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[tense music playing]

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[man 1] Everything for his future
depended on this special.

Elvis was at the low point of his career,

doing movies he didn't wanna do.

He hadn't been onstage in seven years.

[man 2] You all know what we're here for,
right? The Elvis Presley Special.

[man 1] The '68 Comeback Special
would let him know

if there was still an audience
for him as a performer.

[tense music continues]

[Schilling] If Elvis did not give
the greatest performance of his career,

it was the end.

[man 3] When Elvis
first came on the scene,

it was a revelation.

[cheering and screaming]

[camera shutter clicking]

The way he looked in the early days,
it was as cool as it possibly gets.

But it evolved to a thing in the '60s.

He was doing music that wasn't as great
as the music he did in the very beginning.

He was doing movies
that nobody believed in.

I'll buy you the biggest steak
you ever had.

[barking]

[Robertson] He was walking a fine line

between, "I'm the real thing,"

or, "I've lost it."

We are now gonna see
whether he's really back or not.

We're gonna see really what he's made of.

[music fades out]

[man 4] Just before they come onstage,

Elvis calls the director
into the dressing room

and said, "I can't go out there.
I can't do it."

And the audience were coming in.

Glenn?

Go?

Okay. Now, y'all know
what we're here for, right?

And the director says, "Look, Elvis."

"You've got to go out there."
Elvis is in the leather jacket.

[somber music playing]

[Luhrmann] And the director says,
"I'll tell you what."

"You go out there,

and if you don't like it,
I'll pretend the tapes were destroyed."

And he makes him this crazy promise.

And so, Elvis goes out.

[fans cheering in distance]

[woman] He was definitely aware
of the stakes, yes.

[announcer in distance]
And here's Elvis Presley!

And he knew that this could be a failure
and that would be it.

It could ruin his career.
And he was very aware of that.

[man 2] Uh, welcome to NBC
and the Elvis Presley Special.

[audience applauding]

You can do better.
I'm gonna say it all over again.

I wanna really hear something.

Welcome to NBC
and the Elvis Presley Special!

-[audience cheering loudly]
-[drummer drumming]

And here's Elvis Presley.

[women screaming]

[band playing rock 'n' roll tune]

[music stops]

Well, I'm gonna
have to do it sooner or later,

so I might as well get on with it, baby.
Let's go.

[opening of "Heartbreak Hotel" playing]

Better get on with it again.
I missed it that time.

[audience laughing]

Elvis kind of fumbles the first entry.
And they have to start again.

And he's really nervous.
He's sweating nerves.

[scattered applause]

-[director] Okay, we're ready.
-My boy, my boy.

They're gonna put me away for a while.

[man 5] It's just hard to remember
when you see him

that once he had been the King.

[Elvis] How long am I gonna be
standing here? Are we ready?

It's getting embarrassing standing
out here, Steve. I gotta do something.

[Thompson] It's shocking,
because he's very nervous.

He's so visibly insecure.

So overwhelmed by the size of the moment.

-[Steve] Okay, are you ready?
-[Elvis] No, but we'll try anyway.

[Thompson] Whoever this person was
standing on this stage

was a shell of the rock star
who just a decade earlier

terrified all of mainstream America.

[drum beat hammering]

[bass line playing]

["My Baby Left Me" playing]

♪ Yes, my baby left me
Never said a word ♪

[Elvis] We got a seven-year contract
with Paramount Pictures.

And overnight, it was all gone.
It was like a dream.

[reporter] Say something to your fans.

Do you have any particular message
you'd like to pass on to them?

[Elvis] And so, I became

very discouraged.

[song continues]

[song ends]

[man] And here is Elvis Presley!

[audience cheering]

[cheering fades out]

[host] Just a few weeks ago,
a young man from Memphis, Tennessee,

recorded a song on the Sun label.

He's only 19 years old.
Elvis Presley, let's give him a nice hand.

[audience applauding]

["That's All Right" playing]

♪ Well, that's all right, Mama ♪

♪ That's all right for you ♪

♪ That's all right, Mama ♪

♪ Just anyway you do
That's all right ♪

[Elvis] I've always liked music.

My mother and dad both loved to sing.

They'd tell me
that when I was 3 or 4 years old,

I got away from them in church
and walked up in front of the choir

and started beating time.

You have to remember, back in those days,
music is very segregated.

Most music that we heard was all Black.

And it was rhythm and blues,

B.B. King, Little Richard.

White people was playing Pat Boone,
the McGuire Sisters… [chuckling]

…and we really wasn't interested
in that kind of music.

[Thompson] America was deeply scared
of Black culture infecting

white children.

And here comes Elvis,
who took the music and the moves

that he saw in the juke joints of
the Mississippi and Memphis of his youth,

the music he grew up loving,
and put that onstage.

[Schilling] This gave us our own music
that was not our parents' music.

It was dangerous music,
'cause it was not our society's music,

especially down South.

That was just taboo.

Elvis mostly back then
did covers of Black artists.

["That's All Right"
by Arthur Crudup playing]

♪ Yeah, now that's all right, Mama ♪

♪ That's all right for you ♪

[Love] Elvis was from the Deep South,
so he wanted to be around Black people.

I asked him, "How did you come about
really loving Black people's music?"

He said he would go around
to Black churches

and just stand at the windows
and listen to their music.

[congregation singing indistinctly]

[Robertson] He was a prime example

of showing what happens

when you put together
music coming down from the mountains

and music coming up the Mississippi River,

and where that meets.

And they explode,
and that became rock and roll.

[Big Joe Turner singing]
♪ I said, "Shake, rattle and roll" ♪

[Love] Nobody white was singing like that,
or wasn't even acting like that onstage.

[Elvis] ♪ I said
"Shake, rattle and roll" ♪

[Love] We thought it was funny
because we would say things like,

"Oh, he's just trying
to be Black." [laughs]

But he really wasn't.
That was just how he was.

That was the controversy
that everybody was having at that time.

'Cause his fans
didn't want him to be Black,

and I don't even think they realized
that's the kind of singing he was doing.

But we, as Black artists
and Black singers,

we could tell the difference between Elvis

and the other white singers
that were coming along at that time.

The world was trying to fight us
not to do that, to keep separated.

But music is not gonna separate you.
Music is going to bring you together.

[Thompson] Elvis was an ambitious artist.

He was also a child
who grew up in poverty,

whose greatest fear was being poor again.

His two greatest urges
are to make the most of his talent

and to never ever be poor again.

And those things
would fight each other his whole life.

[contemplative music playing]

[man 1] Most of Elvis Presley's
early music contemporaries

are now merely footnotes
in the history of rock and roll.

That's because they didn't have
the one thing that Elvis Presley had.

Colonel Tom Parker,
the shrewdest manager in the business.

[Thompson] When the Colonel
looked at Elvis,

he saw a big, shiny idol
that America would worship.

And when Elvis looked in the mirror,
he saw B.B. King.

Those two versions
of the same person could never coexist,

and the Colonel's Elvis

killed the other Elvis.

[man 2] Elvis and the Colonel
started working together in 1955

when Elvis was out on the road
doing tours promoting his Sun singles,

and the Colonel was managing Hank Snow.

And basically, they got on
the same package tour together,

and the Colonel was able to see

what Elvis was about,
and the audience reaction,

and how talented he really was.

Almost immediately, he starts

to maneuver of how he's going to
take over the management of Elvis.

[Thompson] Colonel Parker
came up as a carnival barker.

He thought Elvis was merch.

He thought Elvis was a widget
he could sell to America.

[contemplative music continues]

[Luhrmann] In Elvis's mind,
the Colonel was some kind of genius.

He was a kind of genius of selling.

He was a genius showman,
he was a genius carny, really.

And he had absolutely brilliant
entertainment ideas.

[Schilling] When Colonel met with Elvis
and talked to him about

TV exposure, about film,

that's how the Colonel took over.

Elvis wasn't 21 yet.

[Elvis] I wasn't known at all until
Col. Parker started managing me, you see.

And then I got on television,
and then I started being known.

Elvis Presley, and here he is.

-[band playing exciting tune]
-[audience applauding]

[strums guitar]

♪ Well, get out of that kitchen
And rattle those pots and pans ♪

♪ Get out of that kitchen
And rattle those pots and pans ♪

♪ Well, roll my breakfast… ♪

[Springsteen] Colonel is summed up
in one sentence.

"Last year, my boy had
a million dollars' worth of talent."

