I remember watching this via satellite when living in Alaska. I could be wrong, but I think it’s the first thing we had seen live up there. Even regular programming ran a few hours late because tapes were flown up from Seattle. This Elvis concert was a huge event! I won’t forget it.
When I was 16 to 26 (1975 -1985) I was in a band called Jade 50’s out of Chicago. We were a nostalgia band, we actually got to be the back up band for the Dick Clark Rock and Roll Shows and when Dick Clark came to the Midwest were were the band. But whenever we played by ourselves at music festivals or college towns we did an Elvis segment where my older brother would impersonate Elvis and one of the songs we did was An American Trilogy. The audience would go nuts. Then Elvis died and Elvis impersonators came out of the woodwork and we stopped doing that part of the show. But we did get to play in front of some huge crowds, 40,000 to 70,000 people. It was fun while it lasted, but then reality set in and you realize they’re not there to see you, they’re there to see Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and all the other on the play bill....
I remember watching this show the first time it was on with all my siblings and parents on our new color counsel TV. Elvis never looked or sounded better than he did on this night. What a performer and what a voice.