WHEN DID EP HEARD ABOUT THE CBS SPECIAL

For the millionth time.

Elvis knew about the CBS special in plently of time to get in better shape if he wanted.

Television shows take months and sometimes longer to plan.

The whole point of the television special was that CBS would film him randomly on tour and Elvis wouldn't have to do anything out of the ordinary.

For Elvis and the Colonel they would get $750,000. for little work and that's why they agreed to it.

If the CBS executives had told Elvis to lose a substantial amount of weight Elvis wouldn't have wanted to do it.

In the end all the CBS executives care about is the ratings and Elvis in Concert delivered big for them but they did not consciously try to sabotage the show.

There was no big conspiracy by CBS or Colonel Parker.

The big ratings were due to his sudden death which recently occurred. Many people tuned in out of curiosity. The concert was secondary. If he didnt die, doubt many people would have cared. They probably would have laughed it off and it may have sunk his career instead of bolster it.

I don't agree with that.

Anytime Elvis appeared on television it got huge ratings that's why CBS wanted to make a deal for a television special in the first place.

You might be right that it got bigger ratings than it would have but i bet it still would have been a ratings winner for CBS.

The special wasn't suppose to bolster Elvis career CBS wanted ratings and Elvis wanted the money.

If people tuned in to laugh at Elvis or if the television special would've have sunk his career CBS wouldn't have been concerned about that.

Elvis hadnt had a hit rcord on the radio in 5 years. I doubt he was in heavy demand for TV.

Elvis was actually always in demand to appear on television.

I know he got offers to appear on Cher's show as late as 1975 and of course Colonel Parker was able to make this deal with CBS.

It depends on what you mean by hit record Elvis had several top 20 hits during 1973-1975.

Even without any hit records there are many singers that can still bring in ratings for television shows and Elvis was one of them.

By hit record, I mean one people would know. Most people dont know anything after 1972's Burning Love except of course Elvis fans. Top 20 means nothing if the radio never played it. There are some records like some Darlene Love hits in the 60's that barely made top 40 but people are familiar with the songs. No one really knows the 70's Elvis stuff.

If the songs were top 20 hits, they were played on the radio. That's how they became top 20 hits. Songs went up the charts by air play and sales not just sales. I heard all of Elvis's singles from 72 to 77 on the radio as did everyone else who listened to top 40 stations and adult contemporary stations and Country stations. It's just that because those records weren't top 10 hits, you don't hear them replayed on the oldies stations like you do In The Ghetto, Suspicious Minds and Burning Love. I remember when Hurt and Moody Blue were in heavy rotation on the adult comptemp station my parents listen to in the morning.

And by the way, Elvis was in the radio news quite a bit in 1976 because radio stations were playing the 12 hour radio show,
The Elvis Presley story.

He never appeared in a new TV Show where that show wasn't number one for the week, at least since the Ed Sullivan shows.

I have read and been told by people over the years that EIC was purely a financial move. There was no album to push, no career change, not even a real "theme" or "purpose" to this special. Clearly, the 68 and 73 TV shows had purpose, thought, and planning. There was also a challenge to 68 and 73 for Elvis. Quite honestly, it doesn't appear that much thought or planning went into EIC in 77.

rlj

You could sort of say that about Elvis On Tour as well. Yes it was sort of the follow up to TTWII, showcasing his touring across the country as opposed to his performing in Vegas but it only focused on him performing in middling markets. There was no destination or pay off. There was, I suppose, "Separate Ways" and "Burning Love" to push but there was no soundtrack for the movie. I dearly love EOT, it's my favorite but it should have been about the build up and then the performance at MSG.

I have read and been told by people over the years that EIC was purely a financial move. There was no album to push, no career change, not even a real "theme" or "purpose" to this special. Clearly, the 68 and 73 TV shows had purpose, thought, and planning. There was also a challenge to 68 and 73 for Elvis. Quite honestly, it doesn't appear that much thought or planning went into EIC in 77.

rlj

You could sort of say that about Elvis On Tour as well. Yes it was sort of the follow up to TTWII, showcasing his touring across the country as opposed to his performing in Vegas but it only focused on him performing in middling markets. There was no destination or pay off. There was, I suppose, "Separate Ways" and "Burning Love" to push but there was no soundtrack for the movie. I dearly love EOT, it's my favorite but it should have been about the build up and then the performance at MSG.

