Elvis’s ’68 Comeback Special: The story of the greatest comeback gig of all time
Elvis Presley is not just one of the greatest musicians of all time, he’s a cultural icon who towered over the 20th century.
A vital part of his legend is rooted in what came to be known as the ’68 Comeback Special.
After his world-conquering fame in the 1950s and early 1960s, it’s fair to say that Elvis’s star was on the wane.
His manager Colonel Tom Parker kept The King away from live performance for a whopping SEVEN YEARS, and rather than going into the studio to record proper albums, Elvis Presley was churning out ropey movie soundtracks for even more ropey movies.
It’s fair to say that Elvis wasn’t all too happy with where he was. He wanted a change, and in 1968, he got it. Here’s how.
After he returned from the army in 1960, Elvis’s manager Colonel Tom Parker nudged Presley away from music and towards movies.
Always a carny at heart, Parker pushed for low-budget musical comedies – the films promoted the soundtracks and the soundtracks promoted the films.
Elvis liked acting, and pushed for more straight dramatic roles. A couple of flops meant that stopped pretty quickly and it was back to the cheap musical movies, one after the other.
Producer Hal Wallis took it to the extreme. Cheap sets and scripts, minimal rehearsals and retakes, and limited shots meant the films were generally getting worse. Eventually, even Elvis’s name on the marquee wasn’t enough, and the films began to flop.
Wallis and Parker/Elvis parted company in 1967. The door to Hollywood was closing, but another door was opening.
It was in October 1967 that Parker approached NBC with a classic Colonel idea: a cheesy Christmas special in a $1.25 million (over $10 million in today’s money) to cover a film, soundtrack and TV special.
It’s fair to say that Elvis wasn’t best pleased with the idea of crooning a load of carols. But on speaking with Singer Presents … producer Bob Finkel things began to change.
Bob’s idea was to do something a lot more interesting than Elvis singing ‘White Christmas’ on the telly: a special centred on Elvis himself.
The King was keen to perform new material, and Finkel won Parker over too by promising there’d be enough recorded for a soundtrack album and a Christmas single, too.
Finkel enlisted director Steve Binder, who had helmed the groundbreaking T.A.M.I. Show concert film. Binder was convinced to sign up by his associate Bones Howe, who had worked with Elvis back in the 1950s.
Binder and Howe hired musical director Billy Goldenberg, Presley’s people got arranger Billy Strange on board, and Chris Bearde and Allan Blye were hired as the writers, with Bill Belew on board for costume design.
It wasn’t all plain sailing.
During rehearsals, Howe left and rejoined the project as producer and engineer over a dispute over the royalties for any soundtrack album and Strange left after Goldenberg complained that he hadn’t handed in any arrangements.
Some ideas were proposed and shelved: a locker room segment was swapped out for an intimate sit-down concert, for example, while the scripted portions were cancelled and Elvis was instead given a list of topics to talk about between songs.
Elvis worked with choreographer Lance LeGault to work out his movements, and things were finally coming together.
Watch Elvis’s ’68 Comeback Special here