Rockin' New Years Eve
Listening to the
Pittsburgh concert now it sounds as though the crowd could sense that this would
be no ordinary Elvis performance. From the opening bars of the 2001 Theme to the
last notes of the Closing Vamp the atmosphere was electric. Elvis' short
December tour had been consistently good and further evidence of this can be
found on the CD's "Burning in Birmingham" and "A Hot Winter Night
In Dallas", but the Pittsburgh show has become a favourite with the fans
over the years, and the excellent quality audience recording of the show has
been released on both record and CD.
Following the
2001 Theme Elvis took to the stage at the Civic Arena wearing his white black
eagle jump suit and went straight into his opening number "See See Rider
" this was quickly followed by the "I Got A Woman/Amen" medley
which ended with Elvis sharing a joke with J.D. Sumner and making him perform
his "divebomber" routine twice.
Next came the
first surprise of the evening "Big Boss Man" a song Elvis had
performed live several times before, but it was not part of his standard opening
song line up. This would provide the first indication that Elvis was really up
for the show. Elvis followed this with his 1956 hit "Love Me", and
then performed the song "Fairytale" which he had originally recorded
in Hollywood the previous, year and included on his "Elvis Today"
album
The
powerful "You Gave Me A Mountain" gave Elvis the chance to demonstrate
that he had lost none of his incredible vocal range, whilst "Jailhouse
Rock" was guaranteed to please the crowd, and provide the older fans with
happy memories of the young rebel on the big screen. Elvis then took a short
break whilst Sherrill Nielsen performed "O Sole Mio". This was
followed by Elvis' own version of "It's Now Or Never" and a cover of
Frank Sinatra's "My Way" which had originally featured in Elvis' 1973
TV special "Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite"
With
the time rapidly approaching midnight Elvis asked for the houselights to be
turned on so he could say hello to the crowd. He then sang Willie Nelson's
"Funny How Time Slips Away" and as the clock struck midnight he led
the audience in a chorus of "Auld Lang Syne". Elvis rocked into 1977
with the 50's classics "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Trying To Get To
You". He then introduced one of his later rock numbers, Tony Joe White's
swamp rocker "Polk Salad Annie". This featured some wild moves from
Elvis, and a karate style ending reminiscent of the 1970 documentary "Elvis
That's The Way Is"
Elvis then
introduced his band and performed several numbers that would highlight the
individual talents of his excellent TCB band. These were "Early Morning
Rain" (John Wilkinson: Rhythm Guitar), "What'd I Say" &
"Johnny B. Goode" (James Burton: Lead Guitar), and "Love
Letters" (David Briggs: Piano). He then performed the song
"Fever" in response to a request from the audience. Next came the 1976
single "Hurt" - this song had quickly become a favourite with both
Elvis and his fans, and Elvis would often hit unbelievable notes at the end of
this song. Tonight would be no exception as Elvis gave a powerful rendition of
the song and ended it lying on his back!
Once again he
took the crowd back to the rockin' 50's with one side of his biggest record
"Hound Dog", a guaranteed crowd pleaser. He then announced that he
would like to play the guitar, and accompanied himself on his 1960 hit "Are
You Lonesome Tonight?" Despite some fooling around with his friend Charlie
Hodge during the spoken narration his vocal performance was perfect. Next came a
real surprise "Reconsider Baby", a song Elvis had recorded in March
1960 and included on his first post army album "Elvis Is Back". This
song had been performed live back in 1969 in Las Vegas, and also at one of
Elvis' Madison Square Garden shows in 1972, but it was not part of Elvis
standard live repertoire. He followed this with the classic rocker "Little
Sister" before announcing that he was going to play piano.
Sitting at
the piano Elvis introduced the song "Unchained Melody" which he had
recently added to his stage act. He dedicated the song to his father Vernon,
daughter Lisa Marie, and girlfriend Ginger Alden. Elvis performed a powerful
version of the song, which featured a similar vocal style to the song
"Hurt". He would continue to perform the song during his 1977
concerts, and was filmed singing the song by the CBS cameras during a concert in
Rapid City S.D. on June 21, 1977. This can be seen on "The Great
Performances" video. He followed this with another surprise the song
"Rags To Riches". Elvis had recorded this song in September 1970, and
it had been released as a single the following year. However, he had not
featured the song in his stage act before.
All good things must come to an end, and after thanking the audience the opening bars of "Can't Help Falling In Love" signalled to the crowd that the show was about to end. As the song ended and the Closing Vamp started to play Elvis wasn't quite finished, and he gave the crowd a brief Karate demonstration before leaving the stage. It had been one helluva night.
Pittsburgh
On C.D.
At the time of writing it is not possible to confirm whether a soundboard recording of this show exists. There is however a great quality audience recording available which really captures the excitement of Elvis' performance. This was first released as a two record set titled "Rockin' New Years Eve" and has since been re-released on the import CD "Auld Lang Syne"
Note: since this article was originally written, the audience recording of this show has been released officially by the BMG collectors label FTD.
Alternate Recordings
The tape used for the original release of the Pittsburgh show on the bootleg album "Rockin' New Years Eve" (pictured above), was also used for the "Auld Lang Syne" CD, and BMG's FTD release, "New Years Eve". There is an alternate recording of the show available which was issued on the bootleg CD "Rags To Riches", and this recording features less audience reaction.
Auld Lang Syne
Further information and some great photographs from this concert can be found in the excellent book "Auld Lang Syne" by Simon De Wit.
