THE PLUS OF QUORA is that it gives me prompts for a series of answers there that I can turn into short articles here. There’s nothing like a blog being constantly fed fresh content to keep readers and search engines happy! The minus of Quora is that it keeps me from other, lengthier projects, some of which have been gathering virtual dust for some time.
The question that was brought to my attention this morning is “What is Elvis’s best performance?” That is a question that can have many answers as the term “greatest performance” can mean many things, many of them subjective.
In a world where there are people who truly believe that G.I. BLUES is a better album than FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS, any answer has credibility with some people.
Read my answer below, indented between the two images.
On June 27, 1968, Elvis did two shows of one-hour each in front of a small audience on the itty-bitty stage at NBC’s studio in beautiful downtown Burbank, California. Despite the fact that he spent a good deal of the time pacing the stage, these two sets are referred to as the “sit-down sessions” because he spends a good deal of the time sitting on a chair playing guitar.
What was Elvis’ Greatest Hit?
If I assume that you are asking for one specific recording as his “best performance”—like you want to know “Elvis’ Greatest Hit”—I don’t know how anyone could supply a single answer that works. So how about this:
• I’d say that his most courageous “performance” was when he stepped into Sam Phillips’s itty-bitty cubbyhole of a studio in 1953 and paid $3.98 to cut two sides, My Happiness / That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.
Without this, it’s possible that everything that Elvis recorded in the studio and on stage 1954-1977 would never have occurred.
• I’d say that his most important “performance” was when he stepped into Sam Phillips’s itty-bitty cubbyhole of a studio in 1954 and set to putting something on tape that Sun Records could actually release for airplay and even possible sales. 1
Without this, it’s possible that everything that Elvis recorded in the studio and on stage 1954-1977 would never have occurred.
If on the other hand, I assume that you are asking for a single setting or event (like a show) that constitutes his “best performance,” then my answer is easy:
I think the two one-hour shows that he did on June 27, 1968, at NBC’s studio in Burbank, California (the “sit-down sessions”) are not only his best (and greatest) performance but arguably the greatest sustained performance in the history of rock & roll.
For those of you who only read my answers to Elvis questions on Quora and think that I think that the sun rose and set with Elvis, there are other events that I rank as being arguably the greatest sustained performance in the history of rock & roll. Without thinking long or hard, two come immediately to mind: 2
• The Beatles recording ten tracks in thirteen hours for their first (and most important) album PLEASE PLEASE ME on February 11, 1963. This day-long session culminated in Twist And Shout, one of the greatest rock & roll sides ever waxed.
• Bob Dylan and the Hawks performing live at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England, on May 17, 1966. Widely bootlegged for decades as the “Royal Albert Hall Concert,” this show was finally officially released as a two-disc set in 1998 as the fourth volume in the Dylan Bootleg Series and titled BOB DYLAN LIVE 1966. 3
Because it’s subjective, deciding Elvis’ greatest performance has many ‘correct’ answers. Click To TweetFEATURED IMAGE: The photo at the top of this page is Bob Dylan with Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson, then members of the Hawks on stage in 1966. The tour of the world that they did that year provided audiences with a type of rock & roll music no one had even imagined could exist. It took the release of this and other concerts from this time on bootleg albums in the early ’70s for most of us to know just how amazing the music was and is. 4
FOOTNOTES:
1 Keep in mind that in July 1954, the only airplay that Sam Phillips could depend on the first Presley record receiving was at least one from his buddy Dewy Phillips (no relation) on his popular Red, Hot & Blues show on WHBQ-560 right there in Memphis. Without this, it’s possible that everything that Elvis recorded in the studio and on stage 1954-1977 would never have occurred. (Yes, I know, that’s an awkward sentence but it gets the point across perfectly.) (Which is why I have used it three times.) (So far.) (I like the word itty-bitty, too.)
2 The sun kinda did rise and set with Elvis, but that’s another conversation for another time.
3 The full title of the album is The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966 – The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert. Columbia placed “Royal Albert Hall” in parentheses to let buyers know that they knew that in fact the concert was not taped at the Royal Albert Hall.
4 After the physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausting tour, the Hawks would change their name to the Band and move into a big pink house in West Saugerties, New York.
There is a big difference between greatest and most important.I would never in a million years put my My Happiness as the Elvis greatest performance.It is as you say a subjective question and my own personal favorite Elvis performance is indeed in the 1968 Comeback Special but not the in the ring segments but the very end.Of course I mean If I Can Dream.This is perhaps a performance that could cover “greatest” and “most important” as it was a brilliant performance and was important to Elvis to burn off the shackles of the “Clambake” movie madnes he had been in for 7 years.
“Hey, listen world, you’ve gotta know—I’m cutting loose and lettin’ go! Who needs the worry and the strife? Life can be a ball now just following my life. Clambake, gonna have a clambake!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0vozdeGYnQ
60 seconds in, Will Hutchins’ is staring up at the dancing girl. I’d swear that Malcolm McDowell based his whole character Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE on that look!