Title: The King Of Entertainment

Label: Unknown

Date: December 14, 1975, Las Vegas Hilton, Las Vegas, Nevada (closing show)

Sound Quality: * * / * * * * * +

Concert Rating: * * * * + + / * * * * * +

Tracks: 1.2001 2.C.C. Rider 3.I Got A Woman / Amen 4.Love Me 5.Trying To Get To You 6.And I Love You So 7.All Shook Up 8.Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel 9.Hound Dog 10.I'm Leavin' 11.You Gave Me A Mountain 12.Polk Salad Annie 13.Just Pretend 14.How Great Thou Art 15.Softly As I Leave You 16.America 17.Sweet Sweet Spirit (Stamps) 18.Little Sister 19.One Night 20.Until It's Time For You To Go 21.The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 22.Mystery Train / Tiger Man 23.O Sole Mio / It's Now Or Never

Package: This CD is from the beginning of the bootleg CD's era, so no label and no other info is featured. Only two photos: on the cover and inside the CD. Frankly speaking these are not very successful shoots.

Elvis: This concert is a great follow-up of well known Just Pretend or Unsurpassed Masters Vol.4. Although this show is incomplete, it is MUCH MORE BETTER than the day before. Just look at the program: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, I'm Leavin', O Sole Mio, One Night, Until It's Time For You To Go and much more. Elvis and the audience are in great spirit - the concert seems to be never ended. After America Elvis gives his microphone to the Stamps and then great second part of the concert follows. No band introductions and no jokes this is something unusual for mister Presley. Personally, I like this type of concerts more than ordinary ones.

Others: The sound quality is very good for an audience recording - the concert is unusual and program is fantastic. Do not dare miss it!

Review: This concert took place on the next day after Just Pretend. And this is a very important bootleg, because it features one of the best Elvis' concerts of the later years. Of course, it is a bit worse than the shows he used to do in 1969 & 1970, but it is a damn fine show. What you have to keep in your mind is that it is an audience recording, no matter how good it is. I, myself, am not a fan of audience recordings, but some of them feature exciting material which I can't miss, and this one is one of those.

Also Sprach Zarathustra is the first in line, and the drum roll by Ronnie Tutt is starting, Elvis gets onstage and C.C. Rider is the first song and I must say that right from the start you feel that Elvis is in good mood. What is strange is the next song - why is not it as short as the version from the day before? Even the band is confused, I think. But anyway, it's nice also. Funny, but there are two women who giggle all the way through the "Well, Well..." intro, and it is a bit irritating. Next is Love Me, and it is as bad (I mean, as good :-)) as always. Next is Trying To Get To You, which is pretty nice, close to the version El did the day before. Before the song Elvis jokes, saying the first line from Love Me - "Treat... Oh...". And I love You So is also nice.

Forget All Shook Up and the rest of this crap. Let's move to I'm Leaving. It's a pretty rare song for live concerts, preceding it is a dialogue, during which Elvis thanks somebody for a present for his daughter. The song is not introduced by Elvis. Anyway, it is very good emotional version. In fact, you can hear somebody from the audience singing along, hitting some wrong notes. Interesting are the words Elvis says after the song: "I'd like to dedicate that to Ed Parker and his wife Lellanie (?), they're from Hawaii. That song. Mountain". During the Mountain you can also hear somebody from the audience singing along. This people is funny, it looks like they enjoy interrupting Elvis :-) Polk Salad is as wild as always, and it is nice to hear it on this concert.

The introductions are omitted, and this is probably the first time I miss them. During this concert, Elvis sang Happy Birthday to Charlie Hodge during the intros. So it sad that they're missing. But anyway, That's The Way It Is... Just Pretend is the next in line, and is a nice rendition, although it can't compete with the 1970 version. Following this song is "A gospel song, we've got a lot of requests for it, called How Great Thou Art". This thing is a joy to hear. As always, Elvis delivers a fantastic version, with a tremendous "Oh my G-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-d, how great Thou Art", so great that the audience can't help but clap right in the middle of the song! And to our happiness, the reprise of this moment is also present, but, it is not as great as the day before "fly into the skies", still well done. "This next song is a song that we've been doing a lot, especially in Vegas" (only in Vegas by the time, as far as I know, because as far as I remember the only version outside Vegas, was the one performed in Memphis, 1976 and released on Goodbye Memphis). The song is very beautiful and touching, but I think that there's no better version than the one from Desert Storm. Also there is some tape damage nearer to the end. Next is America, which starts with an "intro" by the orchestra. As always, it is a very emotional version. Next is a part of Burning Love, but Elvis needs to leave the stage (probably, to have a telephone conversation :-)) and so, he leaves the job to the Stamps quartet, and they do the number - Sweet, Sweet Spirit, which is very nice. "I've heard you downstairs, I needed that..." Next is Little Sister, which is not of the best quality, but pretty listenable. "One Night" Elvis announces. And the song begins from an another source, less bass is heard, but I think that it is more clear. Elvis himself is in good mood, singing a long version, doing the "Always lived a very quite life" thing two times. Very nice. What follows is Until It's Time To Go, which is always nice to hear, though Elvis made fun of it. This version is not an exception. He makes a funny comment, and Kathy Westmoreland begins laughing while she's doing that "high" part... Man, fantastic. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is great as always, it also includes that part "And the first time ever I laid with you, I felt your heartbeat so close to mine, etc." Next is Mystery Train / Tiger Man medley, which is not a very good rendition. Save the best for the last... The last track on the CD features Elvis singing O Sole Mio. I really mean O Sole Mio, not It's Now Or Never. I mean, of course, he sings It's Now Or Never, but it is preceded by O Sole Mio, which is sung twice in fact (the main part of It's Now Or Never sung in Italian, like Shaun Nielsen would do later). What destroys the song, is the little girl, who tries to sing along Elvis. She's just to close to this recording machine.

What can I say as a conclusion? It is a very nice CD, but it is and audience recording, and you never can expect anything special from an audience recording (at least, if it is not Fort Baxter product :-)). The show is fantastic, from, the same level (if not higher) as the show from the day before. But if you do not accept audience recordings, better skip it. If someday it appears on a soundboard, it will surely be a must have.

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