highlight - Elvis motioned to the band to watch him close, he then sang really strong and high) "Oh my Goddddddddd" (he held it for a full three seconds) "How great thou art..." It made me shiver and I'm sure, from the response that Elvis received, that the crowd loved it.... During the chorus, most of the people were clapping and half of the audience was standing. Everyone was standing when he finished the song, they would not stop applauding. He had done an amazing performance on this. Of everything I heard during the tour, this was the best... such emotion. He puts everything he has into this particular song. He then repeated the ending. The second effort took a lot out of Elvis -- I know, I was very close and I could tell, but yet he pushed on with a stunning and powerful version of 'Let Me Be There'.

Because i was so close you could see the sweat rolling off him when he shook his head, when The Stamps sang, "Oh I wish I was in dixie" Elvis said "you are!" and this was the first show that hardly anyone stood up and applauded this comment. When the trumpet (it used to be a flute) solo is played, all the band members (some of them crossing their hearts with their hands) and Elvis would turn and face the player. When the crescendo began, he didn't sing "Glory glory" because he was looking angrily at his sound engineers, when he hit the last note, he went up even higher after he had sung "On". It might have been a falsetto but, still, it could make you shiver. There was a girl in the fourth row who wanted a scarf and Elvis said, "Honey, I'll try." He then walked to the back of the stage, which was the highest one yet. To the girls there he said "Honey, I can't.. there's no way I can get down there.. I mean, I can, but I won't." During 'Funny How Time Slips Away' he walked up to the other side of the stage from me and sat down beside Glen Hardin on his piano bench for about half a minute, "Never know when I'll be back in town.. tomorrow night you goof!" (in a very high voice) He repeated the ending again so he could show off J.D.'s voice. "Ain't it funny, ha ha ha ha.."

During 'Little Darlin' he would sway back and forth across the stage as if he was drunk, imitating, in a satirical way, the 50s. He would also do all the high notes. He makes the song sound even better than it did in the '50s. He really enjoys doing this song, doing it at most of the shows, really high ending. "I have no idea what that song has to say. ha whoophoophoophoo pahoopa, wellawellawellawella la la la" (real high) "was just.... let's do 'Mystery Train'". He tried to move like he used to and the crowd was really roaring. "Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. Let me tell you. You were a fantastic audience, you really are. You were with me right from the first.. and until we see you again.. god bless you." Hands reaching and pulling, Elvis gave out his few last scarfs. Elvis, as always during this tour, would stay on the stage a long time and shake hands.

Elvis also did a medley of 'Teddy Bear'/'Don't Be Cruel' after 'All Shook Up' in Houston. Besides the songs mentioned, Elvis did a total of 39 different songs such as 'Tryin' To Get To You' (once as a request of a friend of mine.) 'Release Me', 'Fever' (started it twice, but did not do it), 'Jambalaya', 'Fairytale' (once), "Help Me Make It Through The Night', 'You Gave Me A Mountain' (both done once.) Also 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'I'm Leavin', 'Blue Suede Shoes' (all once), 'Hawaiian Wedding Song' (three times, beautiful), 'That's All Right' (once), 'I'll Remember You' (many shows), 'Trouble' (the original, only once, wow!), 'For The Good Times' (once.) I only saw Elvis in four different jumpsuits - this tour was really exceptional.

There is a discrepency with Can't Help Falling In Love from this show - On 'Hometown Shows' we hear Elvis say "Thank you very much..." and there is no Closing Vamp, but on 'Spirit Of Jackson' there is no dialogue, but the Closing Vamp is there.
It appears the dialogue on 'Hometown Shows' is edited in from another show.

July 9 1975 - Terre Haute, Indiana
Review by Shirlene Clemons - Elvis News Service Weekly, Issue 213-14 (July 23 1975)

Elvis took the stage of the Hulman Civic University Center at the Indiana State University last night, and sang for over an hour to over 10,000 fans. The audience gave him great applause and continued to do so all thru the sold-out show. 'C.C. Rider' was his opening song and 'I Got A Woman' was next but he started it first with a lot of "well, well, wells" etc., and ending it with the 'Amen' ending having JD go down all the way doing the low bass singing and after much applause they repeated the ending again and then Elvis finishes with the big ending he does. After the applause died down Elvis said "You're a good audience ladies and gentlemen, I'm Johnny Cash! We're going to do some songs I hope you like, some new ones, some old ones, so enjoy yourself for the next twenty minutes!" And that got a laugh, 'cause we all knew Elvis would perform longer than that. Then after he had tossed Charlie his guitar he went into 'Love Me', and then it was time for the scarf game. Fans would come up stage front for a scarf and a kiss, and it always delights the audience to see someone get a kiss. After he finished his next song 'If You Love Me (Let Me Know)' he said "thank you very much", and asked how many people saw him in Indianapolis the last time, and there was much applause, Then he said he'd like to do his first movie song 'Love Me Tender' which the audience welcomed with a lot of applause. As Elvis had been giving out scarfs and kisses to fans they felt they should give too I guess for, after 'Love Me Tender' many items started getting tossed on stage. Some, because I was quite far back I couldn't really make out, most though, I could.

