New Year’s with The King

I get blog alerts about Elvis Presley. This year on New Year’s Eve, a lot of the blogs made mention of Elvis having done three concerts on New Year’s Eve during his career. The first was in 1955, the second in 1975, and the third in 1976. I went to two of these concerts. Now I’m getting some years on me but even I was too young to attend any concert in 1955. I did make it to the two New Year’s Eve shows Elvis performed in the 1970s. 

The first one was in Pontiac, Michigan in 1975. That was the first time this Southern gal went up North. Life going on normally with snow on the ground was a very new experience for me. The South closes down as the first snow flake drifts from the sky, having gone to the grocery to lay in a supply of milk and bread.

Elvis performed in the then new Silverdome football stadium.  My husband had called RCA, Elvis’ record company and talked some rep into getting us eleventh row tickets. They turned out to be good seats. A floor on the football field with a very high stage in the middle, made people in closer seats unable to see Elvis. It was very cold on the field -forty degrees.

Not only was it cold on the field but the stage was cold too. The band and back-up singers wore coats. Elvis was rumored to be unhappy with the stage because he was far away from the back-up singers. The stage was two tiered with the singers and some of the band being above Elvis.  At one point Elvis had to leave the stage to change jumpsuits. He ripped the seat out of the first jumpsuit.

One thing stands out in my mind about that concert. Elvis was known for giving scarves to fans during shows. The Pontiac show had a twist. Elvis couldn’t hand the scarves to people in the audience as he usually did. The stage was too high. To get the scarves out into the audience, Elvis tied knots in them and threw them as hard as he could. I can remember the scarves making a whooshing sound as they whizzed by my head.

The Pontiac show finished abruptly. A couple of days later, the newspapers reported that a man had threatened to shoot Elvis. Leaving the stadium, I thought I had been to a very special concert because I thought Elvis wouldn’t play another show on New Year’s Eve. I was wrong. He did perform again the next year on New Year’s Eve in Pittsburgh, PA. I attended that show too. What wonderful memories I have of both times I spent New Year’s Eve with Elvis.