At the time of the project they didnt knew, elvis would sell out in MSG, U can rather film elvis touring the country, on stages that he would sell out. I think on tour is magical.

I have read and been told by people over the years that EIC was purely a financial move. There was no album to push, no career change, not even a real "theme" or "purpose" to this special. Clearly, the 68 and 73 TV shows had purpose, thought, and planning. There was also a challenge to 68 and 73 for Elvis. Quite honestly, it doesn't appear that much thought or planning went into EIC in 77.

rlj

You could sort of say that about Elvis On Tour as well. Yes it was sort of the follow up to TTWII, showcasing his touring across the country as opposed to his performing in Vegas but it only focused on him performing in middling markets. There was no destination or pay off. There was, I suppose, "Separate Ways" and "Burning Love" to push but there was no soundtrack for the movie. I dearly love EOT, it's my favorite but it should have been about the build up and then the performance at MSG.

At the time of the project they didnt knew, elvis would sell out in MSG, U can rather film elvis touring the country, on stages that he would sell out. I think on tour is magical.

I think EOT is magical too! Read my post, It's my favorite Elvis project. It just could have been focused on more of a goal I'm pretty sure they knew Elvis would sell out at least 2 performances at MSG and either way, it was going to be a historic performance. They could have filmed shows in the other markets leading up to MSG with the second half of the movie focused on MSG. They included the press conference why not the performances?

I have read and been told by people over the years that EIC was purely a financial move. There was no album to push, no career change, not even a real "theme" or "purpose" to this special. Clearly, the 68 and 73 TV shows had purpose, thought, and planning. There was also a challenge to 68 and 73 for Elvis. Quite honestly, it doesn't appear that much thought or planning went into EIC in 77.

rlj

You could sort of say that about Elvis On Tour as well. Yes it was sort of the follow up to TTWII, showcasing his touring across the country as opposed to his performing in Vegas but it only focused on him performing in middling markets. There was no destination or pay off. There was, I suppose, "Separate Ways" and "Burning Love" to push but there was no soundtrack for the movie. I dearly love EOT, it's my favorite but it should have been about the build up and then the performance at MSG.

I agree. This should have built up to MSG. It doesn't look like any preperation went into it.
He had just split with Priscilla which wasn't good.
The film darted all over the place.
I agree also, not even a soundtrack was involved. It was like here it is, there is was. The film was released in nov. of 1972, and I guess the focus by then, was
the Aloha special.
In a short amount of time, you had the Garden album, then the On tour movie, which was live 1972, then you have LIve early 1973.

And to top it off, the Aloha special was originally set for Nov. 1972, so within a 6 month span, you would have been bombarded with Elvis 1972.

Then nothing for 4 years.

People and not just fans have seen this concert! And it's not good in my eyes, he should never have been on that stage!
He should have been in hospital.
Where we're his friends at that point?
Most elvis folk will know the answer to that question?
Mark

I thought I read somewhere that while on the way to the Omaha concert on June 19, 1977, Elvis said to Ed Parker, "How do I get myself in these situations? I guess that's show biz."

Is that true? If so, was Elvis second guessing the taping? Was his anxiety starting to get to him at that moment? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

rlj

Plenty of people would've known Steamroller Blues, Promised Land, or My Boy, as they got solid airplay. No monster hits like Burning Love, but he was still on the playlists of top 40, adult contemporary and country stations.

Did ever someone asked Col. Parker the same question?? maybe a fan or so.....???? if he regret that he let him filmed that way

I think, if I remember corectly, that the Colonel said one time that Elvis wanted the CBS 1977 special. The Colonel said also that Elvis wanted the buyout catalogue in March 1973. So Elvis is guilty in the Colonel's point of view for these huge mistakes.