"This year, he has a million dollars."

[laughing] That's Colonel Tom Parker
in a nutshell.

[Luhrmann] He kind of invented
the merch we know today.

It was the Colonel's idea
to put Elvis's face on everything.

The only kind of merch that really existed
up till then was sort of for Mickey Mouse.

He just took it to another level.

[Parker] No one can deny that this artist,
whether they like it or not,

has a tremendous amount
of energy and talent.

The name Elvis Presley is becoming
a household word one way or the other.

[Springsteen] The night Elvis appeared
on The Ed Sullivan Show,

I knew I was seeing something

that possibly hadn't been seen before,

which was a new type of human being.

A 20th century man.

-[audience applauding]
-[women screaming excitedly]

I was a child,
and I was excited by the music.

-♪ Ready, set, go, man, go ♪
-[drum beating in time to lyrics]

♪ I got a gal that I love so ♪

-[rest of band joins in]
-♪ I'm ready ♪

♪ Ready, ready, ready, I'm ready ♪

♪ Ready, ready, ready, I'm ready ♪

♪ Ready, ready, ready
I'm ready, ready, ready to rock and roll ♪

[Springsteen] It struck me deeply
even at that young age,

the open sexuality of his appearance,

the way he combed his hair,
or the makeup he put…

He wore makeup, you know, in 1956.

♪ Ready, ready to rock and roll ♪

♪ Now, the flat-top cats
And the dungaree dolls ♪

♪ Are headed to the gym
To the sock-hop ball ♪

♪The joint is really jumping
The cats are going wild ♪

♪ The music really sends me
I dig that crazy style ♪

[Springsteen] And so the first thing I did
after I saw Elvis was

got my mother,
we got to Mike Diehl's music shop.

And I rented that guitar, came home,

and I just smelled it,
touched it, and felt it.

Made some noise on it. I couldn't play it.

There were just all these things
that hadn't dawned on you before

that he sort of opened the door for
and gave you an allowance to

be who you actually are.

You didn't have to follow the rules.

[laughing] You could break the rules.

♪ Rock and roll ♪

-[guitar solo playing]
-[screaming continues]

[rapid drumbeat plays]

[man] I asked my mom.

I said, "Do you remember
when Elvis Presley came on?"

And she comes from
this very good Irish Catholic family.

She said, "I thought it was disgusting."

I was really disappointed.
I was like, "Mom, it's Elvis."

"Well, I don't like it."

His leg moving like that was not

an affectation.

That was not a cool stage move
he came up with.

He couldn't help it.

♪ Gonna rock and roll
Till the end of the night ♪

♪ Ready, ready, ready, I'm ready ♪

♪ Ready, ready, ready, I'm ready ♪

♪ Ready, ready, ready ♪

♪ I'm ready, ready, ready
To rock and roll ♪

-Yeah.
-[music ends]

[screaming continues]

[Elvis] The first thing
people want to know

is why I can't stand still
when I'm singing.

I watch my audience and listen to them.

And I know we're all
getting something out of our system.

None of us knows what it is.

The important thing is getting rid of it
and nobody's getting hurt.

By the time he's on The Ed Sullivan Show
in September of '56,

he's already been
on national television ten times and…

And it's really the Milton Berle shows
that provide the controversy.

["Hound Dog" playing]

[preacher] My reasons on rock and roll
music and why I preach against it,

I know what it does to you.

And I know the evil… feeling
that you feel when you sing it.

["Hound Dog" continues]

[Elvis] I don't like to be called
"Elvis the Pelvis,"

but it's one of the most
childish expressions

I've ever heard coming
from an adult, "Elvis the Pelvis,"

but if they wanna call me that,
there's nothing I can do about it,

so I just have to accept it.

[reporter] Now the chief reason
for all the criticism of Elvis Presley

is that he's become
a sort of a sex symbol to teenage girls.

They go wild over him.

["Hound Dog" continues]

His confidence, which is the fuel
of all of his sexual charisma,

was the thing that scared America.

♪ You ain't no friend of mine ♪

[music ends]

-♪ You ain't nothing but a hound dog ♪
-[music restarts]

[all cheering excitedly]

♪ Crying all the time ♪

[man] One secret of Presley's popularity
with teenagers

has been his lack of popularity
with their parents.

So if parents quit criticizing
his singing, I predict

Elvis Presley's star will fall

as rapidly as it rose.

Elvis was…

was very unique because

he wasn't a guy
that just hearing his music

gave you the full picture.

You had to see him.

Elvis Presley!

How about my boy? I love him.

Wonderful. Hit it up.

-♪ He ain't nothin' but a hound dog ♪
-[band starts playing]

Hollywood was the ultimate destination
at that point

if you wanted to be a famous person.

It had worked for Frank Sinatra
and Bing Crosby and Dean Martin.

So it was natural for them to look towards

what… when is that going to happen?

It wasn't if it was gonna happen,
but when it was gonna happen.

Take your hand off my arm, Mr. Fields.

How come you're so friendly
with the lady, boy?

We met in Paris last year.
The King of France introduced us.

[horn music playing]

♪ If you're looking for trouble ♪

♪ You came to the right place ♪

[Luhrmann] Elvis was obsessed
with doing serious acting.

He idolized James Dean,

and he really wanted to be
like Dean and Brando,

and, in fact, King Creole
was first offered to James Dean.

And so, that's why he jumped at it.

♪ My daddy was
A green-eyed mountain jack ♪

[Springsteen] For my money,
Elvis is simply fun to watch.

There were places for him to go in films.

[intriguing music playing]

[Elvis] I came to Hollywood
and I did four movies.

So everything was happening,
really, in a short period of time.

And then,

right when I was going good,
I got drafted.

And overnight, it was all gone.
It was like a dream.

[snaps fingers] Pop.

[music fades out]

[man] I do solemnly swear…

[men repeating]

[man] …true faith and allegiance
to the United States of America.

To the United States of America.

[man] Congratulations, you are now
in the Army. You are all privates.

[big band music playing]

[reporter 1] His lucrative career as rock
and roll king interrupted for a while,

Elvis Presley begins his military service
at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.

Uncle Sam doesn't play favorites,
and those celebrated sideburns,

which were his trademark,
are sacrificed to military uniformity.

[reporter 2] Elvis Presley,

Private Elvis Presley
of the United States Army,

is due to embark for Germany today.

[tense music playing]

[Schilling] He was
at the top of his career.

The last thing he wanted to do
was go to the Army.

It was a sad thing.

I remember Elvis
as he's walking up on the ship

with a duffel bag on his back

and saying goodbye to all the fans
as he's going to Germany.

Even though there wasn't a war,

when you think of Germany
back in the '50s,

that's like going to…

[chuckles] …the worst place ever.

[triumphant music playing]

[reporter 3] This is the story of the role
played by the United States Army.

Their job? Hold back the tide of Communism
in Germany and in free Europe.

[Elvis] It's really
a privilege to be in Europe.

It's something that I've looked forward to
for some time.

I only regret that… uh…

I can't do some…

some shows and different things
while I'm here,

but I will be looking forward when my,

uh, Army hitch is over,

I would like very much to come back
on a regular tour of Europe.

[reporter 4] Thank you very much,
Mr. Presley.

And we wish you
a pleasant stay in Germany.

[Elvis] Thank you very much.

-Arrivederci. No, that's Italian.
-[people laughing]

[chuckles]

[Priscilla] I met Elvis in Germany.

My father was in the Air Force,
and he was stationed over there.

There was a place called the Eagles Club,

and I was sitting at the Eagles Club
in the afternoon.

There was a jukebox.
Back in the day, we played records.

And I was writing to my friend
how much I hated it there,

that I missed them all very much.

And this guy came over to me,
introduced himself,

and he said,
"Are you writing to your friends?"

And I go, "Yeah, we just got here
three weeks ago."

And he said, "Do you like Elvis?"

And I said,
"Yeah, who doesn't like Elvis?"

He said, "Would you like to meet him?"

[gentle piano music playing]

[Priscilla] At home, I told my father,
"Dad, I met somebody at the Eagles Club,

and he wanted to know
if I wanted to meet Elvis."

Well, that didn't go well at all,

'cause my father wasn't really a fan,
and neither was my mother.

And I only thought it was a one-time shot,

never ever thinking
that I would be asked to go back.

We went over that weekend on a Saturday.

