On December 5, 1974 the public relations department of the Las Vegas Hilton announced, that Elvis would perform at the resort from January 26, 1975 onwards. A few weeks later the engagement was postponed, because the Hilton Group wanted to celebrate to opening of the new wing with a Presley stint and the latest addition to the vast resort wasn't finalized yet. At the end of January 1975 the public was notified, that Elvis would perform twice each day from March 18th to April 1st.
Musicians
James Burton (guitar), John Wilkinson (guitar), Charlie Hodge (guitar and harmony vocals), Duke Bardwell (bass), Ronnie Tutt (drums), Glen D. Hardin (piano) and The Joe Guercio Orchestra. The harmony vocals were provided by The Sweet Inspirations (Myrna Smith, Sylvia Shemwell & Estelle Brown), J.D. Sumner & The Stamps (Bill Baize, Ed Enoch, Ed Hill & Larry Strickland), Voice (Donnie Sumner, Tim Baty & Sherrill Nielsen) as well as Kathy Westmoreland.
About The Engagement
Since the summer of 1974 the king's condition had worsened. Once again his abuse of medication was out of control and to make it worse he also had added liquid cocaine to his agenda of drugs. During this time Elvis also gained a lot of weight. On January 29th he finally was hospitalized due to breathing difficulties. His condition was so bad, that a physician and a nurse took care of him, when he was released. Officially Elvis had undertaken some routine tests and the medical staff was allocated to Vernon, who as was generally known suffered from heart problems. The delay of the opening of the new hotel wing was a welcome coincidence and used as an excuse for the postponement of the concert series.
Because RCA was also pressing Elvis for new recordings, the production of a new album and the rehearsals for the upcoming engagement were combined. RCA's Studio C in Hollywood/California was rented from March 10th to 13th. During the first three days the album "Elvis Today" was recorded, the last day was used to prepare for the engagement at the Hilton. On March 16th the king arrived in Vegas and began three days of further rehearsals. Of course he prepared more songs than he actually sang on stage. Some of the ones he didn't use were "In The Ghetto", "Your Love's Been A Long Time Coming" and "Suzie Q". For Duke Bardwell this engagement was the final time he was on stage with Elvis. After the stint was over, the singer lured Jerry Scheff back into his band and simply never booked Bardwell again. He wasn't too pleased with the bass player and their personalities didn't match. But just like he had done with Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana, he never talked to the musician and simply ghosted him.
Due to his massive weight gain Elvis had to buy new outfits. To hide his belly he now used jumpsuits with a huge chest neckline. This enabled him to combine the suits with a shirt and a jacket. It looked like a regular suit, but the shirt and the "pants" could not get out of place when he moved. The designer also added belts, so that Elvis could take off the jacket during the show. But the king didn't like the idea, kept his jackets on and never used the belts. The names of the different outfits are "White & Black Two Piece Leather Fringe Suit", "White Two Piece Suit & Blue Ornaments", "Dark Blue Two Piece Suit & Light Blue/Silver Ornaments" and "Dark Blue Two Piece Suit & Red/Gold Ornaments".
During this stint Elvis didn't move all that much and left out songs like "Suspicious Minds" and "Polk Salad Annie". To give him a break, the singer also used more time to introduce his band and had each member (minus John Wilkinson) play a solo. Even though he looked chubby and pale, Elvis voice was strong and he appeared to be quite motivated. Thankfully he did without all the talking and focused on the music. His repertoire was up to date and didn't include many oldies. Without doubt this was one of Elvis' strongest Vegas seasons.
The Las Vegas Hilton copied the procedure of Del Webb's Sahara Tahoe Hotel and did without serving meals. Both concerts were cocktail shows, which enabled the hotel to replace the large dinner tables with smaller cocktail tables and seat more people in the room. The tickets were sold at $20.00, the revenue from the merchandising (13,000 USD) was donated to the Aid To Adoption Of Special Kids Fund.
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