For the millionth time.

Elvis knew about the CBS special in plently of time to get in better shape if he wanted.

Television shows take months and sometimes longer to plan.

The whole point of the television special was that CBS would film him randomly on tour and Elvis wouldn't have to do anything out of the ordinary.

For Elvis and the Colonel they would get $750,000. for little work and that's why they agreed to it.

If the CBS executives had told Elvis to lose a substantial amount of weight Elvis wouldn't have wanted to do it.

In the end all the CBS executives care about is the ratings and Elvis in Concert delivered big for them but they did not consciously try to sabotage the show.

There was no big conspiracy by CBS or Colonel Parker.

The big ratings were due to his sudden death which recently occurred. Many people tuned in out of curiosity. The concert was secondary. If he didnt die, doubt many people would have cared. They probably would have laughed it off and it may have sunk his career instead of bolster it.

I don't agree with that.

Anytime Elvis appeared on television it got huge ratings that's why CBS wanted to make a deal for a television special in the first place.

You might be right that it got bigger ratings than it would have but i bet it still would have been a ratings winner for CBS.

The special wasn't suppose to bolster Elvis career CBS wanted ratings and Elvis wanted the money.

If people tuned in to laugh at Elvis or if the television special would've have sunk his career CBS wouldn't have been concerned about that.

Elvis hadnt had a hit rcord on the radio in 5 years. I doubt he was in heavy demand for TV.

Elvis was actually always in demand to appear on television.

I know he got offers to appear on Cher's show as late as 1975 and of course Colonel Parker was able to make this deal with CBS.

It depends on what you mean by hit record Elvis had several top 20 hits during 1973-1975.

Even without any hit records there are many singers that can still bring in ratings for television shows and Elvis was one of them.

By hit record, I mean one people would know. Most people dont know anything after 1972's Burning Love except of course Elvis fans. Top 20 means nothing if the radio never played it. There are some records like some Darlene Love hits in the 60's that barely made top 40 but people are familiar with the songs. No one really knows the 70's Elvis stuff.

If the songs were top 20 hits, they were played on the radio. That's how they became top 20 hits. Songs went up the charts by air play and sales not just sales. I heard all of Elvis's singles from 72 to 77 on the radio as did everyone else who listened to top 40 stations and adult contemporary stations and Country stations. It's just that because those records weren't top 10 hits, you don't hear them replayed on the oldies stations like you do In The Ghetto, Suspicious Minds and Burning Love. I remember when Hurt and Moody Blue were in heavy rotation on the adult comptemp station my parents listen to in the morning.

Adult contemporary & country radio are not what I had in mind. What person under 40 is listening to adult contemporary and here in New York City, there was no major radio outlet for country. SO no one I know heard Elvis on the radio in those years. Top 40 rock/pop radio is what counted and Elvis was already dead to them. That those records made top 20 (some of them) is due to his tremendous loyal fan base and the sale frm the other 2 genres you mentioned.

There are many threads, but not so many about really details...like for example...did ever vernon said anything after his dead..maybe to à fan ..or something..about what Elvis thought of the special or what his input was..

For the millionth time.

Elvis knew about the CBS special in plently of time to get in better shape if he wanted.

Television shows take months and sometimes longer to plan.

The whole point of the television special was that CBS would film him randomly on tour and Elvis wouldn't have to do anything out of the ordinary.

For Elvis and the Colonel they would get $750,000. for little work and that's why they agreed to it.

If the CBS executives had told Elvis to lose a substantial amount of weight Elvis wouldn't have wanted to do it.

In the end all the CBS executives care about is the ratings and Elvis in Concert delivered big for them but they did not consciously try to sabotage the show.

There was no big conspiracy by CBS or Colonel Parker.

The big ratings were due to his sudden death which recently occurred. Many people tuned in out of curiosity. The concert was secondary. If he didnt die, doubt many people would have cared. They probably would have laughed it off and it may have sunk his career instead of bolster it.