There was a glass on top of the piano,

and as he's singing, he's really
rocking it like Jerry Lee Lewis did.

I'm looking at it going, "Oh my God."

"It's gonna splash. It's gonna fall."

And just as it started to fall,

he picked it up and looked over
to everybody like it was a trick.

Being in the Army was so not his thing.
It was very foreign.

And he's alone,
and usually he has people around him.

He has his guys around him,
even before he went into the Army.

So he was alone,
really, for the first time.

It sounded like to me
that he needed someone to talk to,

and Elvis would really
pour his heart out to me.

He'd just lost his mother.

[Elvis] It wasn't only
like losing a mother.

It was like losing a friend,
a companion, someone to talk to.

I could wake her up any hour of the night,
if I was worried about something.

She'd get up, try to help me.

[Jackson] Elvis and Gladys's relationship
was very close from the very beginning.

They lived in
an incredibly poor area of Tupelo.

She was always trying
to make their life better.

And also, at the same time,

Vernon ends up getting sent
to jail for forging a check.

So for a lot of the time
that Elvis was a kid,

it was just he and Gladys,
and Gladys worked very hard to

feed him, clothe him, get him into school.

[gentle piano music continues]

She was his support mechanism
for the pressure,

the stress, everything
that was going on with the career.

[melancholy music playing]

[Priscilla] I had compassion
and felt horrible for him.

Understanding, you know,
being away especially,

losing a mom that he was so close to.

So that's kind of how we connected.

And he was very nervous
about whether or not

he would still be in the business
or still even sing again.

He was away for quite a while,

and he thought a lot of his fans
would forget him.

Someone else would be coming in,
someone new.

-[hopeful string music playing]
-[reporter] Say something to your fans.

Do you have any particular message
that you'd like to pass on to them?

[Elvis] Yes, I would. I'd like to say that

in spite of the fact that I'll be
out of their eyes for some time,

I hope I'm not out of their minds.

And I'll be looking forward to the time

when I can come back
and entertain again like I did.

[Luhrmann] Elvis,

he was deeply sensitive
and deeply insecure.

Like that little boy who was ashamed
of what happened to his dad,

who was ashamed of their poverty,

ashamed of what happened to his mom,
was trying to mend things

and make things good
and always wanted to please people.

I mean, he was a profound pleaser,

and that made him so charismatic onstage,

but also gave him an Achilles' heel.

And that is that you want love. Mass love.

But the more mass love you get,

the bigger the hole gets,
the more you need.

When he was in the Army,

I think that's when
it really starts to wear away at him,

not having the love of the audience.

[music fades out]

[faint gunshots]

[Schilling] Normally,
when an artist was big,

and they went to the Army and was out of
the sight of everybody for a couple years,

they never were able
to pick their career back up.

Elvis was never out of sight.

["(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I"
playing]

[Jackson] The most important thing
that the Colonel does

before Elvis goes into the Army,

is he gets him to record
a bunch of material.

♪ Pardon me if I'm sentimental ♪

♪ When we say goodbye ♪

♪ Don't be angry with me ♪

[Jackson] They have huge hits
while Elvis is in Germany.

So if you weren't really
paying attention to the national news

and what Elvis
was actually physically doing,

you'd think he was still making records.

♪ Now and then, there's a fool such as I ♪

[Schilling] Before he went to Germany,

he was still

the rebel.

♪ As a fool, such as I am ♪

[Schilling] And here he was,
a foot soldier,

staying up all night on patrols.

Getting frostbite in the snow.

♪ I'm a fool, but I'll love you, dear ♪

[man] Colonel wrote him letters,

again and again, explaining
what he'd done to promote his records.

♪ As a fool, such as I ♪

[backup singers] ♪ Fool such as I ♪

Telling him that he'd made a new deal,
that there was a movie to come out and do…

Telling him, "I made another deal
for another two movies."

[Elvis] I would like to say
that when I get out of the Army…

[music ends]

…I'm looking forward to…

to just picking up where I left off
when I came into the service.

["Stuck on You" by Elvis Presley playing]

[reporter] And I take it from that
that you really enjoy what you're doing,

or what you were doing
before you went into service.

[Elvis] Oh yes, I do.

In fact, that was the hardest part
of the entire military service.

It was being away from it.

[reporter] Being away from the fans?

Just being away
from show business altogether.

That was the hardest part of all.

Kept thinking about the past all the time,
contemplating the future.

♪ Stick because I'm stuck on you… ♪

[Springsteen] There was no rock musician

who had an established
20, 30-year career that you could look to.

That person didn't exist.

Everybody's idea of success was Sinatra.

Sinatra had the incredible career.

And those types of entertainers, you know?

That was sort of… That was the peak.

[audience applauding]

[announcer] The Frank Sinatra Timex Show,
"Welcome Home, Elvis."

There he is!

[O'Brien] The thing that stands out to me,

which is a very crafty move,

is he's welcomed home
in a big special by Frank Sinatra.

[Sinatra] Well, Elvis,
that's our little "welcome home" gift.

The two years you lost while in the Army.

And looking back over it,
I'm stuck with the realization

that maybe you didn't miss
so much after all.

As a matter of fact, all you seemed
to have lost is your sideburns.

Now, folks, what would you say
if I were gonna sing another song now?

It's a very clear moment

where Elvis is accepted into the club.

Frank is telling the country,
"He's a good kid."

"He served his country,
went in the Army. He's back now."

But at the same time,
Elvis is giving something up.

Because in order to get into the club,

you also have to give up,
"This person's dangerous."

"This person's a threat."

"My daughter might run off with this guy."

That's over. It's almost like
a negotiated settlement.

Frank Sinatra, they call him
the chairman of the board

because he runs show business.

He is perceived as the guy

who can bless certain people,

and, "Look, we're together
singing each other's songs."

♪ For, my darling ♪

♪ I love you ♪

-Man, that's pretty.
-[audience laughing]

♪ And I always will ♪

[audience cheering]

[reporter] Elvis, some radio stations
are cutting off rock and roll.

What's your comment on that,

and what will happen to your career
if rock and roll died out?

If rock and roll
died completely out, well,

then I'd have to do something else

in the line of music. Maybe…

uh…

opera. [laughs]

I don't know, really.

[classical piano playing]

[Luhrmann] Elvis, when he was in the Army,

he was exposed to a lot of European music,
and he particularly loved Mario Lanza.

And Mario Lanza was an opera singer.

And I think that's where
this cross-fertilization happens.

[Lanza singing opera music in Italian]

[opera music transitions to rock guitar]

["Surrender" by Elvis Presley playing]

♪ When we kiss, my heart's on fire ♪

[Luhrmann] Elvis changed his musical style
and his voice.

The way he spoke changed very much.

Elvis becomes really

serious after the Army
with big vocal singing.

[Jackson] He can get almost into
that sort of operatic range.

So as soon as he's back from the Army,

the Colonel gets him
right into the studio again.

They're recording stuff
that is much more adult-leaning.

♪ Of our love and all its glory ♪

[Corgan] The thing about Elvis as
an artist is he had hits in every genre.

Does he sound like Elvis in every song?
Yeah. How do you do that?

It's not like he changed himself.

He makes those genres bend to him,
not the other way around.

♪ Won't you please surrender to me ♪

It's the pure arc light of his talent.

♪ Your lips, your arms, your heart, dear ♪

[backup singers] ♪ Surrender ♪

[Elvis] ♪ Be mine forever ♪

♪ Be mine tonight ♪

Elvis comes back
and he performs a benefit show.

This is a Pearl Harbor
charity organization.

[announcer] Look out, here he comes!
Ladies and gentlemen,

it looks as if… it's Elvis Presley!

[all screaming]

["Heartbreak Hotel" playing]

♪ Well, since my baby left me ♪

-[fans continue screaming]
-♪ I found a new place to dwell ♪

♪ Down at the end of Lonely Street
At Heartbreak Hotel ♪

♪ Where I'll be so lonely, baby ♪

♪ I'll be lonely ♪

♪ You'll be so lonely, you could die ♪

He gets on that stage, and he is just

charisma personified.

-[guitar solo playing]
-[fans screaming]

[Thompson] It was the peak of something.

And you would think
that this would be the relaunch.

And instead, it was the end of something.

[drum flourish playing]

[Thompson] He walks off that stage,

and he wouldn't walk
on another stage for seven more years.

[contemplative music playing]

You don't think rock and roll
is dying then, huh?

