For the city of Pine Bluff the newly opened Convention Center hadn't been a success yet. Apart from an Aerosmith concert (from the 1970s to the late 1980s Aerosmith was a well known and successful rock band) there had been no ativities with noteworthy ticket sales. All that changed when Elvis Presley came to town. For Pine Bluff, at the time a city of 55,000 inhabitants, this was a major event. For Mr. Presley a 7,700 seater was the bottom limit, usually he appeared in larger venues. Colonel Parker had booked the Convention Center for September 7th and 8th and nobody was surprised as both concerts sold out before you can say Jack Robinson. In total the 15,400 visitors paid 250,000 USD to see the king, of course there were also revenues from the souvenir stands.

As usual Elvis wore one of his "Egyptian Bird Suits", this time the blue one with white sleeves. The sound engineer didn't tape the comple show. He left out "Also Sprach Zarathustra", "See See Rider", "I Got A Woman", "Danny Boy" (sung by Sherrill Nielsen), "Walk With Me" (sung by Sherrill Nielsen), "Blue Suede Shoes", "How Great Thou Art" and "Can't Help Falling In Love".

The recording starts with "Amen". JD Sumner is allowed to show off his bass voice twice, Elvis spoofs a few of his famous moves and returns to "I Got A Woman". Then he throws his guitar back to Charlie Hodge and welcomes the crowd. James Burton tries to pace the show by repeating the opening chord of "Love Me".

The tune is used to hand out some scarfs. Here and there Elvis toys a bit with the melody and jokingly has his harmony singers holding the final note until they almost turn red and blue.

Instead of the usual "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" the king opts for "Fairytale", a song from his previous years' album "Elvis Today". He obviously likes the country pop, but it takes him some effort to inject some life into his vocals.

Ordinarily the power ballad "You Gave Me A Mountain" is up next, but Elvis announces "a medley of some of my records" instead. Maybe he doesn't feel up to the challenge. Just like "Love Me" the king uses "All Shook Up" to make contact to the fans and hand out his scarfs. The vocal performance is lackluster.

The same applies to this medley. The scarf-thing is a cute gimmick, but nowadays Mr. Presley overdoes it. Musically there is a small timing issue, but I guess nobody in the venue noticed it.

One of his crew members suggests a song to the king, but he declines and wants to do "And I Love You So" instead. It's another song from his "Elvis Today" album and once again he performs it well. But just like on "Fairytale" he sounds a bit tired and has some problems to control his vibrato.

With "Jailhouse Rock" the singer returns to his glorious past, but this time he invests some energy. His rendition is much better than the ones of "All Shook Up" and "Don't Be Cruel" and the performance soon turns out to be a nice reminder of everybody's youth.

Surprisingly Elvis throws in "One Night", a song, he rarely sings on stage these days. He doesn't sound as powerful as in the movie "That's The Way It Is", but also doesn't disgrace himself. In-between he mumbles away a few words and ironically commments his mishap with "It's French".

With a humorous "Mountain! Mountain! Mountain!" the king cues the band to start "You Gave Me A Mountain", the song he left out earlier this evening. He still impresses the crowd by belting out the chorus, but once again there's a tired subtone in his voice.

Now the man from Memphis is unsure about what to do next. He opts for "Fever" and uses the song to make the ladies scream by moving his legs. The man on stage looks plump, but the image works as well as ever and the goal is reached, regardless the appearance of the real person. Afterwards Elvis bestows a lucky female with a scarf and a kiss. James Burton plays the first chord of "America (The Beautiful)", whereupon his boss suggests to have a few days of rehearsals before going on tour again. Great idea, the set list is stagnating since two years or so!

Talking about being underrehearsed: Elvis fluffs the second line and has to start all over again. But one has to admit, that the second try works really well. It's a moving and vocally impressive performance.

With "Polk Salad!" Elvis cues the band and soon the bass intro of "Polk Salad Annie" is booming through the arena. As expected the king doesn't move as much and elegant as he did a few years earlier, but he obviously likes the song and does the best he can. Unfortunately the recording is faded in mid-song.

The recording fades in during the "Introductions". Therefore they are not as long and boring as they actually were back in 1976.

Elvis continues with "Hurt", an old Timi Yuro track which he has covered half a year ago. It's not presented as great as on the record, but certainly good enough to impress the audience. Afterwards he asks "You wanna hear it again?" and reprises the performance without waiting for an answer. This time the start sounds a tad rocky, but otherwise it's a good rendition, too.

After a few bars the king stops the performance of the rock'n'roll classic by saying "It ain't that fast". Nevertheless he continues at more or less the same speed and just mumbles the same four lines over and over again. During the "grande finale" he shakes his chubby body to the brass sounds of the orchestra. It all looks and sounds like a travesty, but the people love it - for whatever reason.

Now the king has the houselights turned up to take a look at his fans. He also takes care of a somewhat hysterical woman at the edge of the stage. Then he intones the country ballad "Funny How Time Slips Away". In general he uses the song to hand out some more scarfs, at times he even stops to sing. Of course the fans love it, but in fact it's nothing to write home about.

At this point Elvis usually ends the show with "Can't Help Falling In Love", but today he asks for "Why Me Lord" instead. JD Sumner sings lead and his boss joins The Stamps on the chorus. He also tries to make Mr. Sumner laugh. It's quite a surprise to hear the gospel since Elvis hasn't performed it all that much since last year.

The king seems to be in gread mood, because he asks for his guitar to accompany himself on "That's All Right". Since the instrument is not connected to the sound system, Charlie Hodge installs a microphone. He holds a second one close to the king's mouth, so everyone can hear his singing, too. The singer tells the crowd, that he wants to stay a bit longer since this is the final concert of the tour. Ironically he adds, that his band was booing him, because they just want to collect their cheques and go home. It's a nice rendition of "That's All Right", it'll be a great idea to include the c&w tune more often.

Because Elvis wants to extend the show, but not work all the time himself, he asks Kathy Westmoreland to perform "My Heavenly Father". It soon turns out, that she sings more controlled, accurate and powerful than her employer.

Obviously the man from Memphis is aware of the situation and correctly asks "Oh boy....how do you follow that?". His solution is the well known medley of "Mystery Train" and "Tiger Man". He seems to like the classics and really cuts loose. Of course he's not nearly in the shape he used to be, but he gives all he has and the result is lightyears ahead of humbug like "Hound Dog" or "All Shook Up". As written before, the recording ends here and we have to do without "Danny Boy", "Walk With Me", "Blue Suede Shoes", "How Great Thou Art" and "Can't Help Falling In Love".