08/16/2026
(FROM 2020):
This is a real treat, part of a rehearsal for Elvis’ summer engagement here in Las Vegas in 1974, recorded in RCA’s studios on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles on August 16, 1974, 46 years ago today. This came out on bootleg in the ‘90s but it had obviously been around for a while before that, being circulated by collectors. I somehow ended up years before with four songs — the two versions each of “If You Love Me” and “Promised Land” on the tape with some other stuff, including rehearsals from August of 1972 and perhaps other dates. Just some random stuff that was put on a tape by one of these heavy-duty collectors, I guess, but it was a real surprise to me. An even better surprise was when, years later, I finally heard the full extent of the existing rehearsal recording. It’s not pristine sound but it’s pretty good, recorded on a normal household tape recorder by one of the musicians present, David Briggs.
Elvis is pretty workmanlike for most of the session but he still fool around a bit, as he usually did, and he does mess around with a few songs that never made it into his setlists. Three days later, though, on opening night, he did include a number of songs that he’d never done before on stage, or at all, some of which stuck in the setlists and some of which were only performed that one time. There was long an audience-recorded tape of opening night being sold and bootlegged and traded around for years but a soundboard recording finally surfaced, again in the ‘90s, and it’s since been officially released on a collectors’ label.
I always liked this season an awful lot; it’s very interesting to listen to and Elvis was in great voice with interesting setlists and, halfway through the season, he started doing extended martial arts demonstrations and talking a lot about martial arts, that’s right up my alley. It became a bit of a rollercoaster toward the end, famously, but he was really performing at a high-level for most of the time.
As for the rehearsal itself, it’s got some real gems and some very interesting songs, some of which Elvis was revisiting from the past and some of which he had never done live. You can tell he was really taken with “If You Love Me,“ just as he was with “ Let Me Be There” when he’d introduced it to his setlist at the start of the year. He says that it’s just such a happy song and, having sung it myself now, I concur; it’s just one of those songs that feels really good to sing.
One of the songs that Elvis_didn’t_ do live, unfortunately, was “Twelfth Of Never.” I think he nails it and it is a perfect song for him and could’ve been an excellent studio recording or used to great effect in a live setting. There are rumors going back to 1970 that he performed it live, but there’s no evidence of such. He also apparently rehearsed it earlier in the ‘70s but whether he was ever considering putting it in hIs live repertoire or if he just liked running through it in his freeform rehearsals, that often turned into jam sessions, is hard to say , but it’s a real pity he never did it live, though, or in the studio. The same is true for a few songs that he did one-off versions of on stage or in rehearsal, like “Oh Happy Day,” that was another song that was perfect for him. If I’m not mistaken, David Briggs overdubbed strings and other layerse on to the rehearsal recording and it was released as a single around 1995 or so.
Being Elvis, who was fairly creative with spicy language, there’s a bit of R-rated stuff going on here, including with this ad libs. As a singer, of course, if you’re familiar with this kind of bootlegged stuff you really have to watch that you don’t accidentally repeat some of his little embellishments. He definitely had a subversive sense of humor, and a little bit of that is on display. For the most part, though, with only three days to opening night, he’s fairly businesslike here, to a great extent.
When you have the time, I definitely recommend listening to this if you’re interested in how he made music and just in hearing some great stuff. I find these rehearsals some of the most interesting things that we have on tape from him, although we don’t have many of them yet and we know there are some out there in the hands of collectors. Hopefully more will surface in the near future.
www.lasvegaselvistribute.com
  
https://youtu.be/ex2GOsZ6BFk?is=_s5j5CfFk_Ow0WgI
Elvis' rehearsal on Sunset Blvd. In Hollywood on August 16th,1974. ...