I don't agree with that.

Anytime Elvis appeared on television it got huge ratings that's why CBS wanted to make a deal for a television special in the first place.

You might be right that it got bigger ratings than it would have but i bet it still would have been a ratings winner for CBS.

The special wasn't suppose to bolster Elvis career CBS wanted ratings and Elvis wanted the money.

If people tuned in to laugh at Elvis or if the television special would've have sunk his career CBS wouldn't have been concerned about that.

Elvis hadnt had a hit rcord on the radio in 5 years. I doubt he was in heavy demand for TV.

Elvis was actually always in demand to appear on television.

I know he got offers to appear on Cher's show as late as 1975 and of course Colonel Parker was able to make this deal with CBS.

It depends on what you mean by hit record Elvis had several top 20 hits during 1973-1975.

Even without any hit records there are many singers that can still bring in ratings for television shows and Elvis was one of them.

By hit record, I mean one people would know. Most people dont know anything after 1972's Burning Love except of course Elvis fans. Top 20 means nothing if the radio never played it. There are some records like some Darlene Love hits in the 60's that barely made top 40 but people are familiar with the songs. No one really knows the 70's Elvis stuff.

If the songs were top 20 hits, they were played on the radio. That's how they became top 20 hits. Songs went up the charts by air play and sales not just sales. I heard all of Elvis's singles from 72 to 77 on the radio as did everyone else who listened to top 40 stations and adult contemporary stations and Country stations. It's just that because those records weren't top 10 hits, you don't hear them replayed on the oldies stations like you do In The Ghetto, Suspicious Minds and Burning Love. I remember when Hurt and Moody Blue were in heavy rotation on the adult comptemp station my parents listen to in the morning.

Adult contemporary & country radio are not what I had in mind. What person under 40 is listening to adult contemporary and here in New York City, there was no major radio outlet for country. SO no one I know heard Elvis on the radio in those years. Top 40 rock/pop radio is what counted and Elvis was already dead to them. That those records made top 20 (some of them) is due to his tremendous loyal fan base and the sale frm the other 2 genres you mentioned.

I agree. By the mid 1970's management had obviously over estimated what radio could do for Elvis' singles.

That is why he really needed to go on the tonight show and perform a few of his latest hits.

If he had done this, "Moody Blue" could have been a really big single. Not to mention "Promised land".

For the millionth time.

Elvis knew about the CBS special in plently of time to get in better shape if he wanted.

Television shows take months and sometimes longer to plan.

The whole point of the television special was that CBS would film him randomly on tour and Elvis wouldn't have to do anything out of the ordinary.

For Elvis and the Colonel they would get $750,000. for little work and that's why they agreed to it.

If the CBS executives had told Elvis to lose a substantial amount of weight Elvis wouldn't have wanted to do it.

In the end all the CBS executives care about is the ratings and Elvis in Concert delivered big for them but they did not consciously try to sabotage the show.

There was no big conspiracy by CBS or Colonel Parker.

The big ratings were due to his sudden death which recently occurred. Many people tuned in out of curiosity. The concert was secondary. If he didnt die, doubt many people would have cared. They probably would have laughed it off and it may have sunk his career instead of bolster it.

I don't agree with that.

Anytime Elvis appeared on television it got huge ratings that's why CBS wanted to make a deal for a television special in the first place.

You might be right that it got bigger ratings than it would have but i bet it still would have been a ratings winner for CBS.

The special wasn't suppose to bolster Elvis career CBS wanted ratings and Elvis wanted the money.

If people tuned in to laugh at Elvis or if the television special would've have sunk his career CBS wouldn't have been concerned about that.

Elvis hadnt had a hit rcord on the radio in 5 years. I doubt he was in heavy demand for TV.

Elvis was actually always in demand to appear on television.

I know he got offers to appear on Cher's show as late as 1975 and of course Colonel Parker was able to make this deal with CBS.

It depends on what you mean by hit record Elvis had several top 20 hits during 1973-1975.