It's interesting that one item was a huge large size pair of yellow rim glasses, the sort of thing you give to someone as a gag thats sold in certain type of novelty places here - as all the headlines were so dreadful on the newsstands saying 'Elvis is going blind etc..' He didn't have any trouble what-so-ever in the show about seeing, as far as I could tell, so one wonders if it's all that serious about his recent eye trouble, and do hope that it isn't of course. Anyway he accepted the glasses and said to the person "You want a scarf and a kiss?" and she agreed I'm sure to the exchange for he gave her both which the audience loved to see. He picked up some more of the items tossed on stage, and someone couldn't resist the gag I guess of throwing up a bra and panties. Elvis picked them up to much laughter from the crowd and said "Who did this??", and "Friends someone in the audience is nude!" then he saw a chance to have some fun with JD, so he said "Come here JD," and went over, and put one part on him to wear as a gag. 'All Shook Up' and 'Teddy Bear' were done next and then into a really great version of 'Don't Be Cruel' with much of the audience clapping in time to the beat as Elvis sings. 'Hound Dog' was greeted big next. He said de'd like to do a song he did a few years ago wonder of you and that also was well received.

People in the back of the stage part were all calling to him to turn around, so he did and got a large response from this section. 'Burning Love' was next and it was a really great and powerful version with a long work out at the end by Elvis, and everyone in the back-up group, that the audience gave him long applause for this. Elvis then gave more scarfs and kisses to fans who'd come up for the scarf game, he seemed to enjoy playing with the fans. Sometimes he'd let go right away and other times he'd hold the scarf back for a second and it was very funny when he was teasing this one fan by not letting her have it right then with a kiss. A guy yelled out real loud breaking up the whole audience "Kiss her!" and Elvis said "You don't have to tell me what to do," so he knelt down and said to the fan first "I gotta tell you i kissed someone last night, and got the creeping crud, so I got it, and you'll get it. you don't care ?" He didn't fool her 'cause she got the scarf and the kiss. Elvis then went into the introductions of all his group. He joked with The Sweet Inspirations saying they'd been with him five years too many, and that they are fair, but said "No, they're really great" and then he introduced all the stamps and JD and Kathy Westmoreland, the intro music sounded like the Booker T hit 'Green Onions'. Highlights of the intro's were fantastic solos by James Burton doing 'Johnny B. Goode', as Elvis stood off mic' humming along at times, a word or two, but letting James have the full spotlight, then Ronnie Tutt did a fantastic work out on the drums, so Elvis said "Jerry how you going to follow that," so he had Jerry play a bluesy type solo which was good. - Then Glen Hardin was next and did a great solo on the piano, sounded like the Fats Domino song called the 'Fat Van' anyway it was the greatest and Elvis really got into it standing off mic' again singing at bit at times and the audience all clapping along. Charlie Hodge and then Voice were next. Elvis kidded Voice as they had on outfits with splits in the pant legs as he did saying "I thought I was the only one suppose to have splits in the pants legs!" His outfit by the way was beautiful, It was a dark blue (it seemed from a distance in the arena lights.) with a large eagle design on the back.

After introducing Joe Guercio and the band, and having them do a solo part he said "There's a song we got out 'T-R-O-U-B-L-E', but i'm afraid I may not get all the words right" but didn't seem to me he had any trouble at all with it and it was a fantastic version with a long ending work out as he'd done for 'Burning Love'. Then he said "Ladies & gentlemen I'd like to have J.D. and the Stamps do one of my favourite songs 'Why Me Lord'". Elvis was up to his usual tricks on JD for he joked and teased him on his solos in it. After each line he'd answer back in his high pitch voice to JD. JD would sing "why me lord" and Elvis would cut in and say "Thats a big question," and to "what have I ever done" (line) he said "not much" to JD and had all in laughter, but really broke up the place when he came over to JD saying "Sing it JD, sing it baby, kiss me honey, kiss me!" Then I guess he knew it was time to do something serious after all that comedy, so he said "There's a song I did in 1966 that I'd like to do for you with JD and The Stamps 'How Great Thou Art'." This was the highlight of the concert and I'm sure Elvis meant it to be, for he put so much into it. It was a very dramatic thing, and he really did it with such power in his voice that it brought the audience to a standing ovation, and due to the huge response he repeated it to everyone's joy.

