Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Elvis Presley = The Ed Sullivan Performances (DVD)

I’ve seen clips of these on documentaries through the years, but it’s quite a joy to see all three Elvis appearances in one sitting. First thing I notices was that Ed Sullivan was not even there for the first appearance – and later in one of the additional features I learned that Sullivan had been in a pretty bad car wreck. The second thing I noticed was that all those stories about Elvis being filmed from the waist up were only true about his final performance. So, some folk tales squashed, and some really fine show business moments in these appearances. It’s obvious these guys are singing live and not lip-syncing because of a few flubs on live TV. The music, of course, is great. And, maybe not so important to some, but people like me are interested in the range Elvis has, and how in the close-ups you can actually see his adam apple going through the tremendous range Elvis had as a vocalist. Great fun to watch. Elvis