In 1956, when I first started out,
I was hearing the same thing.

That rock and roll is dead, is dying out.

I'm not saying it won't die out,
because it may be dead tomorrow.

I don't know.

I wish I did know.

[Priscilla] Elvis kept calling me
periodically out of the blue.

He felt safe talking to me
and expressing to me his fears.

His likes, his dislikes.

I didn't have any media attention,
and this is when I was dating him.

He would tell me about Colonel Parker,

and he really depended on Colonel Parker

to take care of him
and get him into movies.

And he was hoping for bigger opportunities

to be able to be in the type of films
that he wanted to be in.

More serious, something good
that he felt he was connected to.

After the Army, Elvis did a couple
of non-singing movies, and nobody went.

[announcer] Elvis Presley
in his most dramatic role,

as the half-breed in Flaming Star.

Torn between two loves, two loyalties,
and fighting to save them both.

Flaming Star, dramatic dynamite.

[woman] It was a good film.

A very good film, but he didn't sing.
He didn't get the girl.

And he died, so you can imagine
how that went over with his fans.

They hated it, you know?

White men let her die!

[Luhrmann] And the Colonel
kind of used that to say,

"Let's surround you with a lot of girls,

put you in really cool clothes,
you sing a lot of songs,

and keep the plot light and fluffy,

so as many people as possible
can buy a ticket."

"You're gonna make a river of money."
And they did.

["Can't Help Falling in Love" playing]

[Luhrmann] And I think that is
the beginning of his corruption.

♪ Wise men say ♪

♪ Only fools rush in… ♪

And that's when he had
that five-year contract

that had basically musicals.

♪ I can't help falling in love… ♪

That's what people wanted to see him sing.

[Parker] We're heading back to Hollywood,

to start the picture
Thursday at Paramount.

-[Elvis] Thursday at Paramount.
-[Parker] For Hal Wallis.

Two or three of them this year.

[reporter] You're gonna be that busy?

["Rock-A-Hula Baby" playing]

♪ The way she moves her hips
To her fingertips ♪

♪ I feel I'm heaven bound ♪

[Thompson] They put out Blue Hawaii.

The movie's an unbelievable
box office hit.

But something else happens

that is very beneficial
to Elvis's bank account

and ultimately almost lethal
to his creative life,

which is the soundtrack
spends 20 weeks at number one.

It's a huge hit, and say what you
want to say about Colonel Parker,

but the guy is a brilliant businessman.

And he immediately realized,

"If we put out movies
where Elvis sings to young women

who aren't wearing a whole lot of clothes,

and we put out a companion soundtrack,

the things will promote each other."

And so, that was now the formula.

Oh, it's a beach party. Come on.

And they just did it
over and over and over again.

[twangy guitar playing]

[bongo tune playing]

And like every drug,
the high is a little less every time.

[performing "Do the Clam"]
♪ Everybody gather round ♪

[bongo rhythm playing]

♪ Listen to that bongo sound ♪

From a business perspective,

which is the only thing
the Colonel is interested in,

the movies are terrible,

but the business of Elvis
is actually as good as it's ever been.

♪ Do the clam, do the clam ♪

♪ Grab your barefoot baby by the hand... ♪

[Jackson] He became more and more
plastic-looking in those movies.

I'm sorry, buddy.
I can't be in both places at once.

[O'Brien] Elvis's hair in those movies,
at a certain point,

it's like a cotton candy
that they spray-painted black

and then they varnished it.

They brushed it with some yak butter.

He's not real.
He's not a real person anymore.

The backgrounds behind him aren't real.

Nothing's real.

["Do the Clam" continues]

[Thompson] Colonel Parker's
plan is working.

He made more than Steve McQueen.

He made more than Gregory Peck.

He made more than Cary Grant.

He was the highest-paid
movie star in America.

They would pay astronomically.

But what the Colonel realized was

the more money you could get out of them,
the cheaper he could make the films.

["Do the Clam" continues]

[Elvis] And I was doing
a lot of pictures close together,

and the pictures got very similar.

I'd read the first
four or five pages of it, and I knew

that it was just a different name
with 12 new songs in it.

The songs were mediocre in most cases.

They even stopped writing new music.

They'd just sort of regurgitate old songs,

throw a sort of plotline together.

[Thompson] He's putting together
these grab-bag records

of songs that no one else wanted

because the requirement
to be on an Elvis song

was Colonel Parker got the publishing.

These were all naked money grabs.

They had this one record,

there is Elvis posing with the RCA dog

who is sitting on top
of a cash register. It's insane.

♪ Dig right in and do the clam ♪

-[all cheering]
-[music fades out]

The scripts get worse,
the songs get worse.

Until, eventually, Elvis Presley
is making movies in three weeks

where there's one take of everything

and he's singing
"Old MacDonald Has a Farm."

[upbeat music playing]

♪ Old MacDonald… ♪

-[chuckles]
-Oh boy.

♪ Ee-i-ee-i-o ♪

♪ And on that farm he had some chicks
Ee-i-ee-i-o ♪

♪ With a cluck-cluck here
A cluck-cluck there ♪

-Embarrassing.
-Yeah.

♪ And when those chicks got out of line
Chicken fricassee ♪

-[Priscilla] That, to me, is a crime.
-[Schilling] Yeah.

-It is a crime.
-Yeah.

To put him
in that situation and sing that song.

That makes him a laughingstock,
and he knew it.

[Schilling] Yeah.

-Yeah.
-He knew it.

[melancholy music playing]

[man] When did you permanently
move in to Graceland?

That was in 1963.

I know he'd be very angry.

I saw him throw
so many scripts across the room.

Frustration, anger.

Um…

Lost a little bit
on where his career was going.

Because those were not the roles
that he wanted.

[Elvis] Uh, Hollywood's image of me
was wrong, and I knew it.

And I couldn't do anything about it.

I didn't know what to do. I just felt
I was obligated to things that I didn't

fully believe in.

At a certain stage, I had no say-so in it.

I didn't have
final approval of the script.

Which means that I couldn't say,

"This is not good for me."

And so, I became

very discouraged.

They couldn't have paid me
no amount of money in the world

to make me feel any satisfaction inside.

The first time I heard him say no

was we were here in Bel Air,

and he looks at this script,

and he throws it against the wall.

"I'm not doing another one of these."

Within a few hours,

there was the record company,

there was William Morris,

there was the studio,

and there was Colonel Parker.

And, "If you don't do these contracts,

you won't do anything."

[melancholy music continues]

[Priscilla] He really had no choice.

Not really.

He had to fulfill the contract.

You could even see it physically.

[Elvis] I cared so much,
until I became physically ill.

I would become violently ill.

No matter how big Elvis got,
he's still the guy that grew up

in a tar shack.

There's always somebody
in your ear saying,

"Know what?
You're not far from going back there."

If Elvis cared so much about money,
why did he blow it the way he did?

Nobody blew money like Elvis.
He was legendary.

This wasn't about money.

The quotient is not money

versus the thing you want to get to.

The quotient is, "You'll be abandoned."

Money is just some form of testament
that people care.

It's the abandonment thing
that they use against you.

[Luhrmann] The Colonel had immense ability
to tap into Elvis's insecurity

and really infantilize him.

He always felt

that he owed the Colonel his career,
and I think it was very hard for him

to say, "I wanna stand alone here."

"I'm making my own decisions."

[Springsteen] Elvis's closest collaborator

was somebody who didn't understand him.

That was the tragedy
of their relationship.

There was nobody to tell Elvis
actually how good he was, you know?

In a deep… In a deep enough way.

[melancholy music continues]

I mean, you think about having
all of that talent

and being that revolutionary an artist.

And to have a world
that doesn't really understand you,

that basically thinks
you're kind of a clown.

[O'Brien] If you look at Elvis's career
through much of the '60s,

you're looking at an artist
who's completely isolated

from anything that fed him.

This is a guy who…

was born performing in front of people.

Now he's isolated.

[Thompson] Elvis had been dangerous enough

to recognize danger when he saw it.

He saw the Rolling Stones.

He saw the Beatles.

He knew how they were making America feel

because he had made America feel that way.

["I Want to Hold your Hand"
by The Beatles playing]

[fans screaming]

♪ Oh yeah, I'll tell you somethin' ♪

♪ I think you'll understand ♪

♪ When I say that somethin' ♪

[reporter] One psychiatrist recently said
you're nothing but four Elvis Presleys.

