Transcript for the 54:00 version version of THE ELVIS PRESLEY 68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL

The Elvis Presley ?68 Comeback Radio Special

Music: A Little Less Conversation -- original album (1:46)

WELCOME TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL. I?M LAURA CANTRELL.

IN 1968, NBC TELEVISION GAVE AN HOUR OF ITS TIME TO A SHOW CALLED ?ELVIS.? IT QUICKLY GAINED A NEW TITLE, THE ?68 COMEBACK SPECIAL.

OVER THE COURSE OF THE HOUR, ELVIS SANG A WIDE RANGE OF MUSIC, BUT IT WAS A FRACTION OF WHAT HE PLAYED DURING THE FILMING. ELVIS HAD RETURNED TO HIS ROOTS, SHOWING THE WORLD THAT HE WAS FIRST AND FOREMOST A ROCK AND ROLLER, AND HIS PASSION COULD TRANSLATE TO THE SMALL SCREEN.

WE?LL HEAR A LOT OF SONGS, PLUS STORIES FROM THE DIRECTOR:

Steve Binder: You know, that was my big goal, was to convince him that it wasn?t just because people were writing about him or talking about him, it was real ? he had a soul and the god-given talent to use. And it?s something you don?t teach or even direct, you know? I just let Elvis be Elvis, that was the key to the whole show.

A FELLOW MUSICIAN:

Scotty Moore: He never even mentioned the song, he?d just start playing. You need to look at that thing, especially look at my expression (laughs). I had no idea what was coming next. He didn?t either, really, they just told him to get up there and be loose, just do whatever you feel like doing.

AND A MEMBER OF THE AUDIENCE:

Kathy Eskenazi Handl: I know, I sound like a little kid, but just the excitement of it all, it just will never leave me.

BUT AS ELVIS SAYS?

(pick up at 1:00 to end)

?A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION? SUNG BY ELVIS PRESLEY.

BY 1968, ELVIS HAD NOT PLAYED A LIVE CONCERT FOR SEVEN YEARS. IF YOU WANTED TO SEE ELVIS, YOU HAD TO WATCH ONE OF HIS MANY MOVIES.

MOST ROCK AND ROLLERS AVOIDED BEING ON THE BIG AND SMALL SCREEN.

STEVE BINDER WAS THE DIRECTOR OF THE ?68 SPECIAL AND MANY OTHER MUSIC PROGRAMS.

Steve Binder: I found in directing television, most of the major stars in rock and roll didn?t want to appear on television. They felt it would hurt their credibility selling records, and they were right. And in a sense it was considered the kiss of death. I remember Rod Stewart, even though he?s had a bunch of careers over his lifespan, in the early days when he went on television he felt it hurt his image as a pure rock and roll star to the rock and roll world, and I think a lot of stars felt that way.

FOR ELVIS, IT WAS THE OPPOSITE. THIS TV APPEARANCE RE-ESTABLISHED HIS PLACE IN THE ROCK AND ROLL WORLD. HERE WAS ELVIS GETTING SWEATY AND BELTING OUT SONGS LIKE THE DANGEROUS MAN HE HAD BEEN TEN YEARS BEFORE. THIS IMAGE DIDN?T MESH WITH WHAT HIS MANAGER WANTED, BUT ELVIS TOOK A BIG STEP AND STUCK TO IT.

SCOTTY MOORE PLAYED GUITAR WITH ELVIS IN THE LATE ?50s, THEN AGAIN DURING THE ?68 COMEBACK SPECIAL.

Scotty Moore: The special came out good, cause Steve Binder, who was the director of that, he and Elvis had gotten together early on and see that was supposed to have been a Christmas special, #1, and Elvis didn?t want to do a Christmas special, and Binder didn?t want to do that, so honestly they got together and decided what they were gonna do. And that?s the only time that I know that Elvis put his foot down on anything, and I think the proof is in the pudding, as you say. // They just worked well together, so together they did what they wanted to do.

STEVE BINDER HAD THE JOB OF DEALING WITH ELVIS?S MANAGER, COLONEL PARKER.

Steve Binder: The Colonel kept on insisting to the bitter, bitter end that he wanted a Christmas song to close the show, and it was all about, for the Colonel, it was all about not losing face, and since he had started out with this edict that the Elvis special was going to be 20 or 24 Christmas songs and Elvis would say hello at the beginning of the show and merry Christmas at the end and that was it, period. And realizing that Elvis was behind the scenes defying the Colonel for probably one of the few times in his life, saying I?m going to do this special the way Steve and the guys have created it.

