Publicity stated: It has been well over a decade since the renowned label "Rainbow Records" was actively involved in the Elvis scene. Now, however, the passion has been reignited, and to mark the 50th anniversary, the label is releasing the very last show Elvis performed in Las Vegas - presented in its full, uncut length and revamped with the latest technology, resulting in better sound than ever before - something you can clearly hear for the first time as a superb 3-LP set with printed inner sleeves full of great information and photos.
This is a high-end product, made for the real fan and very limited to only 200 copies on Black vinyl and on Gold vinyl!
And what a show it is! Here is the story behind it. There was nothing to suggest that Sunday, December 12, 1976 would be the end. No farewell had been announced. For Elvis Presley and the audience gathered in the Las Vegas Hilton showroom, it was simply closing night, the end of another engagement in a relationship between singer, hotel and city that had begun more than seven years earlier.
When the curtain came down that night, Elvis had completed another Las Vegas season. He would never perform in the city again.
The story had begun on July 31, 1969, when Elvis opened at the newly built International Hotel. After years dominated by motion pictures, his return to regular live performance was a triumph. Backed by a powerful rhythm section, vocal groups and orchestra, Elvis combined Rock ‘n’ Roll, country, gospel, rhythm and blues and contemporary pop in a show that established him as one of Las Vegas’ greatest attractions.
Season after season he returned. The International, later renamed the Las Vegas Hilton, became an important part of the Elvis story and a place where his performances could remain surprisingly unpredictable. Old records were revived, new songs appeared, gospel numbers emerged spontaneously and arrangements could change from one night to the next.
But what had been an adventure in 1969 eventually became routine. By the middle of the decade Elvis’ feelings toward Las Vegas had changed. The Hilton remained enormously successful, and Colonel Parker’s close relationship with the hotel made the engagements good business.
For Elvis, however, the showroom, surroundings and repeated schedule had lost much of their attraction. Touring at least brought a new city and audience every night. In Las Vegas the world came to Elvis while Elvis remained in the same place.
The familiar story that Parker’s gambling losses forced Elvis to keep performing at the Hilton has become part of Elvis folklore. Parker’s gambling was real, but there is insufficient evidence to present his debts as the reason for the engagements. The simpler explanation is that Elvis at the Hilton remained extremely profitable. Elvis’ own dissatisfaction appears to have been more personal: He had grown tired of the routine. There could still be exceptional nights, but the excitement of discovery was gone. By December 1976, he was ready to leave.
When Elvis started his 15th Las Vegas engagement on December 2nd and ended it 15 shows later on December 12th, nobody called it the final engagement back then. The surviving recordings reveal an Elvis whose mood and concentration could vary considerably, yet when a song engaged him his voice could still command the room. The explosive energy of 1969 had evolved into a heavier, more dramatic vocal style particularly suited to songs such as “Hurt”, “My Way”, “You Gave Me A Mountain” and “How Great Thou Art”.
At the same time, the past remained close. Songs from the 1950s could appear beside contemporary ballads and gospel numbers, sometimes prompted by an audience request and sometimes seemingly by nothing more than a memory.
The bonus performances collected on Side Six of this release offer further glimpses of those eleven days. “I Just Can’t Help Believin’” recalls the earlier Vegas years; “One Night” reaches back to the 1950s and “What Now My Love” represents the dramatic style of Elvis’ seventies stage performances. “You Better Run” and “Bosom Of Abraham” along with “Until Then” return him to gospel, while “Steamroller Blues” and a full rendition of “Early Morning Rain” complete the selection of bonus tracks, providing a wider view of Elvis’ final Las Vegas engagement.
Only in retrospect did December 12th become historic. Elvis was soon back on the road, ending 1976 with his New Year’s Eve concert in Pittsburgh. More tours followed in 1977.
Las Vegas did not. Nobody in the Hilton that December night knew they were witnessing the end of an era. Only after Elvis’ death the following August did the significance of that closing performance become clear. The Las Vegas years had begun with Elvis rediscovering the possibilities of live performance. Over seven years, the showroom allowed him to draw freely from every part of his musical life — Rock ‘n’ Roll, country, gospel and contemporary pop — while developing the spectacular stage presentation that became inseparable from his image.
