Singer Presents ... Elvis, commonly referred to as the '68 Comeback Special, is an Elvis Presley concert television special that aired on NBC on December 3, 1968. It marked Presley's return to live performance after a seven-year period during which he focused on his film appearances.
The concert was initially planned as a Christmas special by the network and Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Producer Bob Finkel hired director Steve Binder, who, rather than creating a Christmas special, created a concert that would reflect the musical trends of the time and appeal to a younger audience. Filming took place in June 1968 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. The special included a sit-down session that showcased Presley in an informal setting, surrounded by fans and a small band.
The special received positive reviews and topped the Nielsen television ratings for the week in which it aired. It became the most-watched show of the television season, earning 42% of the television audience. Later known as the Comeback Special, it relaunched Presley's singing career.
Background After he returned from serving in the United States Army in March 1960, Presley enjoyed success with his album releases. G.I. Blues, the soundtrack album to his 1960 film G.I. Blues, topped both the Billboard pop albums chart and the UK Albums Chart in October 1960. On March 25, 1961, Presley played a concert in Hawaii to benefit the construction of the USS Arizona Memorial. It would be his last public performance for seven years. Presley's next number-one album on the Billboard pop albums chart was Something for Everybody, released in June 1961.
Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker shifted the focus of Presley's career to films and stopped him from touring. The films were low-budget, formulaic comedies that were successful at the box office, while the resulting albums sold well. Presley attempted to move into more dramatic roles, trying to reduce the prominence of musical numbers to center on his acting with Flaming Star (1960) and Wild in the Country (1961). Both releases flopped, and by 1964 Parker decided to limit all recordings exclusively to film soundtracks. Parker then set the Presley formula: the films would promote album releases, while album releases would promote the films.
To reduce costs, producer Hal Wallis shortened filming schedules, almost abandoning rehearsals and retakes. He stopped shooting on location; all films were to be shot in the studio, and less-experienced crews were used to reduce labor costs. Scenes were limited to long shots, medium shots and close-ups to speed the process. Meanwhile, studio recordings also declined in quality; session musicians did most of the work as Presley simply did not have time to focus on recording. He was paid $750,000 and received 50% of the film profits for his appearance in Tickle Me (1965), a sum that consumed most of the film's budget. Because Allied Artists was experiencing financial problems, Parker inserted unused songs from other studio sessions on the soundtrack and instructed the studio to work them into the film. The tight production worked, and Tickle Me was a box-office success.
Girl Happy (1965) marked the first failure of this approach. The soundtrack was Presley's least successful release, while the film barely grossed $2 million. Despite the success of Parker's model, Presley grew increasingly discontented. With the passage of time, he felt that his connection to the music business was weakening, causing depression and alienation as the quality of his films deteriorated. During a five-year span from 1964 through 1968, Presley had only one top-ten hit, "Crying in the Chapel" (1965), a gospel number recorded in 1960. While the 1964 film Viva Las Vegas enjoyed success, the ensuing films saw a progressive decline. By 1967, the difficulty of negotiating with Parker and the poor performance of the films led Wallis to opt out of his contract with Presley.
NBC deal In October 1967, Parker approached Tom Sarnoff, NBC West Coast vice president, to propose a Christmas television special. The US$1,250,000 package (about $ in prices) included the financing of a motion picture (for US$850,000), its soundtrack (for US$25,000), the television special (US$250,000) and US$125,000 reserved for the costs related to a rerun. The special was to be included in the feature Singer Presents ..., sponsored by the Singer Corporation.
Presley's initial reaction to the special was negative. He felt that it was another scheme concocted by Parker and was angered by the idea of singing Christmas carols on national television. However, his opinion changed after he began talks with the special's producer, Bob Finkel, who persuaded Singer, NBC and Parker to alter the show's original concept. Finkel obtained Parker's approval that the show was to be centered only on Presley, while enough material for a soundtrack album and a Christmas single was to be recorded. Presley's enthusiasm for the project grew, and he assured Finkel that he was ready to perform new material, different from anything he had previously done. He had no interest in Parker's opinion of the project.