It's not true. It's not true.

[all laughing]

♪ I want to hold your hand ♪

[reporter 2] On every sign,
there is hero worship

that recalls the heydays
of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.

[O'Brien] In '64,
there's just this huge tidal wave.

Everything changes.
The hair changes, the clothes change.

Overnight, the Beatles
make everybody irrelevant,

and then everyone has to catch up.

♪ Let me hold your hand ♪

♪ I want to hold your hand ♪

Oh my gosh,
I was listening to the Beatles too.

You know, I was listening to Mick Jagger.
I mean, he came on like Elvis did.

He was out jumping all over the place.
I'm like, "What the heck?"

The music was changing.

♪ I can't hide, I can't hide ♪

[Priscilla] The Beatles came to our house
in Bel Air, which was a funny evening.

-♪ I want to hold your hand ♪
-[music ends]

[Priscilla] When they did come in,
they were so nervous.

In fact, Elvis sat down on the couch,

John Lennon and Paul McCartney
just stared at him.

Never said a word. Just looked at him.
They were so nervous.

And Elvis basically was saying,
"Well, if you're not gonna talk…"

He turned on the TV. [laughs]

They were just mesmerized by him.

[gentle music playing]

[Schilling] I remember seeing them,

and we start talking, and John said,

"I didn't have the courage
to tell Elvis this,

but would you tell him?"

He said, "You see these sideburns?"
and I said, "Yeah."

He said, "I almost got
kicked out of high school

because I wanted to look like Elvis."

"And we wouldn't be here today
if it wasn't for him."

The Beatles were the writers
of their songs at the time,

and before the Beatles, in general,

songwriters wrote the songs,
singers sang the songs.

That's what took it to the next level,

the fact that the Beatles wrote.

And that's what gave us,
the youth at that time, a voice.

[Corgan] Of course,
the Beatles worshiped Elvis,

but they weren't necessarily
listening to his new records.

[Luhrmann] He was the original rebel.

He was the original conduit

to make rock and roll
hugely popular with youth.

And now, he's relegated
to really being a family entertainer.

And I think that really hurt.

[Elvis] I've never written a song.
I wish I could.

I wish I was like some of my, uh, rivals,

'cause they're pretty good songwriters.
But me, I…

I did good to get out of high school,
you know? [laughs]

[O'Brien] Suddenly,
all these rock groups coming

that are alluding to things
that are much deeper.

Something that's about real life,
and that flips the script completely.

[Luhrmann] There was
all of the mass racial tension,

and then there was the economic tension,

and then there was
what was going on in Vietnam,

which is impossible to overstate
the impact on American culture of that.

[reporter] The news tonight,
despite an official denial,

is of a significant escalation
of the war in Vietnam.

For the first time, American jets
have dumped tons of high explosives

within the city limits of Haiphong.

[O'Brien] No rock and roll performer
of the '50s

was trying to get to something deeper.

I think a big thing to me, is people
start looking for meaning in music.

Real meaning, something that's deeper than

anything they heard from Chuck Berry,

anything they heard from Elvis.

["Only a Pawn in Their Game"
by Bob Dylan playing]

♪ A bullet from the back of a bush ♪

♪ Took Medgar Evers' blood ♪

♪ A finger fired the trigger to his name ♪

♪ A handle hid out in the dark ♪

♪ The hand set the spark ♪

♪ Two eyes took the aim ♪

♪ Behind a man's brain ♪

♪ But he can't be blamed ♪

♪ He's only a pawn in their game ♪

[O'Brien] Suddenly, there's this

poetry.

♪ A South politician preaches
To the poor white man ♪

There's poetry in music.
Folk music and then rock music.

♪ "You're better than them
You been born with white skin" ♪

The idea of Bob Dylan reciting
a type of poetry in his songs,

it was like, "What's that?
Where does that come from?"

People that were writing songs
really couldn't help but be a reflection

of what was happening in the streets.

♪ But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game ♪

[Corgan] Elvis didn't see himself
as a political figure.

So it would have been probably weird
even from a "brand" point of view,

especially when he's doing
big Hollywood movies.

Like, is he gonna start jumping in
and doing topical songs?

Elvis stayed on the sidelines
while the world was shifting towards

a political, overt stance
with great intensity.

[woman] Oh, Mr. Presley,
on the subject of the service,

what is your opinion of war protesters?
And would you today refuse to be drafted?

[Elvis] Honey, I'd just sooner keep my own
personal views about that to myself.

'Cause I'm just an entertainer and I…
I'd rather not say.

[woman] Do you think other entertainers
should keep their views to themselves too?

[Elvis] No. I can't even say that.

[Thompson] The only songs
Elvis could record at this point

were songs that almost every other serious
recording artist in America had passed on.

The greatest voice in America
was getting America's worst songs,

and not only did no one stop him,

no one in his camp
even seemed to understand

that this was a problem, except for Elvis.

I mean, Elvis might be lots of things,
but he's not an idiot.

He can read a graph line
like anybody else.

This is dying.

I think he thought,

"If this is ending, I want to end
as the Elvis I wanna be."

"Not the Elvis they want me to be."

["Run On" by Elvis Presley playing]

[backup singers humming]

[Elvis]
♪ Well, you may run on for a long time ♪

[backup singers]
♪ Run along for a long time ♪

[Elvis] ♪ Run on for a long time ♪

♪ Let me tell you
God almighty gonna cut you down ♪

♪ Go tell that long tongued liar
Go tell that midnight rider ♪

♪ Tell the gambler, the rambler
The back-biter ♪

[music fades out]

[Jackson] How Great Thou Art
was an incredibly important

milestone in his career

because it showed him that
he could do what he wanted to do.

And it necessarily didn't need to be

the biggest commercial success
in the world,

but that he could be in control
of his own destiny.

♪ Great God almighty
Let me tell you what he said ♪

♪ Go tell that long tongued liar ♪

[Jackson] It's sort of
the first step towards,

"I need to get back to who I am
as a person and as an artist."

So, to go back to his gospel roots

and sort of insist
that he make that record

wasn't in line with what the Colonel
would have wanted him to do,

which was just more pop music.

[Love] I think if Elvis at that point
in his career

wasn't able to do gospel music,

I don't know what Elvis
would have been doing.

So, he had to stand up.

"This is what, really, I want to do."

[reporter] Elvis,
is your first love Western music?

[Elvis] No, sir, it's not.

My first, I would say, would be, uh,

spiritual music.

I know practically every religious song
that's ever been written.

["How Great Thou Art"
by Elvis Presley playing]

[choir harmonizing]

[Love] When he found out that I was
a gospel singer and I had gospel roots,

I think that's what made me and him
really gravitate to one another,

because that's how he wanted to sing.

♪ Oh, Lord, my God ♪

[Love] You're born with
certain feelings inside of you.

And you can feel them
when you go different places.

Like when I visit different churches,

I can feel that spirit
that they have at that church.

And Elvis wanted to feel that.

♪ Then sings my soul ♪

[Schilling] When I saw Elvis

singing "How Great Thou Art"…

it was the first time
I'd been to a recording session.

I was sitting
right outside the glass window.

I think he was really touched,
I mean, by something spiritual.

Like his soul had left his body.

♪ Then sings my soul ♪

[Schilling] At the end of that session,

he went down to his knees

and he looked up and he had this little…

He looked like a little boy,
proud smile on his face.

He knew he had done something great.

♪ How great ♪

♪ Thou art ♪

[music ends]

He won three Grammys.

And they were all for gospel music.
That tells you where his heart is.

[gentle guitar music playing]

If Elvis could have had a choice
of the music he would sing,

it would be gospel,

but he wasn't gonna make no money
and be no superstar as a gospel singer.

So he had to take the route
that was going to, you know,

get him very successful,
because, you know,

the Colonel did not want him
to sing anymore.

He just wanted him to stay in movies.

That gospel album is the giveaway

as to what was going on
in his internal life.

["Thrill of Your Love"
by Elvis Presley playing]

[Elvis] I wouldn't like
to stay in the same vein.

I mean, I wouldn't like to be
at a standstill, you know what I mean?

I'd like… I'd like to progress.

I'd like to get married.
I'd like to have a family.

It's definitely true.
It's a normal thing to do.

Who wants to grow old and be alone?
You know what I mean?

♪ Star above ♪

[Priscilla] I was
in my dressing room at Graceland,

and he said, "Cilla,"
and he knocked on my door,

and he had something behind his back.

