Aloha from Hawaii

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Aloha from Hawaii is a concert by Elvis Presley . It was the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast via satellite in over 40 countries around the world. The proceeds of the concert in the amount of 75,000 US dollars were the Kui Lee donated -Krebsstiftung.

A concert of superlatives

The hour-long concert took place on January 14, 1973 at the Honolulu International Center Arena (now the Neal S. Blaisdell Center) in Honolulu . At over $ 2.5 million, it was the most expensive TV production to date. For the first time, a solo artist's concert was broadcast live in several countries at the same time - in the Philippines the broadcast reached an audience rate of over 90%, in Hong Kong 70% and between 70 and 80% in South Korea. The concert was also broadcast to Europe, Africa and South America.

On April 4, 1973, a five-song longer television version was broadcast in the USA, which tuned in to 51% of all Americans, which means that more people in the USA saw this concert than the first moon landing . All in all , between 1 and 1.5 billion viewers are said to have seen the concert - live, as a time-shifted broadcast or as an NBC cut .

chronology

  • September 4, 1972: At a press conference between the dinner and midnight show of Elvis Presley's 7th Las Vegas engagement, RCA chairman Rocco Laginestra announced the planned Aloha From Hawaii concert , the first entertainment special, in the presence of Presley in the story is to be broadcast worldwide via satellite. It is expected to have an estimated 1.4 billion viewers. RCA Record Tours is acting as the producer of the media event.
  • November 20, 1972: Presley announces the date of the concert (January 14, 1973), which is scheduled to begin at 12:30 pm local time, at a press conference at the Hawaiian Village Hotel, Hawaii. The proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Kui Lee Cancer Foundation. Elvis Presley presents a check for $ 1,000 to the foundation, and his manager and record company also give $ 1,000 each.
  • January 7, 1973: Advance ticket sales begin, with 4,000 of the 6,000 tickets already pre-ordered, the remaining 2,000 being sold on the same day.
  • January 9, 1973: Presley arrives in Hawaii.
  • January 12, 1973: A public dress rehearsal (known as a costume rehearsal) takes place in which a complete concert is played through and also recorded, mainly to eliminate technical problems before the live broadcast and to provide substitute images in the event of a problem during the satellite broadcast to have. The 6,000 tickets for this dress rehearsal concert are also sold out within a very short time.
  • January 13, 1973: Presley appears in civilian clothes for the dress rehearsal, final sound check. The Mayor of Honolulu declares the day to be "Elvis Presley Day".
  • January 14, 1973: The concert begins at 12:30 p.m. The opening piece will be played by Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra , which was previously known to a wide audience as the soundtrack theme from the 2001 film : A Space Odyssey . Presley wears the white “Aloha Eagle” stage suit with cape, which was specially made for this concert by designer Bill Belew and, at Presley's suggestion, symbolizes the entertainer's patriotism with the central motif of the American eagle. The show went smoothly, although two hours before the show began, there were significant problems with the power supply. Immediately after the show, as soon as the audience has left the hall, Presley records five more songs - Early Morning Rain and four from his blockbuster Blue Hawaii (1961) - which are intended for the longer version of the TV special in the USA, where the concert was broadcast on NBC on April 4, 1973, prime time starting at 8:30 am. The original concert on January 14, 1973 lasted 01:04:18 hours, the American TV version 01:16:39 hours.

The show

Presley performed a selection of his well-known hits like CC Rider , Burning Love , Steamroller Blues , Blue Suede Shoes , A Big Hunk o 'Love , Suspicious Minds , Can't Help Falling in Love and An American Trilogy , a medley of three songs 19th century ( Dixie , All My Trials, and The Battle Hymn of the Republic ). With ballads like Something by the Beatles , I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry , It's Over , Welcome to my World , I'll Remember You and What Now My Love , he showed the full range of his artistic work. The pieces in the order of their performance:

Presley seemed visibly nervous at the beginning of the concert, but that subsided after the first songs. The entertainer, known for his dynamic stage show, moved quite cautiously for his circumstances during this concert, the legendary Elvis hip swing and the karate interludes typical for him in the seventies were deliberately hinted at in only a few pieces. The focus of the show was on the vocal performance and portrayed the mature artist. Vocally, Elvis Presley presented himself in good shape, especially when interpreting modern ballads, which were in the foreground at this concert, while early rock 'n' roll hits took a back seat. Quite a number of the titles on offer (for example I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry , I Can't Stop Loving You ) were classics of the so-called “Nashville countrypolitan” style. Presley was accompanied by the musicians with whom he was on tour or performed in Las Vegas:

Marty Pasetta was responsible for the direction. According to music critic Dave Marsh, the camera setting and editing technique, especially in the American version, ensured that the dynamics of the live concert could not be transferred to the television screens. If you compare the sequences from the Aloha concert used in the video projection Elvis in Concert 2010 and presented in a modern way, you can easily understand Marsh's statements.

Publications on sound / image carriers

The concert appeared on the double album Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite , reached number one on both the pop and country charts in the USA and was also very successful abroad. The show was later released on video and DVD. Recently these have been reissued, with improved sound and picture quality and with previously unpublished scenes. On a DVD Deluxe Edition u. a. the complete recording of the costume / dress rehearsal, in which Presley was much more relaxed. The deluxe DVD has now been awarded platinum several times by the RIAA .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Aloha from Oahu Elvis - Spotlight on Elvis in Hawaii. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Booklet Elvis Aloha From Hawaii Deluxe Edition DVD 2008, p. 1; also Marc Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, die Musik, der Mensch, der Mythos, 2003, p. 298
  3. ↑ cf. Information from Ernst Jorgensen and Peter Guralnick: Elvis Day by Day, New York: Ballantine Books 1999, pp. 312–324, also: Booklet of the Deluxe Edition Elvis Ahoha From Hawaii; Stein Erik Skar: Elvis The Concert Years, pp. 73f
  4. ↑ cf. Comments by the music journalist Dave Marsh in the preface to the DVD deluxe box Elvis Aloha From Hawaii ; also Stein Erik Skar: Elvis The Concert Years 1969–1977, Norway 1997, p. 76
  5. ↑ cf. Explanations by music journalist Dave Marsh in the preface to the DVD deluxe box Elvis Aloha From Hawaii
  6. ↑ Chart placements see Joel Whitburn's Billboard chart database , also Elvis Presley's gold and platinum awards ( Memento from February 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

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