'Let Me Be There' was next and is still a favourite. For in no time the audience was all clapping along to it. Then he has the lights turned on, so he can see everybody, which gets à big audience reaction. Someone gives him something from the audience and he takes it, and says "I'll be back in a minute, so hang loose". 'Funny How Tine Slips Away' is next, Elvis would be silly at times singing it, for when he came to the word "funny" he'd do this little laugh, and again he called for JD to sing low bass at the end which he did. When he went into 'Little Darlin' the audience broke out with laughter at first, for this song sounds silly now to sing, but Elvis' parody of it is a delight and a fun thing to hear. The audience broke out with more laughter during the talking part when Elvis came on with this deep sounding voice in it, and ending it really singing up in the high notes. After the applause he did the 'Mystery Train'/'Tiger Man' medley.

I figured the show was close to coming to an end, as he said "You're a fantastic audience, so anytime you want us back just call, so until then god bless you, and we bid you an affectionate farewell" as he went into 'Can't Help Falling In Love' hands were already reaching up to him from the close stage seats and people were coming up close also. He walked all around the stage, both back sides, to the corners where earlier he'd thrilled fans there by tossing scarfs up to them, and then to the front of the stage touching the hands of the people waiting there. Finally he left the stage with the audience still applauding long after he left, until the announcer came on, and said "Elvis has left the building", but I imagine it will be a long time before he leaves the hearts and minds of many of the fans there that night in Terre Haute.

July 10 1975 - Richfield, Ohio
Review by ? - Elvis News Service Weekly, Issue 225 (September 25 1975)

The show was listed as Cleveland, Ohio but was delayed about fifteen minutes as Elvis Presley and his Security Men had a hard time finding the place. The Coliseum was located approximately twenty miles out of Cleveland, Ohio. I remember stating to my dad that Elvis will not be able to find this place as we were looking for the place in the early afternoon and my parents do know Ohio pretty well as they go into Cleveland often and we had a hard time finding it also. Sure enough at the show Elvis apologised to the audience for being late because he could not find the place.

My mother waited outside in the rain to see Elvis come in and her wait was really worth it, as she snapped a picture of Elvis coming in with Linda Thompson, which showed that the rumours about Linda being separated from Elvis is false. When she remarked to some of the fans that she snapped a picture of Linda with Elvis coming into the show in the Limousine they thought my mother was nuts because of the rumours! Well we could hardly wait until we arrived home to get it developed and it was really a thrill what a beautiful picture was snapped of her and Elvis.

The show was great, he sang a lot of different material. I was waiting to hear 'little Darlin' as I heard he was going to do it. At one point he remarked "let's do 'Little Darlin'" and proceeded on to introducing the members of the staff on the show. lie gave out more scarves then I have ever seen before. My seat was on the floor, close enough to see good but not for good pictures. I was very nervous as I was trying to shoot super-8 sound film and had my tape recorder going too. I thought any second some one would grasp me and Throw me out! Funny feeling and just thought is this all worth it? Well I do, because I enjoyed doing it. Any way Elvis looked neat. Elvis was wearing a white jump suit with small black trim. He didn't look fat to me. The place was a real sell out.Other places that I have been, had seats vacant in places where you could not possibly see Elvis, but this place had every seat filled, down behind the stage way up high. I mean really filled!! He kissed the girls for long period of time at the foot of the stage.

Elvis received a standing ovation for 'How Great Thou Art' and sang "My God" in an odd way, really screaming it out which I really didn't care for that too much myself and I heard remarks that the public didn't go for that!! When J. D. was singing 'Why Me Lord' Elvis put a scarf on his head and made fun, talking like a girl. My parents said they didn't like this on a religious song but I personally thought it was great.