Music: Let Yourself Go ? original album (2:38)

?LET YOURSELF GO? PERFORMED BY ELVIS PRESLEY.

Kathy Eskenazi Handl: I had just graduated from junior college, and a girlfriend gave me two tickets to the NBC studio tours, they were just starting to have tours around that time. As we were walking the tour, the tour guide happened to mention that Elvis Presley was on the premises. Oh, that was all he had to say to me, right there I got excited. We saw his car, and proceeded on with the tour, and I told my girlfriend if I disappear, don?t worry, I?ll meet you at the car, just sit there wait for me, cause I knew that there was no way I was going to be in that studio and not be able to see him, and that?s kind of what started the whole thing.

KATHY ESKENAZI HANDL FOUND HER WAY INTO THE AUDIENCE AT THE ?ELVIS ? TAPING.

Kathy Eskenazi Handl: We eventually passed the sound stage where he was rehearsing, and I could hear him! Oh my god, the thrill to know that he was on the other side of the wall. So obviously we weren?t going to be able to go in there, it was a closed set. So what happened was I let the tour keep going and I held behind and I hid behind a door and I actually hid inside a clean garbage can that was on its side (laughs) I didn?t want anybody to see me. Of course, security wasn?t anything like today. I don?t think that would happen. So I was sneaking around everywhere near the stage, but I just couldn?t get in. I eventually found a door that was unlocked, and I opened that door not to a sound stage, but to an office, a great big office, it was a beautiful place, I remember, and there was this man sitting on the other side of this desk, and he looked up at me and I looked at him and he asked me did I get lost, what can he do for me? And I just panicked and started crying, I didn?t know what else to do, I just started crying. So he asked me what was wrong, and I told him about Elvis being there and not being able to see him, and he said that the tickets had been handed out already and were limited only to members of the crew. I stood my ground, I wasn?t going to leave his office without tickets. Eventually I talked him into giving me tickets, he reached in to his desk drawer and said my wife is going to kill me, I?ll never forget that. He gave me the two tickets. And oh my god, I left there and ran to my friend in the car and she couldn?t believe I did what I did (laughs).

Kathy Eskenazi Handl: I know, 40 years later I look back, and it?s hard to believe I was like that, but I guess you just, some things stick with you and you move on, and look back at what you did and have to laugh at yourself, but be thankful that you had the nerve to do it (laughs)

Music: Trying To Get To You ? 1st sit down show (2:50)

?TRYING TO GET TO YOU? SUNG BY ELVIS PRESLEY.

YOU?RE LISTENING TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL. I?M LAURA CANTRELL.

Steve Binder: The first call I got was from the executive producer Bob Finkel at NBC, asking if I was interested. // I had just finished a special with Petula Clark and Harry Belafonte that had created quite a stir on national television. It was the first time that a black and a white person literally touched each other on the forearm, and it was a shot heard around the world because it had never happened on prime time network television before. And I think that?s what triggered the phone call from Finkel saying hey, maybe you?re the guy Elvis can really relate to and you?re around the same age and so forth, and I was thinking of doing the special myself, but he keeps calling me Mr. Finkel instead of Bob, so I think I need to find a younger guy to really relate with him.

STEVE BINDER WROTE THE BOOK ?68 AT 40: RETROSPECTIVE, THE DEFINITIVE STORY ON THE MAKING OF THE 1968 ELVIS PRESLEY TV SPECIAL.?

Steve Binder: Elvis in 68, his career was basically ground to a halt. He had been away from the public for at least 10 years. All he was doing was making these movies that appealed to general audiences. The music he was making was in many ways inferior to what was happening with the Beatles and the hot artists of that era, and I felt he and the Colonel decided they needed to do something because his career was either at a standstill or declining. And even thought the Colonel made this deal to come on television as an effort to get another film financed, because NBC, in doing the Elvis special, also guaranteed the financing to ?Change of Habit.? And I think the Colonel was more focused on the film aspect of the deal than he was on television. Nobody could have predicted at the time that it was the television show and being able to reveal the real Elvis and the real talent of Elvis, and getting him so emotionally involved in the project that the next day he was back on top and back in business, but I don?t think anyone anticipated before we did it.

