In the summer of 2012 Follow That Dream Records took the fans on a trip from Hawaii to Vegas, where Elvis staged a rehearsal session on January 25, 1973 for his upcoming stint at the Hilton. The cover art is a cheap copy & paste job, homemade by a not very skilled person. The mastering also doesn't give a professional impression, because the recording is running a tad too slow. That the product is not available on the various streaming platforms tops it off.

So why is this thing worth bothering with? Well, it's a rehearsal and we don't have all that many opportunities to listen to the artist preparing his shows. Four days after the television concert "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" Elvis flew to Las Vegas, were he was booked for another four-week-engagement at the Hilton from January 26th onwards. Because the set list more or less mirrored the one of the tv special, the king limited the preparation to two sessions. Thy took place at the Showroom Internationale on January 24th and 25th. The second rehearsal session was recorded with a simple cassette recorder, which was placed on a table near the stage. So the whole thing sounds like a very good audience recording, but without an audience.

During the production of "That's The Way It Is" Elvis had performed the Beatles' hit a few times for the MGM cameras, in early 1971 "Something" became a regular feature of his Vegas show. To limit the effort of preparation, the king re-activated the ballad for his television concert "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite". Of course this rehearsal-version mirrors the "Aloha" one, but Elvis sounds somewhat bored and at times has trouble remembering the lyrics.

In contrast to the lame rendition of "Something" the king invests some energy and delivers a good performance. No wonder that "You Gave Me A Mountain" became a regular feature of his show, while "Something" was rarely sung.

The singer had put "Steamroller Blues" aside after a single performance during his "Elvis Summer Festival 1972", but revived and rearranged the track for his "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" show. Today he's trying something new and sings the "napalm bomb" verse after the guitar solo. But while the orchestra continues in the usual way, Elvis sings as laid back as on the first verse. It's quite interesting to hear this incarnation of the song. The king would sing "Steamroller Blues" this way during some of the first concerts of the forthcoming stint, but soon return to the "Aloha" styled rendition. 

Elvis jokes a bit with Charlie and Joe, but then he delivers a serious performance of "My Way". At times he fluffs the lyrics and messes up the timing, but just like after the flawed rendition of "Something" he doesn't try to iron out the mistakes.

Even though "Love Me" is performed on a regular basis, Elvis wants to rehearse it. At the end the trumpet players jokingly intone a few bars of "The Stars Sprangled Banner".

This one is rarely performed on stage, so a rehearsal does no harm. It's an emotional and heartfelt rendition, that would have been the highlight of any concert.

Once again one cannot help but wondering why Elvis feels the need to rehearse a song he's doing on a regular basis. He doesn't even like "Blue Suede Shoes" and rattles it off without investing any energy.

The Hank Williams classic was one of the highlights of the "Aloha" special. Today Elvis has included a guitar solo, which is beautifully accentuated by the harmony singers. The king also sings additional lyrics, which he obviously isn't too sure of. Once again he doesn't feel the need to work on the performance and just moves on to the next song.

Once again it's painfully apparant, that Elvis is not prepared. He doesn't seem to care at all and shows no interest to improve the presentation.

This ballad seems to be one of the few songs the king is caring for. Even though his performance is close to perfect, he works on it and repeates the finale.

Elvis sings the rock'n'roll medley as profunctory as on his television concert. A part of the performance was not captured on tape, which is no great loss.

The king goofs up the start of "An American Trilogy", but the second try works well. Even in front of an audience this would have been a highlight.

Spontaneously Elvis intones "I'm Leavin' It All Up To You", but the band is on their toes and joins in. The singer limits his performance to the chorus and is done with the tune within a minute, but nevertheless it's great to hear.

In the past the country song has been rehearsed several times, but Elvis never presented it live on stage. Once again the musicians join in quickly and obviously know their parts. However, the king does not and makes several mistakes during the second verse. By now it's no surprise, that he doesn't work on the performance.

Instead he sings "I Can't Stop Loving You", a regular feature of his show. Maybe he simply wants to do a song he knows well.

Elvis also wants to present his current single "Separate Ways". First he performs the ballad just with his band, during the second rendition the group is joined by the orchestra. However, both renditions are quite rocky and even though the singer works on the performance a bit, the result is not really presentable. As usual Elvis shows no signs of ambition and just leaves it as it is.

As expected the regular feature of his shows isn't a challenge to anyone. Afterwards Elvis says "Let's do Can't Help Falling In Love and call it off".

With the exception of the concerts in January and February 1971 Elvis has ended each and every show with "Can't Help Falling In Love". So it must be a psychological reason to end this rehearsal with this song, too. In mid-performance the recording is stopped, but once again it's no loss at all.