After three weeks of concerts Elvis was used to perform in front of an audience again and had adjusted his show. On August 21st Felton Jarvis (producer) and Al Pachucki (sound engineer) made a few test recordings during the dinner show, the midnight conert was the first one to be recorded in full. However, the men started the equipment a little late and so the very beginning of the event is missing. Besides that, the old magnetic tape got demaged over the decades, so parts of the monologue and the performance of "Baby What You Want Me To Do" had to be replaced by a recording from the dinner show of the following day. Back in 2007 BMG (at the time the owner of the copyrights) released the show on a cd-album called "Viva Las Vegas". Compared to the old version the newer incarnation sounds much more clear and crispy.

The musicians play an "Opening Riff" and Elvis appears on stage. Charlie Hodge hands him his guitar and while he walks over to the microphone the band segues into "Blue Suede Shoes". The king is on fire, jokingly he sings "slender my ass all over the place" instead of "slender my name..." and has to laugh about his own crack. 

The king remarks "It feels like my horse just left" and throws himself into a rockin' rendition of "I Got A Woman".

Compared to the rendition on the album "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis" the song is performed a tad slower, which I like very much. Afterwards Elvis gives his guitar back to Charlie, welcomes the crowd to the "big freaky International" and also mentions the "funky angels" on the ceiling. Of course he mentions, that this is his first live performance in nine years. Jocosely he adds, that he had appeared dead a few times.

Now Elvis announces to sing a song, he recorded in 1927. As the audience laughs about his joke (remember, the man was born in 1935) he adds, that he was very young back then. As a special gimmick the king kisses several women during his performance of "Love Me Tender". The act became so popular, that he continued it throughout the rest of his career.

Before singing another song Elvis drinks some "wawa" and also tells the people, that he's got a drink called Gatorade, too. Referring to the yellow color of the energy drink he remarks, that the stuff looks as if it already had been used. Suggestively he adds, that it was ok if it aids his gator. Then he announces to sing a medley of some of his biggest records and jokes, that they actually were no bigger than the rest of them. Finally he presents the medley, once again altering some lines. During "Jailhouse Rock" he sings "you've should have heared the sonofabitches sing" and in "Don't Be Cruel" he begs "please let's forget the past, before I kick your...".

His first number one hit is presented with a modern, bluesy touch. Elvis seems to like it a lot, spontaneously he repeates the last part of the tune.

The king introduces the rock'n'roll song with a "romantic" story, that cannot be written down. One has to hear it. It's a series of jokes, ribaldries and puns. As he would do in the future, Elvis simply repeates the same four lines over and over again. But in contrast to his later years he's full of energy and obviously has fun. There's also a guitar solo, which is nothing but great.

Now Elvis tells the audience about a fantasy of his about playing Craps with Howard Hughes (a billionaire, who at the time lived in absolute seclusion and had not be seen since a decade or so) and Kirk Kerkorian (the owner of the International Hotel). Then he sings "Memories", a ballad from previous years' television special "SINGER presents Elvis". The tempo is a bit faster, just like "Love Me Tender" Elvis uses the song as a tool to kiss women.

After the first more or less recent song of the evening the king quickly returns to his glorious past. "Mystery Train" had been recorded for SUN Records back in 1955 and rocks just like in the good ole' days. "Tiger Man" is another old song, but was picked up by Elvis no earlier than in 1968. The tunes fit well and are presented with zest.

Just like Frank Sinatra and others Elvis wants to entertain the crowd with a funny story. So he tells the people about his life and career, of course not without including several puns and lewdnesses. One also should not believe each and everything, because there are a lot of factual errors. However, it's quite entertaining, even though the jokes are corny and no comedian has been lost on Mr. Presley.

Elvis continues with "Baby What You Want Me To Do", one of the few new songs from his "SINGER presents Elvis" television special. It's a tight, rocking performance. As written before, parts of the "Monologue" and the complete performance of "Baby What You Want Me To Do" are taken from the dinner show of the following day, because the tape was damaged beyond repair.

Jokingly the king intones his sales monster "Surrender", but continues with a cover version of "Runaway". At the time a critic praized, how well James Burton met the guitar sounds of the original recording. In fact it wasn't such a piece of art, since James had been Del Shannon's guitar player, too.

The r&b tune is followed by a ballad. By now the violin has been replaced by the singing of Cissy Houston. She's the mother of the 1990s mega star Whitney Houston and was a member of The Sweet Inspirations.

It has been quite some time since The Beatles surpassed Elvis and became the leading force in pop music. Elvis acknowledges the super group with a medley of "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude". It's a good performance, but of course the king cannot help to joke and sings "I'm not half the stud I used to be". From "Hey Jude" he just uses the nanana-ending, obviously to showcase the abilities of his harmony singers.

Now Elvis introduces his band. Because it's James Burton's birthday, his boss sings "Happy Birthday" to him. A nice gesture for sure.

The next song features a rarety - James Burton misses his cue. Jokingly Elvis suspects, he's waiting for another serenade. The second try works as expected. Compared to the record version "In The Ghetto" is performed a bit faster. It makes the whole thing a bit shallow, but fits the tempo of the show.

The king continues with his latest single release and really outdoes himself. It's a wall of sound - the band, the orchestra and the harmony singers are giving all they have and Elvis celebrates the song by belting it out in grand style and moving all accross the stage. At 34 is obviously fit as a fiddle and shaking his body even harder and in a more suggestive way than ever before. Great! Great! Great!

While the audience still applaudes the band begins to play "What'd I Say". Still out of breath Elvis rocks through the old Ray Charles tune. Suddenly he sings "I gotta go" (instead of "I wanna know") and leaves the stage. The show appears to be over, but suddenly Elvis returns and ends the song in a powerful way.

"I do the song especially for you" says the king and the band segues into "Can't Help Falling In Love". Elvis once again gets involved with the ladies at the edge of the stage, he's still very much out of breath. Suddenly the golden curtain comes down and the singer disappears. There are no encores, the show is over.