Music (under): When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again ? 2nd rehearsal (1:14)

TIME MAGAZINE REPORTED THAT THE ELVIS SPECIAL WAS THE 4TH HIGHEST RATED ENTERTAINMENT SPECIAL IN THE 68 TO 69 TELEVISION SEASON. IT BEAT OUT ?HEIDI? AND THE ACADEMY AWARDS. THE TOP THREE RATED PROGRAMS THAT SEASON WERE ALL BY BOB HOPE.

Steve Binder: Aside from the fact that it was kind of unprecedented at the time to have an hour prime time special on a major network and only star one person. At the time, it was traditional that if you had a television special, you had two or three guest stars on your show, and you shared the spotlight with them. This was wall to wall Elvis. It also I guess got one of the highest ratings in the history of the network after it was aired, and it was interesting because the music trades loved the special in terms of Elvis is back, now he?s revealed his true talent again and so forth after all those years of when he was basically rapped for mediocrity, and it was really the case where every door was being re-opened for him. I read the Variety review in 1968, and it cracked me up, saying even though the special was terrific and he was in good hands with the production team, it proved he still can?t sing (laughs) and it really cracked me up when I saw that one.

Music: Love Me ? 2nd rehearsal (2:38)

?LOVE ME? PERFORMED BY ELVIS PRESLEY AT A REHEARSAL FOR HIS TV PROGRAM.

COMING UP, BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE JAM SESSION RECORDED FOR THE ?ELVIS? PROGRAM.

I?M LAURA CANTRELL, AND YOU?RE LISTENING TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL.

Break 1 (1:00) with music bed

WELCOME BACK TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL. I?M LAURA CANTRELL.

ELVIS WAS FILMED IN THREE DIFFERENT SETTINGS FOR THE TV SHOW. FIRST, THERE WERE BIG PRODUCTION NUMBERS, THEN A SMALL STAGE WITH ELVIS SINGING FOR AN AUDIENCE. THE THIRD CONSISTED OF AN ACOUSTIC CIRCLE OF MUSICIANS PLAYING WHATEVER CAME UP. BASICALLY, IT WAS THE 1968 VERSION OF MTV UNPLUGGED.

ELVIS BROUGHT TOGETHER MEMBERS OF HIS ORIGINAL BAND FOR THE IMPROV SESSION.

Scotty Moore: I had a studio here in Nashville when I got the call that he was doing the special and asked me and DJ both to come out, which we did, and it was a lot of fun. We hadn?t done a lot of shows in about 10 years, and I had the studio that was taking care of me pretty much full time, so it was like, probably could call it a homecoming, when we all got together, cause that was the first time we?d seen him since he?d gone into the army, really.

SCOTTY MOORE PLAYED GUITAR WITH ELVIS IN THE ?50s..

Scotty Moore: He went into a bunch of old stuff that he?d never recorded. Stuff that he used to sit around the house and play when everybody?s around having a good time. Really what that whole thing amounted to was a good time for everybody.

Music: That?s All Right ? 1st sit down show (3:40 w/ introduction)

?THAT?S ALL RIGHT? PERFORMED BY ELVIS AND FRIENDS FOR THE ?68 TELEVISION SPECIAL.

Music (under): Baby What You Want Me To Do ? 2nd sit down show (2:07)

STEVE BINDER DIRECTED THE SHOW.

Steve Binder: When I looked at the improv, and I was inspired just by accident. It was the case that Elvis chose to live at NBC while we were taping the special. And we cleaned out the Dean Martin dressing room and put him in there with a bed and a couple of pianos and etc, and after we finished on the stage, he?d go back to the dressing room and until the early hours of the morning, whoever was in his dressing room, they?d just start jamming, and banging on the piano top and chairs and you name it and telling stories and just having a ball and unwinding. And I?m saying hey, this is better than what I?m doing on stage with a cast of a hundred people and a script and everything else, I?ve got to get this on film. And the Colonel kept on insisting that there was no chance in hell that I?ll be able to do this, and I kept hounding him until finally, I guess because he was tired of listening to me, he said okay, if you want to re-create it on stage, I?ll let you do that, but I?m never gonna let you air it unless I say it?s okay. And I jumped at the chance, and that was basically the story of the improv. And when the improv started, we brought in DJ Fontana and Scotty Moore, because Elvis insisted that if he was going to re-create it, instead of just having the normal entourage around him, he wanted Scotty and DJ. Scotty was the only one with anything electric on stage, electric guitar, everybody else I insisted be acoustic, including DJ had to play his drumsticks on Elvis? guitar case, or Scotty?s guitar case, I can?t remember which one it was at the time. But all these guys were prepared to go out there with their amplifiers and electric equipment and make it an electric session, but I said no, I want it to be as close to what I heard in the dressing room as possible, and that was the birth of an acoustic session, basically.

