Elvis Presley Concert the King Essay

A female hands him a cloth handkerchief to wipe his sweaty face. During "What Know My Love" sweat is heavier than ever on his face; it is getting into his eyes. Clearly an Elvis concert, no matter whether it is in a small or large venue like the one he is singing in today, is more like a lounge act that a rock show. it's Elvis, after all, and that's what the audience came to see and hear.

"You're a fantastic audience," he says before beginning "Fever," the song Peggy Lee made famous well before Elvis came on the scene. When he sings "Fever" in the point of high emphasis he jerks his hips to the screams of the crowd. At one point he dips down, bending his knees to more screams. "Welcome to My World" is a familiar song and the audience responds and Elvis teases a female with a scarf, which he eventually lets her have after pulling it back up in a teasing stunt.

When singing "Suspicious Minds" Elvis leans way over the stage and allows a female to wipe his brow. An observer must wonder if that woman had a way to preserve the perspiration for posterity, as some of the audience member must surely keep the scarves he gives out. In this song he reaches out and several females touch his hand at the same time. Elvis is in motion more in this song -- pumping his arms and doing a bit of a dance step -- than in any previous song. He kisses a woman in the audience and is clearly at this point having a good time rather than just going through the motions as he appeared to do earlier in some songs. He sinks down to a kind of squatting position and instead of the real lyrics, says, "I hope this suit don't tear baby…"

Elvis introduces his band, the back-up singers, the orchestra and the orchestra leader, and then he seems to lose his place for a moment when he's talking about how much was raised for cancer research. He says $5,000, then changes it to $25,000, and seems like he's momentarily lost, or high, or exhausted, or all three. He introduces Hawaii Five-Oh actor Jack Lord. Singing "I'll Remember You" he has new leis and seems more pensive and serious. "Long Tall Sally" is one of the songs from one of Elvis's first albums; after briefly singing that song with new leis on, he transitions into "Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' on" (the Jerry Lee Lewis hit). "Look Away Dixieland" includes the female voices a Capella for the first time in the show. it's very effective and ads a mood that Elvis couldn't have created by himself. His next song is "His Truth is Marching on" but quickly he transitions into "Hush Little Baby Don't You Cry" with a very sweet soft flute solo between lines of the song.

Following that gentle flute solo the drums roll and the music builds up to a very high crescendo as Elvis belts out "…his truth is marching on…" (he takes his belt off after that emotional song and throws it to the audience). He bends down before his next song "Hunk of Love" (touching female hands again) which features a piano solo for the first time (a Jerry Lee Lewis kind of pounding on the keys).

After his helpers on stage put a robe over him he throws more scarves to the audience and belts out "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You" prior to prancing back and forth across the stage with his signature background music piped up loud.

At this point the audience knows that he has finished his show and they roar their approval of the performance. Elvis slaps a few hands, paces back and forth from one side of the stage to the other, and exits at a near jog. The show is over. But the audience stayed and stayed while the band continued to play the Elvis theme song, and finally they realized that the "King" isn't going to come back for an encore.

He played many of his hits, he played the hits of other singers and songwriters, and he gave this audience a thrill with every song. It was good to see him in his career before he became very heavy and puffy and drugged. He's Elvis and there…