♪ …to me ♪

And then he said to me,
you know, "It's time."

And he

took a box out, and it was a wedding ring.

♪ To the thrill… ♪

[Priscilla] I was in shock.

♪ Of your love ♪

[Elvis] It's more important
to surround yourself with people

who can give you a little happiness,
because you only pass through life once.

You don't come back for an encore.

Find that one girl, you know.
It's a thing that you can't rush.

I'm thinking to myself,
"My dad's not gonna believe this."

♪ Than to be all alone ♪

I got pregnant the night we got married.
[laughs]

And I'm like nervous, I'm going,
"Oh my God, I don't know if I…"

"Am I ready to be a mother?" I was 21.

I started crying one night. I've never
told this, but I started crying one night

and he called me "Satnin" and he said,
"Satnin, what's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter, baby?" You know? I go…

"I'm scared."

[heartfelt music playing]

"I don't know if I'm ready for a baby."

[Priscilla] And he goes, "You'll be
a great mother. You'll be a great mom."

And I go,

"I won't be able to do things
with you anymore."

And he goes, "Yes, you will."

I go, "You're not gonna want
babies around and kids around."

We got married,
we're doing things together,

we're going to Vegas.

And I'm thinking,
"All that's gonna stop."

My head is definitely different
than where his was going.

And he is looking at being a dad.

Elvis was definitely excited to be a dad.

He was a little nervous, that's for sure.

Didn't know how to hold a child,
or didn't think he did.

And so, it turned out great.

Eventually, he makes
the last movie for Paramount,

Easy Come, Easy Go. It's a total flop.

The record doesn't even chart
and sells just 30,000 copies.

[Luhrmann] I don't think
he recognizes just

how dire things are until one day
there's an actual headline

in one of the trades, and it says,

"There's no more appetite
for Presley films."

[tense music playing]

[Jorgensen] In the Colonel's mindset,
when you need to

get people to focus again…

In '56, he put him on
God knows how many TV shows.

When he came back from the Army
and needed to reestablish…

"I put him on the Frank Sinatra Show."

Now he's got nothing.

He says, "I need to go back
to my old trick, get him on TV."

It was all or nothing.

[Elvis] Years went by,
I really missed the audience contact.

I really was getting bugged.

I was doing so many movies,
and I couldn't really do what I could do.

It all kept going,
and I really wanted to come back.

The idea was, "It's time to have him
come back into everyone's living room."

It only became

what we know of now
as the '68 Comeback Special

as it developed.

[Priscilla] He didn't want
to be around people.

He just wanted to relax,
go to the beach and just think.

He was getting in shape.

[Schilling] He started training.

I think he must have lost 25 pounds.

He was training like
this is the heavyweight championship.

[Priscilla] I don't think
I've ever seen him

that excited before.

[man 1] Okay, here we go.

[man 2] That's 512.

[upbeat backing track playing]

[Love] At that time, we didn't know
whether Elvis was gonna be there or not.

Because a lot of times when you
do sessions, you're doing the band,

then you're doing background singing

and you're trying to get that
all together with the producers.

And then Elvis popped up and he was there.

[man 2] That's Take 501.

["Saved" playing]
♪ I used to smoke ♪

♪ I used to smoke ♪

♪ Drink and dance the hoochie-coo ♪

♪ I used to smoke and drink ♪

♪ Smoke and drink
And dance the hoochie-coo ♪

[Love] He sat and talked to us.

"That sounds so good. How you guys doing?"

Then he wanted to know who we were

and what we were doing
and what kind of music we love.

♪ That's why I'm saved
I am saved ♪

[Love] He told us that he was nervous
about doing it, period.

The whole '68 Special.

He was nervous, 'cause
he hadn't done anything like that before.

-[singing rock song]
-[music cuts out]

Shit.

People talk about the special now
based on what they remember,

which is raw rock and roll Elvis returns.

The Colonel tried
his very best to ruin that.

["It Hurts Me" by Elvis Presley playing]

♪ He never loved you ♪

[Thompson] 'Cause
the special was full of skits,

and he's fighting,
and there's silly little set pieces.

♪ He'll never change ♪

-[Elvis] Goddamn it.
-[man 1] Okay.

[Thompson] Yes,
there's all this great music.

There's also lots of

Colonel Tom Parker crap all over it.

[clacking]

[man 2] Nine-oh-two.

Five-ten.

["Medley" by Elvis Presley playing]

[starts singing, then stumbles]

Goddamn it.

He's very nervous when he's playing music,

and he's very annoyed when he's doing
anything other than playing music.

[man 2] Take 120.

♪ Plain to see ♪

♪ He's only, he's only
Playing a game ♪

[Thompson] The conflict between
Elvis and the Colonel,

or the conflict between the two Elvises,
however you want to frame it,

is so clear in his
deep pain over messing up the music…

[man] You'll walk into this. I'm sorry.

♪ He's only, he's only
Playing a game ♪

-[Elvis] I missed it, man.
-[man 3] Keep rolling.

[Thompson] …and his deep annoyance

at being forced
into the indignity of more skits.

[man 2] Five-oh-two.

[Elvis] Uh, where is downstage?
Is it that way?

[man 2] It's downward, it's here.

Can you see this blue mark here?

Maybe something along here.

Fourteen years, and I don't know
upstage from downstage, man.

[Thompson] The premise of the special
was just a dopey Colonel Parker special.

The producers of the show were handed
a Colonel Parker-packaged thing

that was just more of the public Elvis

as people had known him
for the last seven years.

During breaks in the action,

the private Elvis would go back
and do what the private Elvis always did,

which was play music with his friends.

[Elvis] If we want to,
we can do something like…

[bluesy guitar tune playing]

[Elvis] ♪ We're going up, we're going up ♪

♪ Down, down, up
Anyway you want to let it roll ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ You got me doin' what you want to do
Baby, what do you wanna do ♪

[Thompson] And when the producers
of the show walked in and saw that,

they realized that what Colonel
was trying to make him do was trash.

And what Elvis was doing
in his actual private life was gold.

[man] It's a bit like
"Blue Moon of Kentucky," isn't it?

-[strumming guitar]
-[Elvis] What do you say "blue moon"?

[man laughing] Yeah.

♪ I say blue moon ♪

[all chattering]

Every day after rehearsal, he'd jam.
Acoustically.

Whoever happened to be hanging out.

Forget all the production,
forget the original concept.

This is what the public is screaming for
that never, ever got to see.

[Elvis and friends laughing on recording]

[Elvis] You know,
I was thinking last night about…

[plucking guitar tunefully]

…incorporating this segment

with the medley, somewhere in there.

[man 1] I've been thinking about
the same thing, Elvis.

[man 2] But we have to have that other
excitement to be able to do this, you see.

'Cause now you're relaxing.
You've done your bit, you know.

I go to Colonel Parker, I say,
"I'm bringing cameras in there."

And he said, "Over my dead body."

[Elvis] ♪ Well, well
Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy Miss Clawdy ♪

♪ Girl, you sure look good to me ♪

After days of hounding him,
he finally turned to me out of frustration

and said, "I'll make a deal with you.
I'll let you recreate it on stage,

but I won't promise you any of it goes
into the show that NBC broadcasts."

[Thompson] When you see him
play these old standards,

and blues songs, and gospel songs,
and the songs Elvis loved to listen to,

when you saw him playing those onstage,

that was literally them recreating

what was happening organically
in his dressing room

when the cameras were off.

And what you remember

is the growling, stalking Elvis
returning to the stage to say,

"Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger,

but I'm Elvis fucking Presley."

[whimsical music playing]

[announcer 1] The following program is
brought to you in living color on NBC.

[announcer 2] Singer presents,
Elvis starring Elvis Presley

in his first TV special.

His first personal performance
on TV in nearly ten years.

[tense music playing]

[Love] He told us
that he was very nervous.

If the people were gonna like him.

We didn't know whether Elvis was gonna
come out of his dressing room at all.

Welcome to NBC…

[O'Brien] Well, obviously I work in this
completely different realm.

[audience clapping in distance]

[O'Brien] But I will tell you that

if you're not afraid, you're in trouble.

If you want it to be good,

you're petrified.

It's a very lonely feeling.

The fear…

of failure

is such a great motivator.

The fear of embarrassment.

We all know what it's like to be
in front of people and it doesn't go well.

And it's terrible.