Music up for window

GUITARIST SCOTTY MOORE.

Scotty Moore: DJ and I didn?t know what was going to happen. They just gave us a call to come out, be in the picture and first of all, it was a very small stage that we were on, and if I remember, they had a full set of drums set up right in the middle for DJ, and he was the first one that mentioned it, said if you?ve got a full set up drums up there, there?s no room for anybody else. So that?s when we decided to get rid of the drums and all sit around and if you remember, DJ just played on the back of a guitar case. And of course, I had room for my amp and guitar up there, which he finally took away from me and started playing himself. Main reason was that his wasn?t loud enough (laughs). // He was the star. (laughs) look at it and you?ll see, I gave him a good dirty look, too. But I couldn?t say nothing, seeing as he?d all paid for the plane ticket and everything. (laughs)

Music (under): Tiger Man ? 2nd sit down show (3:11)

Scotty Moore: He never even mentioned the song, he?d just start playing. You need to look at that thing, especially look at my expression (laughs). I had no idea what was coming next. He didn?t either, really, they just told him to get up there and be loose, just do whatever you feel like doing.

Scotty Moore: I?ll tell you something else, if you watch it again, you can?t see him because he?s not on camera, he?s back behind Elvis and behind 3 or 4 people at least, there?s a bass player also on the stage. The same guy that played on all the pre-records, but he?s playing bass along with us on all that carrying-on that we did on stage. He?s hidden, because he wasn?t supposed to be on camera, and if you listen real hard, you can hear him faintly, but we could hear him up there, cause it wasn?t mic-ed or anything.

Music up to end

?TIGER MAN? SUNG BY ELVIS AND FRIENDS AT THE JAM SESSION.

YOU?RE LISTENING TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL. I?M LAURA CANTRELL.

THE LOOSE ATMOSPHERE OF THE IMPROV SESSIONS GAVE ELVIS A CHANCE TO TALK AND JOKE AROUND. SOMETIMES HE SPOKE TO THE AUDIENCE, BUT OFTEN HE WAS CARRYING ON WITH HIS FRIENDS.

GUITARIST SCOTTY MOORE SAT ON THAT STAGE AND LISTENED TO IT.

Scotty Moore: Oh, that was some of his side-kicks that was traveling with him. They had their own little cues and stuff. Sometimes I didn?t even know what they were talking about myself.

HERE?S ELVIS.

Music: edited intro and Lawdy Miss Clawdy (2:30)

?LAWDY MISS CLAWDY? SUNG BY ELVIS PRESLEY FOR HIS TELEVISION SPECIAL.

AUTHOR AND DIRECTOR STEVE BINDER ARRANGED THE IMPROV SESSIONS AT THE LAST MINUTE, SO HE NEEDED TO GATHER THE AUDIENCE QUICKLY.

Steve Binder: When I went to the Colonel and asked him how many tickets he wanted to see the improv sessions that I was doing, he basically did a typical Colonel thing, and I fell for the trap. And he said, look, I don?t want any of the tickets if you?re distributing them or if NBC is distributing them, but?and he implied that if you want an airplane flying out of Memphis with blonde, blue-eyed girls with bouffant hair-dos and have the greatest Elvis audience you could possibly have in your life, you?ve got to give me all the tickets, and I mean all the tickets, no NBC executives, no sponsors, no girlfriends, no wives, you can?t give one ticket out to anybody else. What I didn?t realize is that he was actually sabotaging me, hoping this improv session would fail. // So I gave the tickets to Colonel Parker, and a couple days later, I?m driving out of the NBC lot, and the guard stops me and says Steve, do you need any tickets for tomorrow? I said what do you mean, tickets? He said oh some bald-headed guy handed me a stack of tickets and told me to hand them out to anybody driving through the gate. // I came to the studio very early the next morning and the head of guest relations cornered me and said Steve, we have a big problem, we don?t have anybody coming to see this taping. So Bones and I, literally Bones got on the phone and called a couple of local disk jockeys to broadcast that if anybody wants to see Elvis Presley, jump in your car and head out to NBC in Burbank, and I even sent some emissaries over to the drive in restaurant over in the Valley called Bob?s Big Boy and we were going up to people eating, saying do you want to come see Elvis Presley? When it came to the live orchestra and Elvis in the boxing ring and him doing a medley of his hit songs, we did invite an audience.