But the real connection was always between Elvis and his audience. The contemporary review reproduced elsewhere in this set tells of a woman attending Elvis for the 112th time. Asked why anyone would return so often, the writer found the answer not in the spectacle but in Elvis’ vulnerability and the sense of something genuinely shared between performer and audience.
That relationship remained at the heart of the Las Vegas phenomenon.
And that is what makes December 12, 1976 so fascinating. It was never intended as a farewell. There was no final speech, no celebration of the Vegas years and no announcement that Elvis would not return. It was simply another night in Las Vegas. The audience applauded. The curtain came down. And this time, it really was the last time.
Tracklist LP 1 - Side 1: 19:23
1. Also Sprach Zarathustra
2. See See Rider
3. I Got A Woman / Amen
4. Love Me
5. My Way
Side 2: 19:32
1. Fairytale
2. You Gave Me A Mountain
3. Jailhouse Rock
4. Little Sister
5. O Sole Mio / It’s Now Or Never
6. Trying To Get To You
LP 2- Side 3: 16:59
1. Happy Birthday To Charlie
2. Blue Suede Shoes
3. Black Diamond Dialogue
4. Blue Christmas
5. Softly As I Leave You
6. Are You Lonesome Tonight?
7. That’s All Right
Side 4: 17:13
1. Bridge Over Troubled Water
2. Introductions – Farther Along (Excerpt)
3. Early Morning Rain
4. What’d I Say
5. Johnny B. Goode
6. Band Soli
LP 3: - Side 5: 18:41
1. Love Letters
2. School Day (with reprise)
3. Introductions of Colonel Parker, Vernon Presley & Wayne Newton
4. Hurt
5. Such A Night
6. Sweet Caroline
7. Can’t Help Falling In Love / Closing Vamp
Side 6: 17:43 The Bonus Tracks
1. I Just Can’t Help Believin’ (December 2, 1976 O.S.)
2. One Night (December 3, 1976 D.S.)
3. What Now My Love (December 4, 1976)
4. You Better Run / Bosom Of Abraham (December 7, 1976)
5. Steamroller Blues (December 10, 1976 D.S.)
6. Early Morning Rain (December 10, k1976 M.S.)
7. Until Then (December 11, 1976 M.S.)
1. Also Sprach Zarathustra
2. See See Rider
3. I Got A Woman / Amen
4. Love Me
5. My Way
Side 2: 19:32
1. Fairytale
2. You Gave Me A Mountain
3. Jailhouse Rock
4. Little Sister
5. O Sole Mio / It’s Now Or Never
6. Trying To Get To You
LP 2- Side 3: 16:59
1. Happy Birthday To Charlie
2. Blue Suede Shoes
3. Black Diamond Dialogue
4. Blue Christmas
5. Softly As I Leave You
6. Are You Lonesome Tonight?
7. That’s All Right
Side 4: 17:13
1. Bridge Over Troubled Water
2. Introductions – Farther Along (Excerpt)
3. Early Morning Rain
4. What’d I Say
5. Johnny B. Goode
6. Band Soli
LP 3: - Side 5: 18:41
1. Love Letters
2. School Day (with reprise)
3. Introductions of Colonel Parker, Vernon Presley & Wayne Newton
4. Hurt
5. Such A Night
6. Sweet Caroline
7. Can’t Help Falling In Love / Closing Vamp
Side 6: 17:43 The Bonus Tracks
1. I Just Can’t Help Believin’ (December 2, 1976 O.S.)
2. One Night (December 3, 1976 D.S.)
3. What Now My Love (December 4, 1976)
4. You Better Run / Bosom Of Abraham (December 7, 1976)
5. Steamroller Blues (December 10, 1976 D.S.)
6. Early Morning Rain (December 10, k1976 M.S.)
7. Until Then (December 11, 1976 M.S.)
