The afternoon show stayed in the vaults until 1997. For the 20th anniversary of Elvis' death BMG released the concert under the name of "An Afternoon In The Garden". It sold quite well and earned the king a posthumous Gold Award.

The concert starts with the first part of the symphonic poem by Richard Strauss. The classical piece from 1896 creates a tense expectation which suddenly releases into a rataplan, that leads to a rhythmical "Opening Riff" to which Elvis enters the stage.

Without any break the band moves on to "That's All Right", the first single of the king. By now the tempo is much faster and the song sounds more like Vegas than like country & western. The combination of the classic "Einleitung, Oder Sonnenaufgang" and the dynamic "That's All Right" is a perfect start for a Presley concert.

Even though the concert was held at 2:30 pm the king meets the applause with "Thank you, good evening". Regarding the stage monitor he remarks "It just died, didn't it?" and continues with "Proud Mary. Since 1970 the arrangement has changed and the tempo is much higher. I like this version better than the first one.

Here Elvis alters his interpretation by lowering his voice on the line "Well, I've never been to England". As usual the song offers a great opportunity to display his voice.

In late 1970 Elvis had scored a top 20 hit with his studio recording of "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me", now the fans got a live version. The king still delivers the song with power, but for my taste it's played a tad too fast. Also Elvis' voice is cracking several times, which is quite unusual.

At the evening show the king had continued his program with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", but here he includes his top 40 hit from earlier this year. Elvis performs it faster than in the studio, which isn't a bad decision. Once again his voice cracks, but apart from this mistake it's a very good performance.

The album "That's The Way It Is" features a great live version, taped in Las Vegas in August 1970. Two years later at New York's Madison Square Garden Elvis still sings "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" well, but somehow he seems to have lost the feeling for the song. It's less emotional, a bit too fast and a tad too slick. It also includes a timing mistake. This all sounds very negative, but it's not. It's still a good performance, but it doesn't archive the greatness of the previous one.

Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie" is without doubt one of the highlights of the album "On Stage - February 1970". It's still a very good performance, but once again Elvis had increased the speed and changed the arrangement. The spoken introduction is left out, therefore we get a nice bass solo by Jerry Scheff. My impression is that the king had substituted finesse with force. At the end he remarks "That woke me up anyway". During the performance Elvis voice cracks again.

By 1972 there is not much left of the heartache. Elvis performs the ballad too fast and almost free of emotion. The audience loves it nevertheless.

Once again the speed is very high and the song sounds vastly different to the recording released in 1957. However, the arrangement fits to the tempo of the show and for some unknown reason I like this highspeed-version. It's the second live recording of "All Shook Up", the first one was released in 1969 on the double album "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis".

This one is also played faster and lacks the suicidal mood of the original recording. But still Elvis manages to give his first number 1 hit a bluesy touch and delivers a good, modernized performance.

Both songs are presented with a foot on the gas pedal, but the medley works well this way.

By now it's no surprise that Elvis has increased the tempo of the song. He sings it quite sloppy and it's obvious that "Love Me Tender" isn't one of his favorites. Of course the audience doesn't care and the ladies scream as if they were in their teenage years again.

While Elvis included "The Impossible Dream" at the evening show, he continued with another classic in the afternoon. "Blue Suede Shoes" is still done with energy, but it's not much more than a quick nod to the past. It's hard, it's fast, it's fun.

In contrast to the other oldies the band doesn't start to play by themselves, but Elvis is announcing the song to them. I guess "Reconsider Baby" wasn't on the set list and the king simply included a personal request. My suspicion is confirmed by the following performance, which sounds like a spontaneous jam at times. It is said that Elvis and his band rehearsed "Reconsider Baby" before the tour started, so maybe he just wanted to try it out on stage. In 1973 Joan Deary planned to release this performance under the name of "A Blues Jam" on the album "Elvis", but was supplanted by Felton Jarvis. So it took until 1995 before the track was released on the boxed set "Walk A Mile In My Shoes - The Essential 70's Masters". To me this performance is a real highlight, because it demonstrates how spontaneous and free-spirited Elvis and his band could be

At first the king performs a slow version of the rock'n'roll classic, then he continues in highspeed-mode. But he doesn't sing the whole song, he simply repeates the same four lines over and over again. The performance has nothing to do with the classic single from 1956, it's even far away from the version released on "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis". In 1969 he also sang just a part of the lyrics, but this small piece rocked like hell. By now "Hound Dog" is pure routine. But it's no surprise that the audience loves every second of it.

This ballad also wasn't included in the evening show. At the time many fans might not have known that Elvis had released a studio recording on the soundtrack album "Spinout" in 1966. It's a very good performance. BMG also released the track in 1995 on "Walk A Mile In My Shoes - The Essential 70's Masters".

Once again Elvis' can't compete with his version from the aforementioned double album. The roughness and energy of 1969/70 simply is missing. However, that doesn't mean the performance is bad or lacks drive. The king still presents the song in a powerful and entertaining way. Just not as great as two or three years earlier.

The king introduces his band and harmony singers.

Elvis had recorded the song in March, but it stayed in the vaults until 1995. However, a live recording was included on "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden", because the king also sang the ballad during the evening concert.

The king's latest single is performed with a lot of skill, but unfortunately his timing is off at one point and his voice cracks again.

The ballad was released in early 1971 on the album "Elvis Country - I'm 10,000 Years Old". On stage the song is played faster and sung with less emotion. However, the gimmick is to have the house lights turned up so that Elvis can interact with the audience.

This one was also known from the double album "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis" (1969). In 1972 Elvis isn't as rough and wild, but still powerful and it's obvious that he likes the song. In 1977 RCA released this track on the country compilation "Welcome To My World". Glen. D. Hardin is not on his toes, because he plays the intro of "Can't Help Falling In Love" before he realizes, that his boss just added a song to the set list.

With a short "Thank you, you're fantastic" Elvis bows out and performs his usual closer "Can't Help Falling In Love". Obviously his manager is present near the stage, because at one point the king greets him by saying "Colonel". The movie tune leads to the "Closing Riff", to which Elvis leaves the stage.