KATHY ESKENAZI HANDL WAS IN THE AUDIENCE FOR ONE OF THE BOXING RING PERFORMANCES.

Kathy Eskenazi Handl: It was like a private concert. Actually, there were a couple of things that happened. He was walking around the stage talking to people, because every time they were in between, cause they kept repeating everything, he had to sing the same song several times until he got it right, or to their specifications. And so he would stop and he would talk to everybody, ask them how the day was going, how we were enjoying it. And as a performer under those lights, he was very hot, he was just dripping from sweat, and I had heard from people on the set that he had several costumes made for him, and during the performance, he had to change his costumes. And at one point, when he went to change his costume and get a nice dry, cool one back on, he came over to me, of all people, and asked me if I wouldn?t mind holding his guitar. (laughs) oh my god, I didn?t want to give it back. And of course he thanked me so much when he came back for helping him out with the show (laughs).

Music: Heartbreak Hotel/Hound Dog/All Shook Up ? 1st stand up show (3:14)

ELVIS PRESLEY SANG A MEDLEY OF ?HEARTBREAK HOTEL,? ?HOUND DOG? AND ?ALL SHOOK UP.?

COMING UP, A LITTLE BIT OF GOSPEL AND A TOUCH OF TROUBLE.

I?M LAURA CANTRELL, AND YOU?RE LISTENING TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL.

Break 2 (1:00) with music bed

WELCOME BACK TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL. I?M LAURA CANTRELL.

THE ORIGINAL ?ELVIS? TV SHOW INCLUDED A BIT OF THE IMPROV SESSIONS, SEVERAL TUNES WITH ELVIS ON STAGE, AND A COUPLE OF LONGER FEATURES.

AUTHOR AND DIRECTOR, STEVE BINDER.

Steve Binder: Well, the key guys who really made the structure, the spine for the show, because everything starts with a script, and for me music isn?t necessarily different than a dramatic script, I usually focus in on the lyrics. And the guys who delivered big time for me were Alan Bligh and Chris Beard, the writers. They went out an got all of Elvis? albums and 45?s and put together basically, in our thinktanks with Jean McEvoy our art director and Bill Belew our costume designer, everybody was invited to pitch, and once we had some of these creative sessions, then Alan and Chris went away into a room by themselves and really flushed out the gospel segment and the guitar man segment, which was the big production number, where he goes from being a young guitar player from a small town in the South to fame and fortune playing in arenas and all the stops in between.

Music: Trouble/Guitar Man ? original album (3:29)

A BIT OF THE ?GUITAR MAN? SEGMENT PERFORMED BY ELVIS PRESLEY FOR HIS 1968 TV SPECIAL.

THE ONLY GRAMMY AWARDS THAT ELVIS RECEIVED WERE FOR HIS GOSPEL MUSIC. HIS LOVE OF GOSPEL BEGAN IN CHILDHOOD, AND HE SANG IT AT ANY CHANCE HE COULD FIND.

GUITARIST SCOTTY MOORE JOINED UP WITH ELVIS IN 1954.

Scotty Moore: Exactly, that?s really where he was at, always.// southern gospel #1 and then you have the rock and roll element that come in, which we never even thought about, rock and roll was, whats his name Alan Freed was the one put that moniker on it. It was just feel-good music. It wasn?t ballads, it was feel-good music.

ELVIS PERFORMED A MEDLEY OF GOSPEL SONGS FOR THE SPECIAL, ACCOMPANIED BY CHOREOGRAPHED MODERN DANCE.

Music: Where Could I Go But To The Lord/Up Above My Head/Saved ? orig. album (7:35, but edit)

A GOSPEL MEDLEY SUNG BY ELVIS FOR HIS TV SPECIAL. THAT WAS ?WHERE COULD I GO BUT TO THE LORD,? ?UP ABOVE MY HEAD? AND ?SAVED.?

YOU?RE LISTENING TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL. I?M LAURA CANTRELL.

IT?S IMPORTANT FOR ANY SHOW TO HAVE A POWERFUL OPENING AND AN EVEN STRONGER ENDING.

DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER STEVE BINDER WENT LOOKING FOR A CLOSING SONG.