[tense music continues]

[O'Brien] "People are here, young people."

"I don't even know if they like my music.
They probably like the Beatles."

"They like Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix."

"No one's gonna care about me."

But there's something about

being up against it
that enables you to do it.

[tense music rises]

I call it anticipatory anxiety.

I can remember

beginning of the Born in the U.S.A. tour,
we're in Saint Paul,

and I sat backstage and it was
ten minutes before we went on,

and I hear the crowd roaring.

Roaring like crazy.

And I'm going,

"Oh man."

"What have I got myself into?"

You are going onto a stage
that you are unfamiliar with.

Uh, you are being produced and directed
by people you don't really know.

At some point,
you reach the "fuck it" point.

Like, "I got to go out there,

no matter what happens, fuck it."

He reached the "fuck it" point. [laughing]

You know,
that's what's going through his head.

You know. He found it.

And he was just go… And he was going.

He was going
where his destiny was leading him.

[Robertson] I was living in Woodstock,
New York.

The other guys in The Band,
we were all there, and Bob Dylan.

And when we heard about this special
coming on TV of Elvis's,

Bob and I said, "Let's check it out."

"Let's see if the old boy's still got it."

["(If You're Looking For) Trouble"
playing]

♪ If you're looking for trouble ♪

♪ You came to the right place ♪

♪ If you're looking for trouble ♪

♪ Just look right in my face ♪

♪ I was born standing up ♪

♪ And talking back ♪

♪ My daddy was
A green-eyed mountain jack ♪

♪ Because I'm evil ♪

♪ My middle name is misery ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Well, I'm evil ♪

♪ So don't you mess around with me ♪

[muted guitar riff playing]

I had a little tiny dining room
with a big TV.

And my father was in the kitchen,
but he could see the television from…

[laughs]

…from his spot on the kitchen table.

And I sat in front of the TV.

That was the rebirthing of Elvis Presley.

[song transitions to "Guitar Man"]

♪ Well, I nearly 'bout
Starved to death down in Memphis ♪

♪ I'd run out of money and luck ♪

I was sitting at the top.
I wanted to see everything.

♪ …overloaded poultry truck
I thumbed on down to Panama City ♪

He came onstage, he was like, "Wow."

♪ I got the same old story
At them all night piers ♪

♪ There ain't no room
Around here for a guitar man ♪

I never saw him perform.

That was the first time I saw him perform,
and I went, "Whoa."

"This is what it's about?" [laughing]

♪ I showed 'em
What a band would sound like ♪

♪ With a swingin' little guitar man
Show 'em, son ♪

[Springsteen] I don't think
I understood how good he was

just seeing him once or twice.

It was a reintroduction not just to who
he had been, but to who he could be.

♪ Just follow that crowd of people
You'll wind up out on his dance floor ♪

♪ Diggin' the finest
Little five-piece group ♪

♪ Up and down the Gulf of Mexico ♪

♪ Guess who's leadin'
That five-piece band ♪

♪ Wouldn't you know
It's that swingin' little guitar man ♪

[Schilling] It gave Elvis an edge.

He still had it.

It was developed, it was stronger.

Elvis took Elvis to the next level.
[chuckles]

[strumming guitar]

[audience applauding]

-[women whooping]
-[man laughing] All right!

[O'Brien] One of the things
that strikes me right away

is it's the best he's looked
in a long time.

He comes out…

and… he's the best-looking guy
on the planet.

He comes out
and he's wearing that leather suit,

and he's got those cheekbones
that are off a Greek statue.

Well, good night.

[all laughing]

-[man 1] Been a long show.
-[man 2] It's been a long show.

[O'Brien] For many years now,
he hasn't been in front of people

performing music.

There's been all these layers
of separation.

Let's see, what do I do now, folks?

All the insecurities that he would have,

he's holding himself up
for possible ridicule.

This is supposed to be an informal section
of the show where we faint

or do whatever we want to do.
Especially me.

[O'Brien] Yes, the guy in
the crazy outfits, and the hip shaking,

and the big hair, is very shy,

very sensitive person.

We don't have our full band here tonight,
but we'd like to…

we'd like to give you an idea of how we…
How I started out about 14 years ago.

Uh…

And the sound that we had back then.

And the guy over here on my left
is the guy that played guitar for me

when I first started out in 1912.
Nineteen…

[Thompson] The show
isn't just Elvis's return.

I mean, the show is Elvis literally
getting the band back together.

This is Scotty Moore, my guitar player.

[Thompson] That's his band
when he was still a country singer.

That's the band
when he was on the Louisiana Hayride.

That's the band
when he was playing in the Opry.

This is my drummer.
He's from Shreveport, Louisiana.

-[whistle softly]
-Met him about ten years ago, DJ Fontana.

[audience applauding]

You were watching musicians
who love each other,

who fell away from each other,
who have come back to each other

to capture the magic one more time.

The first thing that we recorded,
we had a guitar, a bass,

and another guitar.

And it went like this.

♪ Well, that's all right, mama ♪

♪ That's all right with you ♪

♪That's all right, mama
Just any way you do ♪

♪ That's all right ♪

♪ That's all right ♪

♪ That's all right, now, mama ♪

♪ Any way you do ♪

[O'Brien] When he's sitting
in those chairs

with his guys, and there's an audience
right there and they're surrounding him,

and he's in an intimate environment,

you can see the way
he can connect with people.

♪ I'm leaving town, baby
I'm leaving town for sure ♪

♪ Well, then you won't be bothered
With me hanging around your door ♪

♪ But that's all right ♪

[Springsteen] He looked incredible.
He sounded incredible.

I felt like, "Oh, my team. My team,
they came back and they're…"

You know, "They're winning again."
You know?

Here we go, baby.

♪ Dee-dee-de-deedee
Diggy-diggity-deedee ♪

♪ Diggy-diggity-deedee
Dee-dee-dee-deedee-dee ♪

♪ That's all right ♪

♪ That's all right ♪

♪ That's all right, now, mama ♪

♪ Any way you do ♪

♪ Dah-dah-dada-dah ♪

-[audience cheering]
-[Elvis] Whoo!

[Springsteen] That's just a revelation.
You know, just a musical revelation.

You saw the incredible
high level of his artistry.

The singing, unbelievable,

and you saw him really play the guitar,

and heard him play the guitar
for the first time.

He was a really good guitarist.

Are we on television?

Are we on television?

[man] No, we're on
a train bound for Tulsa.

[bluesy guitar playing]

-[man 1] Whoo!
-[man 2] Aw, get on down.

[O'Brien] The moment for me
in the '68 Comeback Special

is Elvis does,
"Baby, What Do You Want Me To Do."

It's kind of a warm-up song,
like a blues warm-up.

He's got that badass guitar,

and you can tell that this
is what he was born to do.

Yeah, baby!

[man] Yeah!

Everything that got him there
is now coming back,

and everything that's interfered with that
has melted away.

All of it.

[guitar flourish]

[man] Yeah!

♪ You got me peeping, you got me hiding ♪

[O'Brien] And it must be
a very powerful moment for him.

He's coming back to life.

And I think probably realizing

"I'm Elvis fucking Presley."

♪ You got me doing what you want me
Baby, what do you want me to do ♪

There's something wrong with my lip, man.

You know. No, wait a minute.
There's something wrong with my lip.

[laughing]

[chuckles]

-[man] Well…
-You remember that, don't you?

[all laughing]

[audience applauding]

I got news for you, baby.
I did 29 pictures like that.

[all laughing]

[Fontana] Hey, Elvis. The finger.

The little finger.

-That's all I could move in Florida.
-[Fontana] That's right.

Yeah, the police filmed a show
one time in Florida because

the PTA, the YMCA, or somebody,
they thought I was…

[chuckles]

-…something. And…
-[all laughing]

They said, "Man, he's gotta be crazy."

So, they…

The police came out
and they filmed the show.

So I couldn't move, I had to stand still.

The only thing I could move
was my little finger.

-♪ You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ♪
-[all laughing]

♪ Cryin' all the time ♪

You know, for the whole show.

It's the most real thing anyone
had ever seen Elvis Presley do.

It might be the first time

that anyone had ever actually seen

the actual human being
Elvis Aaron Presley,

child of Tupelo in Memphis.

So I told him, I said, "Well, look, man,
you can do anything you want to do."

-[scoffs]
-[all laughing]

"You can do anything
you want to do, baby."