Even without any hit records there are many singers that can still bring in ratings for television shows and Elvis was one of them.

By hit record, I mean one people would know. Most people dont know anything after 1972's Burning Love except of course Elvis fans. Top 20 means nothing if the radio never played it. There are some records like some Darlene Love hits in the 60's that barely made top 40 but people are familiar with the songs. No one really knows the 70's Elvis stuff.

If the songs were top 20 hits, they were played on the radio. That's how they became top 20 hits. Songs went up the charts by air play and sales not just sales. I heard all of Elvis's singles from 72 to 77 on the radio as did everyone else who listened to top 40 stations and adult contemporary stations and Country stations. It's just that because those records weren't top 10 hits, you don't hear them replayed on the oldies stations like you do In The Ghetto, Suspicious Minds and Burning Love. I remember when Hurt and Moody Blue were in heavy rotation on the adult comptemp station my parents listen to in the morning.

Adult contemporary & country radio are not what I had in mind. What person under 40 is listening to adult contemporary and here in New York City, there was no major radio outlet for country. SO no one I know heard Elvis on the radio in those years. Top 40 rock/pop radio is what counted and Elvis was already dead to them. That those records made top 20 (some of them) is due to his tremendous loyal fan base and the sale frm the other 2 genres you mentioned.

Elvis was not DEAD to top 40 radio. Top 40 radio played the TOP 40 songs in the country for that week. In fact they played songs below the top 40 in the HOT 100 if they were moving up in position but if they didn't crack the top 40 or started moving down then they stopped. I remember hearing all of Elvis's 70's singles on our 2 top 40 stations. Record stores had all the top 40 singles filed in their chart positions for the week from 1 to 40 and I remember buying all of Elvis's singles from 1973 on from those racks. So Elvis was still had a top 40 radio presence in 1977.

BTW, the adult contemporary station that my parents listened to in the morning that I remember hearing Hurt and Moody Blue in heavy rotation was the number 1 radio station and morning show in Denver.

I understand R&B's point about the general public not knowing any 70s Elvis songs except for ''Burning love''.

However that doesn't have anything to do with Elvis continuing to have hit records after 1972 or his ability to draw big ratings on television.

How many Barry Manilow songs could a non Barry Manilow fan name.

How many Billy Joel songs could a non Billy Joel fan name.

That's always the case for every singer or band.

Appearing on television is largely about singing your past hits so i don't think it's relevant to this thread.

Elvis had some #1 hits that the majority of the general public wouldn't know.

There are many threads, but not so many about really details...like for example...did ever vernon said anything after his dead..maybe to à fan ..or something..about what Elvis thought of the special or what his input was..

I already answered that.

Elvis had input in that he chose to let CBS film him in concert for a couple of days.

Elvis picked the songs and sang what he wanted that was his input.

Vernon died not long after Elvis did and i don't recall him ever talking about Elvis in Concert.

To be honest, I don't understand the question. Elvis was not an employee of Colonel Parker, who was informed when to do what. If the King had not wanted to do this special, he simply wouldn't have signed the contract. But it was $750,000 for doing nothing he didn't do anyway. And by 1977 Elvis was certainly not in the condition to judge his looks and performance.

To be honest, I don't understand the question. Elvis was not an employee of Colonel Parker, who was informed when to do what. If the King had not wanted to do this special, he simply wouldn't have signed the contract. But it was $750,000 for doing nothing he didn't do anyway. And by 1977 Elvis was certainly not in the condition to judge his looks and performance.

It really seems like Elvis acted as if he worked for the Colonel.

I have to wonder if Elvis felt partly like "maybe this is for the best, let's break the illusion, I'm not 20 years old anymore, I don't move like I used to, I look horrible"...was there a part of him that was tired of being Elvis Presley the star?

I have to wonder if Elvis felt partly like "maybe this is for the best, let's break the illusion, I'm not 20 years old anymore, I don't move like I used to, I look horrible"...was there a part of him that was tired of being Elvis Presley the star?

A very interesting thought

rlj