Something odd that I have not experienced at a Elvis show before seeing people leaving early, as they left, I moved up closer to the stage. When he went into 'Can't Help Falling In Love' -- I started for the stage with a few others and a guard stopped me and I said -- "Come on man, I'm a police officer too" and he then said -- "go ahead". I stood on a chair in the front row, Elvis stopped for a few second and just stared into the audience for about forty or fifty seconds just staring. I don't know if he was looking at me but it sure seemed like it. The only bad thing was I only had one picture left on my camera and my hand was shaking so much that I just could not line up the shot. The snap didn't come out too bad but it was a shame that I didn't have more film. He spent more time in shaking hands on stage then any other time that I have seen him in the past. Oh! I was sick that I had no more film.His face was very pale and his hair looked thin, and I said to myself --- Elvis getting bald--OH! NO! Although he didn't look fat like people have been writing about for months. Personally I thought Elvis looked great but if gained three hundred pounds we would all enjoy his singing and still like him. It was obvious that he had been sick and age is showing in his face. It was really great and a wonderful feeling to see him so close., again!!!

Enjoyed every minute of the show as always.

July 13 1975 - Niagara Falls, New York
Review by Nadine Rightmyer - Elvis News Service Weekly, Issue 213-14 (July 23 1975)

I've been an Elvis fan since I was about twelve years old and I've loved every minute of it. But the greatest moments of any fans life is when they see Elvis in person for the very first time.

This incredible experience happened to me on July 13th 1975 at the Niagara Falls Convention Center at the age of twenty-one. We had tickets for his 8.30 show months in advance but we also managed to get tickets for his 2.30 show the day before he was to perform. Needless to say I was flabbergasted! A fan who had never seen him and thought that she may never see him during her whole life. Here I was about to see not one but two Elvis Presley shows!!! My seat for his 2.30 show was to the side of the stage and not very good, but I didn't mind because I got to see Elvis come out of the door that was very near to my seat and run up on stage. When I first caught sight of him I screamed "Oh my god it's really him"!!! He wore a terrific dark blue jumpsuit with a thunderbird on the back. I missed quite a bit of what Elvis was doing and couldn't understand him when he talked because of the bad location of my seat. But I did get a great side view of Elvis' face during most of the show. (thank God for binoculars!) During the first half of the show almost everyone was in their seats but five minutes after Elvis came out everyone was standing on their chairs to see him! With 1,000s of flashcubes going off, it looked worse than a lightening storm. I knew I had another rare treat coming to see Elvis run down the stage steps and out the door near me.

Our seats for his 8.30 show were very good, I had a full front view of the entire stage and could see everything that was going on. Thanks again to binoculars I had a close view of all of Elvis' exciting body movements and of all his famous facial expressions. He wore a beautiful white jumpsuit trimmed in black design down the sides of his pants and an eagle on his back. He was in a great mood because he wore that one and only Elvis smile continuously and he was fooling around during the whole show. I loved all the songs Elvis sang of course but i especially enjoyed 'T-R-O-U-B-L-E', 'Little Darlin', 'How Great Thou Art', 'Burning Love', 'Heartbreak Hotel' and 'Mystery Train'/'Tiger Man'. During 'How Great Thou Art' I thought the Convention Center might fall apart, his voice was so powerful. During 'Why Me Lord' Elvis tried his best to make JD Sumner laugh by putting a scarf around his head getting very close to JD and making his voice very high like a girls. A super exciting highlight of this show was when Elvis took a legs-apart stance during 'Tiger Man' and when those wild drum beats came, Elvis shook his entire body from side to side. His hair went flying and so did I!!!

Two things got Elvis upset but only for a minute because he was soon smiling away again. The first thing was when a band member was doing a solo. The spotlight was kept on Elvis and Elvis wanted it on the band member. Elvis said, "Why ya got the spotlight on me, I ain't doin' nothin'." When the spotlight remained on Elvis, he shook his head in displeasure and said, "They don't pay any attention to me." The second thing was when Elvis asked for the houselights to be turned on and they didn't come on, he waited only for a brief moment and then said angrily, "You're not gonna turn them on, okay forget it" and went immediately into another song. A while later during the song the houselights were turned on and in mock shock Elvis fell flat on his back on the stage floor! He's a nut!! Elvis took a drink of wa wa from time to time and threw whatever was left in the glass over his shoulder on the background singers. During a good portion of the show Elvis kept his thumb hooked in his belt loop he pretended to play the back of his guitar and when he didn't have a guitar at all he pretended to be playing one. He laughed himself silly. A variety of gifts were thrown on stage and Elvis reacted to them all. He stuck a large yellow flower in his beautiful black hair behind his ear. He looked like a 'Little Darlin'. He put on a policeman's hat and he looked absolutely fantastic in it! He gave out endless scarves and several kisses. One very lucky girl was escorted by Joe Esposito up onto the back of the stage to a waiting Elvis. She put her arms around him and gave him a long kiss. The audience clapped and cheered. This this fans opinion Elvis is by no means "Fat and forty". He looks "Thirty and gorgeous". At the end of his show he said a couple of things that I found to be touching. When Elvis saw all his fans mobbing the stage he said, "Don't get hurt -- don't get hurt" (probably remembering the crush last year at the close of one show.) His last words were, "Take it easy going home and God bless." Elvis may God bless you for you are truly a gift from heaven.

