Elvis calling out the names of cities he played

Most Rock/Pop/Country stars yell out the name of the city where they are at: "Hello Houston!" (The crowd roars) "How ya doing, Boston!" (the crowd roars)

What's your opinion on Elvis not doing that often enough when he toured?

Here's my opinion:
acknowledging your location means you care. The audience likes that!
It also means that you are coherent as to your whereabouts. The strung-out and drunk entertainers rarely know where they are on the road.
I am not implying that was Elvis' reason - it simply wasn't a trend in his day to say the name over the PA - but for him to have said the city name at each show would make it better to distinguish where a soundboard was taped.

Last edited by Graceland Gardener on Sat Jun 07, 2003 1:54 am, edited 2 times in total.

Good question, but I wanted to make the point that there were certainly exceptions.

One that comes to mind is Birmingham 12/29/76, in which I believe he said, "We've never been here before. This is the first time we've played Birmingham."

Also, occasionally when he said his thing along the lines of, "If you want us back, just call us, and we'll come back," he would sometimes name the city there, like "....and we'll come back here to Cincinnati."

To answer your question, I think the audience would have appreciated it, but I don't think they came away feeling like something was missing when he didn't. Elvis certainly didn't need gimmicks and that sort of thing to win his crowd over.

How many shows are there where he did say? I recall the In Dreams of Yesterday import show he said the city name

One of the Atlanta shows..doesn't he say something like it's great to be here in Macon..uh I mean Atlanta...to tease the audience??

It has always been a sense of annoyance to me that not only did he usually not mention the name of the city - he also NEVER ONCE gave the bootleg name and title of the concert. As for the bootleg label - forget it.

A shoddy way to treat fans

lol

Was Elvis supposed to say: "Well, tonight's the last night of my Man In White Blazing Into The Darkness Tour, and we've had a great time..."

lol

I´ll be adding my two cents.

I have over 600 lCDs of live concerts. And although often Elvis did NOT mention the name of where he was playing in quite a few cases he DID mention the name.

Especially in the September, November 1970 tour but also in later tours.
Sometimes he gave the wrong name and joked about it. Sometimes he mentioned the name while welcoming the fans to the show after Amen. But also sometimes before Can´t help falling in love when he thanked the fans for being a good audience.

I haven´t counted the instances but from memory and by estimate I suspect that ELvis did mention the city´s name at least a hundred times out of those 600 shows I have.

But I do have to admit that these day´s artists seem to mention it about every time. Although I also came across a singer who named the city but the wrong one and seemed to have no idea that it was the wrong one!!
Now that´s bad, then I´d rather have it that it´s not mentioned.
In fact it´s a shame Elvis didn´t as often name the city. It would help sift out incorrectly dated shows much faster.

Yaers ago I traded for a July 1975 show and the guy I got it from obviously hadn´t listened to it properly. Because it was dated New Haven or something. But during the sow you could hear Elvis say that it had been a while since he performed at Louisville!
When I asked the person about it he got mad at me as according to him I accused him of sending me the wrong show.

Oh well. Anyway, I am not going to check all my shows to count the number of occasions where Elvis did mention the name. But I am going to put it on my to do list if I ever need to go through all the shows again.

Graceland Gardener -

Elvis had so much on his mind on stage.

Which song he was singing.

How the words went.

Who would give him his scarves & water.

To expect him to remember where he was is a bit much.

sometimes he mentioned it, sometimes he DELIBERATLY joked about it, like in the 1st tour in 75' saying in Macon it's a pleasure to be in atlanta, or in jacksonville it's great to be in tampa and so on-he was just kidding around half the time!

Didn't Elvis say that it was pleasure to b back in Portland 27/4/73 ans sometimes didn't he mention that he hadn't performed somewhere since 1957 or whatever?

Also, don't forget "Hello Memphis!" and 18/3/74 where he gets the town rong on purpose!

I don't think it really matters whether or not he mentioned the name of the place he was at.

In South Bend on September 30, 1974 Elvis stated this after CC Ryder:

"I would like to thank Notre Dame. It's a pleasure! Thank you."

Great applause followed. It was his first performance at ND. We'll see in a few weeks if he said anything the following night on "Dragon Heart."

Elvis Fan

Hi Guys

Just to add my 2 cents worth on this one, I'm not really surprised that Elvis didn't mention the name of every single city he played over the years.

For starters he did so much more touring than a lot of the bands do today, and if I were playing all those different places day after day, I'd find it difficult to remember all the names. Lets face it, he probably only saw the hotel and the arena in a lot of those cities during the 70's. And after singing See See Rider for the 500th time, I'm sure he didn't really care where he was, so long as he remembered what song was coming up next

Clarke

4 out of the 5 shows in greensboro elvis did say what town he was in of the 16 shows i saw i am sure he mention the town he is in,

Well of cource Elvis DID speak out after Amen/I got a Woman reprise in South Bend on 1st Oct 74 he says:"We have never played South Bend before and that the audiences are really fine"

YDKM,

How do you know what Elvis says on October 1? No recording exists (audience or bootleg). If you are referencing "Enter the Dragon" I don't believe it quotes Elvis as saying "South Bend" but "here" (as in "We've never played 'here' before).

Just curious.

Elvis Fan