To reflect the new intended direction of Presley's career, Finkel recruited director Steve Binder, who had directed the concert film T.A.M.I. Show and worked for NBC on Hullabaloo and a Petula Clark special. Finkel felt that hiring Binder would refresh Presley's image and that Binder would be able to introduce Presley to new audiences. Initially reluctant to direct the special, Binder was convinced by his associate Bones Howe, who had met Presley during the 1950s while he worked at Radio Recorders as an audio engineer. He insisted on working with Presley as he thought that Binder had similar production methods. A meeting was arranged during which Parker assured that the team would have full creative control but stressed that the publishing rights must be under Presley's name. Howe and Binder met with Presley later that week and informed him that they would prepare all of the details for the special by the time that Presley returned from his planned vacation in Hawaii.
Production Binder and Howe hired the production crew, repeating their collaboration with various people whom they had used for past specials. Billy Goldenberg was assigned as the musical director, while the Presley camp chose Billy Strange as the arranger. Chris Bearde and Allan Blye were hired as the writers, and Bill Belew for the costume design. Bearde and Blye proposed an idea based on Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird that was intended to portray Presley's career through his songs. Singer's representative Alfred Discipio approved the idea, as did Parker. The snippets of the story were connected by a number covering Jerry Reed's "Guitar Man". An informal segment was planned featuring Presley talking to members of his entourage in a scripted conversation that was to show him as self-deprecating while discussing his film performances. A gospel number would be added, as well as a live standup performance. The Christmas song, requested by Parker, would then be played, and the special would close with a spoken statement by Presley. According to Binder, Parker wanted Elvis to "come out in a tux and sing Christmas songs." Binder, however, wanted Presley to express his feelings about the current social climate, as Presley had been moved by the recent assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. King's assassination deeply touched Presley, who felt that the murder, which occurred in Memphis, Tennessee, "only confirmed everyone's worst feelings about the south."
By June 3, Presley returned to Hollywood to start the rehearsals that would last for two weeks. Howe insisted on the possibility of a soundtrack album from which he would earn royalties as its producer. NBC saw Howe's attitude as a potential danger to the special and ordered Binder to remove him from the staff. The production was further complicated when Goldenberg complained to Binder that Strange had not completed any musical arrangements for the special with only two weeks before the end of preproduction. Strange left the project, alleging that he was too busy with other projects. A week before the end of rehearsals, the production team allowed Howe to return as producer and engineer.
On June 4, Senator Robert Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after giving a live television speech; he died two days later. Binder stated in a 2005 interview with Elvis Australia that "One night when we were rehearsing, the television set was on the other room and all of a sudden there was this moment of silence. And I said, 'I think Bobby Kennedy's just been shot'. And we all rushed into the other office and that's exactly what happened. They had live at the Ambassador Hotel, Kennedy making his speech. We were in the piano room at the time, but there was just something weird that evening and I just sensed something had gone wrong. Then we spent the whole night basically talking about the Kennedy assassination, of both Bobby and John." According to Binder, this event would further motivate Presley to record "If I Can Dream" as the special's closing number.
On June 17, the team moved to the NBC studios in Burbank, California. Goldenberg asked Finkel to remove Presley's large entourage from the production area, complaining that they interfered with the creative process. Presley worked with choreographer Lance LeGault on the planned numbers, and Belew worked with the costumes.
Binder and Howe developed the concept of the informal section of the show after seeing Presley interacting with his entourage while playing music during breaks. Binder planned to shoot the segment in the locker room to give the public a sense of how Presley's music was developed in an intimate setting, but Parker opposed this concept. Binder settled for a sit-down concert on a small stage that resembled a boxing ring. He called Presley's first backup musicians, Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana, to accentuate the nature of Presley's musical origins (Presley's original bassist Bill Black had died in 1965). They were also joined by two members of Presley's entourage, Charlie Hodge and Alan Fortas. The scripted part was canceled but the writers gave Presley a list of topics to discuss between songs. The topics included mentions of his early career, his Hollywood years and the current music business.
On June 20, Presley started the recording process at United Western Recorders. Howe arranged for the rhythm section, session musicians from Los Angeles. The band was composed of drummer Hal Blaine and guitarists Mike Deasy and Tommy Tedesco. Members of the string and brass sections of the NBC orchestra were also enlisted. All of the special's music, except for that of the live sections, was prerecorded by Presley. It was to be blended with live vocals during the production numbers, which were taped on June 27.