Steve Binder: I told Billy Goldenberg, our musical director, and Earl Brown, our choral director, if you guys have ever written a grea t song in your life, I need a closing song, and I need it to be, if we wrote a closing for Elvis to speak about how he felt about America, about his life, about the world, this is the song to write, and I know, unless we put it into a song and camouflage it, I know that we?ll never get the Colonel to sign off on Elvis talking at the end of the show. So the two guys went home, and I got a phone call a few days later really early in the morning, maybe 4 or 5 in the morning from Earl Brown, and
Earl said we did it, I think we?ve got the song for you, and so we met really early the next morning at NBC, and Billy played the piano and Earl sang it, and it was If I Can Dream word for word, and I loved it. I told them that when Elvis gets here, I?m going to get him in this room alone with you guys and you?re going to perform it for him. I grabbed Elvis and said Elvis, come in the back room, and the doors were very thin in the dressing room and everybody could hear through the doors, and I could hear Colonel Parker say over my dead body is Binder going to sell this song to Elvis (laughs), we?re closing with a Christmas song. So they performed it for Elvis, and Elvis as he usually did, asked it to be sung maybe 3 or 4 times in a row to him, and he finally looked at me and said I?ll do it.

Steve Binder: The footnote to that story is that the lead sheet that they brought in to play for me had If I Can Dream, written by Billy Goldenberg and Earl Brown. And Billy Goldenberg, after Elvis said that he would do it, got up, got a pencil with an eraser and erased his name off of that lead sheet, which probably cost him in royalties about 6 figures or more over the years, and he said I can?t take credit for this, Earl wrote the song all by himself.

Music: If I Can Dream ? original album (3:09)

?IF I CAN DREAM,? THE FINALE TO THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK SPECIAL.

Music: under

ELVIS FOUND HIMSELF BACK IN THE PUBLIC EYE AS SOON AS THE TV SHOW AIRED ON NBC IN DECEMBER OF 1968.

KATHY ESKENAZI HANDL WAS AN AUDIENCE MEMBER ON THE PROGRAM.

Kathy Eskenazi Handl: Oh we were all excited, because it was like bringing him to their attention again, and he was coming out with more things. Yeah, it brought attention to people who would not have paid attention to his kind of music. It showed that he was more of a musician, and he had the quality to carry everything through. And he had the personality, he always had a smile on his face, everything was a joke, he just made fun out of everything, you know let?s try to do it this way, and give a chuckle here and there. I think that made him more human, cause the way that he was talking, I know there was a crowd, but he was talking on a one-on-one with everybody.

AUTHOR AND DIRECTOR STEVE BINDER WATCHED THE EFFECT OF THE SPECIAL ON BOTH THE FANS AND ELVIS.

Steve Binder: It really was the case, when Elvis went to Las Vegas and appeared, it was Elvis mania again. He was back on top, he had regained basically his confidence in himself, and that was the best part of doing the special for me, seeing a man rediscover himself. I think he was totally convinced he was yesterday?s newspaper. He had kind of lost faith in himself and his own talent. He felt it was a good ride while it happened, the Colonel?s publicity machine and RCA?s publicity machine were grinding away telling the world he was the King, and in Elvis? heart, he knew that he was declining. And I think the fact that he came back with such a vengeance and such a passion for his talent and discovered that hey, I still got it and the audience is responding exactly the way they did when I started my career in the very beginning, and I was reaching new generations of audience, that everything began again to open doors.

Music up for window

?THE ELVIS PRESLEY ?68 COMEBACK RADIO SPECIAL? WAS PRODUCED BY JOYRIDE MEDIA, PAUL CHUFFO AND JOSHUA JACKSON ARE THE PRODUCERS.

OUR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER IS JOHN VERNILE.

OUR ASSOCIATE PRODUCER IS ANDY CAHN.

ALL SONGS ON THIS PROGRAM CAN BE FOUND ON THE RCA LEGACY BOX SET ?ELVIS: THE COMPLETE ?68 COMEBACK SPECIAL.?

SPECIAL THANKS GO TO ADAM BLOCK, MATT STRINGER, IRIS MAENZA, JENNIFER LIEBESKIND, ROSEANN RIZZO, JENNIFER SWEARINGEN AND SCOTT WILLIAMS AT THE ELVIS ESTATE, JEFF ABRAHAM AT JONAS PR, JOE TUNZI OF JAT PUBLISHING, SHANNON MUELLER, ERIC MOLK, NADINE NASSAR AND ERNST JORGENSEN.

I?M LAURA CANTRELL, AND THANKS FOR LISTENING.

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