The History of Elvis: 1968

June 27: Elvis and his band tape the informal jam session on center stage at NBC, a performance many consider his best of all time. However, the Colonel, unhappy with the direction of the show, has withheld all tickets to the performance, forcing staffers to run into a nearby Bob's Big Boy restaurant (4211 W. Riverside Dr., Burbank) and plead with patrons to come see a real honest-to-goodness Elvis concert. (The King himself is extremely nervous at performing live for the first time in seven years, and is told by Binder that once he goes out there, he can just get up and leave if he can't take it. A close look at the performance shows that, once on stage, he pretends to do just that.) Two shows, an afternoon and an evening, are performed. This performance would later be the inspiration for MTV's Unplugged series.
June 28: Elvis tapes the "gospel medley" portion of the show as well as a controversial "bordello" scene that was never broadcast: NBC censors had no objections, but the sponsor, Singer Sewing Machines, didn't want to upset viewers.
June 29: Elvis performs the show's intro as well as the two "stand-up" musical sets, this time in front of a packed house.
June 30: The finale of the TV show, "If I Can Dream," is perfected by Presley in five takes.
July 4: Elvis auctions off his 1964 Rolls Royce for charity.
July 22: The singer begins filming his twenty-ninth movie, Charro!, on location in Arizona. It is the only Elvis movie where he sports a beard, and the only one in which he does not sing on-camera -- only two songs are recorded for the film, and only the title track, another Mac Davis composition, is used... over the credits only. A "serious" Western, it is nonetheless a critical and commercial failure.
August 20: Having just seen a rough cut of the TV special, the Colonel is outraged, and in a two-page memorandum to the producers outlines several grievances, most notably a complete lack of Christmas songs. If at least one Christmas song isn't featured, threatens Parker, the network will be forced to do an entire Christmas special with Elvis to honor its contract. The dispute is resolved easily enough when a version of "Blue Christmas" from the "sit-down" show is edited back in.
October 1: Elvis attends the Memphis funeral of DJ Dewey Phillips, the influential disc jockey who'd been the first to play his debut record, "That's All Right Mama." He is heard telling Phillips' widow, Dorothy, that Dewey "was my friend."
October 29: Elvis begins filming his thirtieth movie, The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It), more typical Elvis fare that features girls, comedy, and four Elvis songs. It also performs poorly, despite being released on a double bill with the sci-fi quickie The Green Slime.
December 3:
The TV special, whose official title is Singer Presents Elvis, debuts on NBC at 9 pm EST and is a giant commercial and critical smash, taking in a full 42 percent of the nation's television viewing audience and cementing Elvis' "comeback" for all time. December 10: Fresh off the success of the special, Colonel Tom Parker negotiates a performance deal with the William Morris Agency: eight shows a week in Vegas for one month. Price: half a million dollars.
December 19: Vegas' International Hotel, still under construction, gets Parker to agree instead to a month-long contract of fourteen shows a week for $400,000, a figure which includes payment for the band.
December 25: At the Graceland Christmas party, Elvis' father Vernon pretends to be Santa for the benefit of Lisa Marie.
December 31: In a repeat of last year's festivities, Elvis holds his New Year's bash at Memphis' Thunderbird Lounge, with music by B.J. Thomas and Billy Lee Riley, among others.

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