I said…

♪ Well, that's one for the money
Two for the show ♪

♪ Three to get ready, now go, cat, go ♪

♪ But don't you
Step on my blue suede shoes ♪

♪ You can do anything
But lay off of my blue suede shoes ♪

[man] Oh, get it on!

♪ Well, you can knock me down
Step in my face ♪

♪ Slander my name all over the place ♪

♪ Do anything that you want to do ♪

♪ But uh-uh, honey, lay off of my shoes ♪

♪ Don't step on my blue suede shoes ♪

♪ Well, you can do anything
But lay off of my blue suede shoes ♪

♪ You can burn my house, steal my car ♪

♪ Drink my liquor… ♪

Oh my God.

It's like… He was like a tiger.

♪ Honey, lay off of my shoes and don't… ♪

He was showing off
and doing his thing, and sexy,

and it was like reincarnation.

♪ Watch out, baby, watch out ♪

[raucous guitar solo playing]

"I'm married to him?"

"Wow. Where have I been?"

Oh my goodness. He was gorgeous.

His hair was so shiny,
and the lights hit it.

He was glowing like…

I don't know what God looks like,
but you would say this guy was godlike.

Ah!

Ah, ah!

Keep it going. That's right.

[Tompkins] It was electric in there.

It was breathtaking.

♪ Well, you can do anything
But lay off of my blue suede shoes ♪

-Ah!
-[music ends with flourish]

[audience cheering loudly]

[Priscilla] I remember a couple of girls,
they were going nuts over him.

And they said, "Oh my God, I never knew."

"I never knew he had this much charisma."

"I never knew that he was so sexy."

How you like it so far?

[crowd cheering]

I could hear these comments,
and, you know, I go, "Wow."

"Whoa, this is…
They're just discovering him."

This is what we were experiencing
when he first appeared.

[Robertson] He would sing a song like,
"Here's another one of my hits."

"Here's another one of my hits."
That was all fine,

but at some point in the special
he sings "Trying To Get To You."

[man] "Trying To Get To You."

[Robertson] It was a B-side
of one of his records years earlier.

And he sang this thing to the sky.

It was magnificent.

♪ I've been traveling over mountains ♪

♪ Even through the valleys too ♪

♪ Well, I've been
Traveling night and day ♪

♪ I've been running all the way

♪ Baby, trying to get to you ♪

♪ Ever since I read your letters ♪

It was phenomenal. Because he was so free.

♪ Well, there was nothing
That could hold me ♪

♪ Or could keep me away from you ♪

All these years being tucked away
by the Colonel, doing all these movies.

♪ But they didn't mean a thing ♪

[Love] But when they let him loose
on that stage, you could figure.

And I went, "Wow, man, you got it going on
in that black leather suit."

"Carry on, brother."

♪ When my way was darkest night ♪

♪ He would shine his brightest light ♪

♪ When I was trying to get to you ♪

-[music ends]
-[audience applauding]

And that audience loves it.

And he's getting that thing

that he loves,
that was the reason for all of it.

It wasn't the money. Money is nice.

It was 'cause that lights him up.
That's lit him up since he was a kid.

[guitar riff playing]

♪ The warden threw a party
In the county jail ♪

♪ The prison band was there
And they began to wail ♪

♪ The band was jumpin'
And the joint began to swing ♪

♪ You should've heard them
Knocked out jailbirds sing, let's rock ♪

[Corgan] He's doing old Elvis right there,
obviously having a nostalgia moment.

♪ Everybody in the whole… ♪

So he's both being old Elvis
and new Elvis at the same time.

♪ Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone
Little Joe was blowin'… ♪

[Corgan] You see old Elvis, '68 Elvis,
and the Elvis to come.

♪ The whole rhythm section
Was a purple gang ♪

♪ Let's rock ♪

♪ All right, everybody, let's rock ♪

♪ Everybody in the whole cell block ♪

♪ Was dancing to the jailhouse rock ♪

He was in search of a way to live
where he could live with himself.

The '68 Special, for me,
is him finding that place.

♪ Bugsy turned to Shifty
And he said, "Nix nix" ♪

♪ "I wanna stick around a while
And get my kicks" ♪

[Springsteen] When people discuss Elvis,

or their disappointment
in the arc of his career,

they say, "He didn't go where
his destiny was leading him enough."

That night, he went
where his destiny was leading him.

And he met it.

♪ Dancing to the jailhouse rock ♪

♪ We're dancing ♪

♪ Yeah, we're dancing ♪

♪ To the jailhouse rock ♪

Ha!

All right!

[music ends]

-[gentle music playing]
-[applause fades out]

[Corgan] The '68 Special is
just a master at work.

But that's Elvis every day.

Nobody had the foresight
to get more of Elvis every day.

If they had any brains
or prescience about them,

they would have done 50 more of those,
'cause we'd be talking about those too.

That's Elvis every fucking day.

He's not just having a good day.

That's that motherfucker
every goddamn day.

We sit here and judge
how he handled normal life.

The pressures of marriage,

fatherhood, celebrity,

Colonel Tom Parker's bullshit.

But in the midst of this
is, like, lightning strikes.

And we're left
to sort through the pieces and go,

"God, I wish there was more.
Why isn't there more?"

[heartfelt music playing]

[O'Brien] All great show business stories
have to have

more than one act.

The real great ones have three acts.

This special gives him a third act.

And we all know where that ends,

but at the beginning, it was pretty great.

The thing I wish for Elvis Presley,
it's a weird thing to wish,

but I wish people would have
some empathy for him.

We turn celebrities into objects.

This was a person.

A person who was terrified,

but putting it all out there.

I'm joyous
when I see that special, because

it's him standing up for himself.

[slow guitar and horn tune playing]

♪ There must be lights burning brighter ♪

♪ Somewhere ♪

[Thompson] Elvis exists for most people
as a tragic figure.

We all know how it ends.

♪ If I can dream of a better land ♪

♪ Where all my brothers
Walk hand in hand ♪

♪ Tell me why, oh, why… ♪

When I watch the '68 Special,
I like to imagine that…

That that was it.

He walked off that stage and was happy.

♪ There must be
Peace and understanding ♪

♪ Sometimes ♪

[Thompson] Because what you see
that night is the one time

Elvis Presley decided to be
who he wanted to be, for himself.

♪ If I can dream of a warmer sun ♪

♪ Where hope keeps shining on everyone ♪

♪ Tell me why, oh, why ♪

♪ Oh, why won't that sun appear? ♪

[Thompson] It's the closest he ever came
to realizing the dreams

that put him in front of
a microphone in the first place.

♪ We're lost in a cloud ♪

♪ With too much rain ♪

♪ We're trapped in a world ♪

♪ That's troubled with pain ♪

♪ But as long as a man ♪

♪ Has the strength to dream ♪

♪ He can redeem his soul ♪

♪ And fly ♪

[Thompson] Elvis is remembered today

as one of the quintessential
American talents.

♪ Deep in my heart there's a trembling… ♪

And it is because there were moments

when people saw.

And the greatest of those moments

was that night
on that stage in Los Angeles.

♪ Out there in the dark ♪

♪ There's a beckoning candle ♪

♪ Oh yeah ♪

♪ And while I can think
While I can walk ♪

♪ While I can stand, while I can talk ♪

♪ While I can dream ♪

♪ Please let my dream ♪

♪ Come true, oh ♪

♪ Right now ♪

♪ Oh, let it come true right now ♪

♪ Oh yeah ♪

[music ends]

Thank you. Good night.

["Trying To Get To You"
by Elvis Presley playing]

♪ I've been traveling over mountains
Even through the valleys too ♪

♪ I've been traveling night and day
I've been running all the way ♪

♪ Baby, trying to get to you ♪

♪ Ever since I read your letter ♪

♪ Where you said you loved me true ♪

♪ I've been traveling night and day
I've been running all the way ♪

♪ Baby, trying to get to you ♪

♪ When I read your loving letter ♪

♪ Then my heart began to sing ♪

♪ There were many miles between us ♪

♪ But they didn't mean a thing ♪

♪ I just had to reach you, baby ♪

♪ In spite of all that I've been through ♪

♪ I kept traveling night and day
I kept running all the way ♪

♪ Baby, trying to get to you ♪

♪ Lord above me knows I love you ♪

♪ It was he who brought me through ♪

♪ When my way was darkest night
He would shine his brightest light ♪

♪ When I was trying to get to you ♪

[song ends]