On July 30th Elvis and his band once again rehearsed at RCA, untroubled by the film and audio crew. They focused on 15 songs, that were supposed to build the backbone of the show. According to the jottings the set list was: That's All Right, I Got A Woman, Mystery Train-Tiger Man, The Wonder Of You, Love Me Tender, The Next Step Is Love, I Just Can't Help Believin', Words, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, Polk Salad Annie, I've Lost You, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Patch It Up, Can't Help Falling In Love. On August 4th the group moved to Las Vegas, where the rehearsal sessions took place at the International Hotel's Convention Center. Here they also met the harmony singers, who previously had rehearsed to the studio and live recordings of the tracks. The MGM crew was also there to document the next step of the proceedings.

Elvis wants to try out "I've Lost You" and "The Next Step Is Love". James Burton plays the intro of the first song, jokingly his boss sings the first lines in a cartoonish style. But he soon gets serious and it's obvious, that there had been several rehearsal sessions between this performance and the one on the first disc of the set. By now everything sounds fine. The crew does a second walkthrough, but this time Elvis can only be heared more or less in the background.

We don't get to hear much of the performance, because the recording is faded out. However, we still experience Elvis turning the song title into "The Next Step Is Sex".

Here the audio mix is fine again, everything sounds good. The Bee Gees hit doesn't cause any problems, because it has been performed on a regular basis a year ago. The only thing that bothers Elvis, is the finale. He wants the harmony singers to do the part a tad more snappy. Afterwards he fools around a bit.

His yelping reminds the king of "Cattle Call". Then he tries to yodel and is supported by The Sweet Inspirations. The whole skit is quite entertaining and still makes me smile.

Even though the king fools around with the lyrics (for example he follows the line "I left my home up in the hill" with "found my wife with a guy named Bill") he works on the ballad in a serious way. After the group looses their step, he repeats the part and also rehearses the finale seperately. 

The session continued with Elvis intoning "Something", but this part was not recorded. The audio starts again, when the king and his crew fooled around with "Farther Along".

Now The Beatles' hit is rehearsed in a serious way, but Elvis still has trouble with the phrasing and the timing. Of course he cannot help to joke and sings "...attracts me like no other mother" instead of "...like no other lover". He also imitates a guitar.

Up next is "Don't Cry Daddy", but first Elvis intones the old blues song "Mother In Law". That reminds him of "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" and he starts to sing the Leiber/Stoller tune from his 1957 "Christmas Album". But neither he, nor his band knows the track too well. The jam is fun to hear, but just rudimentary reminiscent of the studio recording.

While the medley itself is a great one, Elvis doesn't take it seriously at all. He fools around with the melody, repeates the jokes from the session on June 24th and turns "...and as I think of giving up" into "...throwing up". The hit "In The Ghetto" is opened with the line "as the shit flies". Elvis' humor is coarse, but funny. Unfortunately the entertaining performance is faded out after a while.

Elvis' forthcoming single has been rehearsed intensely, so the performance works well. But the king doesn't like the contributions of the harmony singers and adjusts their parts.

After some joking Elvis wants to try out "Bridge Over Troubled Water". He changes the lyrics from "feeling small" to "feeling bald", but otherwise it's a serious walkthrough. The last verse is repeated, because the king wants to work on the part of the harmony singers. This is where the recording ends. The actual session was continued with a chat between Elvis and The Sweet Inspirations (parts of their conversation can be seen in the movie) and walkthroughs of "Twenty Days And Twenty Nights", "Polk Salad Annie", "Oh Happy Day" and "I Got A Woman".