July 15 1975 - Springfield, Massachusetts
Review by Patricia Ann Cervone - Elvis News Service Weekly, Issue 213-14 (July 23 1975)

I saw Elvis in person tonight in Springfield, Mass. I completely fell out of my chair upon seeing his new jumpsuit. This one is super. It's a new black suit, covered with red, silver, beads, jewels, studs glitters etc., It's loud, raunchy and is stunning on beautiful Elvis! Absolutely fantastic outfit! Wow!

He appeared to be in a foul mood. Several times he snapped at the band, he became fed up with his guitar because it didn't seem to be working right, so it appeared that he flung it into the audience seated behind him. Don't know if a lucky fan caught it or Charlie retrieved it but it did go flying into the crowd. Elvis was absolutely mean the first half of the show but the crowd never stopped loving him and he became very loose and responsive during the second half. His bad mood never interfered with the fans enjoyment of the show. Elvis sang with much feeling. The show lasted one hour and ten minutes. He tries so very hard to please. He relies so heavily on the fans to pick him up from his apparent "depression" and it works! We really are so very important to him!

I was most impressed with his positive acknowledgment of the crowd. He went out of his way to thank each section of the huge crowd, especially those seated behind the stage. He kissed only three or four lucky girls but his scarves were generously distributed. His live rendition of 'Burning Love' was super with a throbbing ending "Hunka, hunka, hunka burning love" -- -- -- etc, just great)

A partial list of songs is listed below - not in sequential order. His voice is in 100% top shape - He still is about 20 lbs overweight - No matter it's Elvis -- -- He's still the greatest still the best, still the king! Will see him again tomorrow night in New Haven, Connecticut, and on Saturday in New York. Will write again - a very impressed Patricia Ann Cervone!

July 15th Springfield, Massachusetts. 8.30 show.
'C.C. Rider, 'I Got A Woman' ('Amen' extended version sung like a hymn), 'Love Me Tender', 'Love Me', 'The Wonder Of You', 'T-R-O-U-B-L-E', 'Burning Love' (fantastic). If You Love Me (Let Me Know)', 'Funny How Time Slips Away', 'Mystery Train'/'Tiger Man' (done extremely well with strobe effect lighting!), 'An American Trilogy', 'Let Me Be There', 'Why Me Lord', 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'All Shook Up', 'Teddy Bear', 'Hound Dog', 'Can't Help Falling In Love'.

July 16 1975 - New Haven, Connecticut
Review by Patricia Ann Cervone - Elvis News Service Weekly, Issue 213-14 (July 23 1975)

Well, onto New Haven. Whatever was bothering Elvis last night had disappeared for showtime in New Haven. He was back to his usual loving self for this show. Smiles all the way! and another new jumpsuit, it is similar to the one I described which he wore in Springfield, but this one is much more subtle and less "showy". He looked terrific and his voice was in much better shape, too. He sang basically the same songs but did add 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me', 'How Great Thou Art' (a super fantastic version!) 'Little Darlin', and 'I'll Remember You'. His version of 'Burning Love' is fabulous! For a song he used to not like, he really seems to be enjoying it now. The fans loved it! Elvis received a whole bunch of gifts at this show and he thanked everyone for them. He also made note of all the signs displayed around the arena and he thanked those who took all the time and trouble to make them. Very nice. The show was a bit longer and Elvis did not want to leave the stage.

I personally believe Elvis would have stayed on stage longer but the fans were rushing the stage at hysterical levels and I think the security asked Elvis to leave so there wouldn't be a mad rush. The fans were so enthusiastic. From what I had heard from the local fans, this is the first time Elvis had ever played New Haven, so naturally, they were quite excited. Elvis loved it all and his attitude toward the fans was very warm and friendly. It's nice to see Elvis responding so well to the audiences. All those rumours about him being fed up with touring must be false. The fans had a great time at the concert and Elvis was enjoying himself too. He is looking extremely well and happy. I am looking forward with great pleasure to seeing him in New York tomorrow.