“He moved, he sang, he worked for the audience… when the girl threw him a handkerchief, he wiped his forehead and threw it back, giving the sweat of the earthly god!”
“He raised his arms, spreading his golden cloak like wings, one of a kind, he looked like a PRINCE FROM ANOTHER PLANET!”
Of all Elvis’s ’70s performances, only his satellite broadcast from Honolulu 1973 rivals his Madison Square Garden performance.
Elvis Presley did not like New York, and, after devastating reviews of his TV show in the 50s, did not want to perform there… but Jerry Whitetraub persuaded him and 4 stunning sold-out concerts were given!
Only three shows were originally booked, but they sold out instantly, so a fourth show was added on June 11th.
Elvis began his run at the Garden on June 9, 1972, followed by a press conference at 4 p.m. followed by a concert that evening at 8:30. The next day there were two more shows at 2:30 and 8:30. And the closing show is June 11th.
80,000 tickets sold for 4 shows.
Both June 10 shows were recorded and later released by RCA.
The evening show appeared in 1972 on the LP “Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden,” and the afternoon show twenty years after Elvis’ death, “Elvis: An Afternoon in the Garden.”
Translation of a review by New York Times columnist Chris Chase – a description of Elvis Presley’s first concert appearance in the largest city in the United States.
Although Chase’s review was only one of hundreds of concert reviews, it was undoubtedly the best of all. While most reporters of the era limit their reviews to descriptions of Elvis’s jumpsuits, song titles, and souvenir scarves, Chris’s review recalls the colorful and creative reviews of Elvis’s ’50s performances.
“On the night of Friday, June 9, the air of carnival hung over Seventh Avenue. The sidewalks around Madison Square Garden were teeming with children and old people carrying Elvis symbols – posters, albums, photographs. There were police on horseback and police on foot, vendors with brown paper bags, stuffed with Elvis T-shirts distributed to ticket holders.
Only a few lucky people stopped to buy. They streamed toward the arena, their excitement so palpable, it seemed they were breaking through the stuffy twilight.”
Before that, there was Madison Square Garden, furnished with beds – people waited two weeks for tickets to go on sale.
“Inside the Garden, everyone is waiting for Elvis – thousands of seats, not a single one free.
This is not hockey or the world boxing championship, there should only be one person on stage. He is a whole team in himself.
At 8:30 the lights went down and Sweet Inspirations took the stage to warm up the crowd. The music was loud, you couldn’t understand the words…
The crowd tolerated the vocalists, but could not stand the comedian who came out next… The poor fellow was thrown to the wolves, like the first Christian to the lions… it was precisely him that the crowd craved least of all.
Everyone was already wound up with the constant annoying announcements about “limited stock” of souvenirs that you can get for two bucks apiece, and now they are being offered bearded jokes…
The comedian was sacrificed. Shouting “We want Elvis!”, the crowd ritually murdered Jackie Kohane. Before leaving the stage he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, there are 25,000 of you, I am one, and you have won.” (video)
At 9:15 Elvis suddenly appeared – in a white suit with a low cut revealing his chest (Adonis suit) and a gold cape. Narrow-eyed, with high Indian cheekbones and smooth brown skin, untouched by his 37 years.
“When he started working with the microphone, his right hand was cutting through the air, his left leg seemed to live its own life, time stood still, everyone was 17 years old again.
It was a lesson in dominance; We just saw a comedian who couldn’t control anyone, not even himself, now Elvis alone has turned everyone around.”
During the first, 55-minute show on June 9, 1972, Elvis did not interact much with the audience, he just sang.
