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Playing a few clips of this DVD at a revival party, you realise that many non-Elvis fans struggle to understand what made him such a phenomenon. Someone even commented: "Hey check out the Elvis style", not realising that the style in question, was the original.
His appearances on Ed Sullivan don’t make the strongest case for him, mainly due to national TV's fear of his reputation. Even then, despite fairly restrained performances on his first two shows, the network opts to shoot Elvis only from the waist up for the final one in January 1957. Another minus is that he repeats a few songs from show to show in promotion of his new movie and album.
The 3-disc set splits The King’s three Ed Sullivan appearances evenly, throwing in an armful of extras to accompany each episode. Naturally, fans will initially buy it for the Elvis tunes, but they’re only barely the highlights. The truth is you’re going to need a deep appreciation of classic showbusiness to get the full value from this set.
Sullivan's Sunday night show brought true variety to the table. Opt to watch the shows in their entirety and you’ll discover acrobats, Broadway musical performances, ventriloquists, acting dogs, singing troupes, comedy acts, and even live TV commercials for automobiles!
It's a thrill for theatre-heads, if only for its dated look and feel (and sometimes unspeakably terrible moments – thankfully DVD has a skip button). But it's also a reminder of how, despite now allowing sex and full frontal nudity on TV, we’ve become strangely sterile when it comes to entertainment.
Nowhere on TV today will you see the kind of back and forth in one hour as seen on the likes of Ed Sullivan. And I, for one, think we’re worse off for it.
Elvis performances (excluding repeats):
Don’t Be Cruel
Love Me Tender
Reddy Teddy
Hound Dog
Love Me
Heartbreak Hotel
Too Much
When my Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again
Peace in the Valley
Watch Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show Promo video:
His appearances on Ed Sullivan don’t make the strongest case for him, mainly due to national TV's fear of his reputation. Even then, despite fairly restrained performances on his first two shows, the network opts to shoot Elvis only from the waist up for the final one in January 1957. Another minus is that he repeats a few songs from show to show in promotion of his new movie and album.
The 3-disc set splits The King’s three Ed Sullivan appearances evenly, throwing in an armful of extras to accompany each episode. Naturally, fans will initially buy it for the Elvis tunes, but they’re only barely the highlights. The truth is you’re going to need a deep appreciation of classic showbusiness to get the full value from this set.
Sullivan's Sunday night show brought true variety to the table. Opt to watch the shows in their entirety and you’ll discover acrobats, Broadway musical performances, ventriloquists, acting dogs, singing troupes, comedy acts, and even live TV commercials for automobiles!
It's a thrill for theatre-heads, if only for its dated look and feel (and sometimes unspeakably terrible moments – thankfully DVD has a skip button). But it's also a reminder of how, despite now allowing sex and full frontal nudity on TV, we’ve become strangely sterile when it comes to entertainment.
Nowhere on TV today will you see the kind of back and forth in one hour as seen on the likes of Ed Sullivan. And I, for one, think we’re worse off for it.
Elvis performances (excluding repeats):
Don’t Be Cruel
Love Me Tender
Reddy Teddy
Hound Dog
Love Me
Heartbreak Hotel
Too Much
When my Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again
Peace in the Valley
Watch Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show Promo video:
