First chronicled in part on the album ‘Elvis in Person at The International Hotel’, ‘Live 1969’ showcases this incredibly, important phase in Elvis's career in definitive detail – his first live shows following his triumphant, 1968 comeback for NBC after an 8-year absence from playing live. This box set features 11 complete sets from the first of his many engagements at The International Hotel (several of which are released in full for the first time, with one show entirely unreleased), allowing fans a more definitive picture of The King's glorious return to the concert stage. The accompanying 52-page book includes rare photos, memorabilia and an oral history by Ken Sharp curated from historic interviews with Elvis, Colonel Tom Park, Tom Jones, Jerry Schilling, James Burton, Cissy Houston, Terry Blackwood, George Klein, Fats Domino, and more. ‘I was missing the contact with a live audience’, Elvis says in this show, and at every show during his first engagement at The International Hotel in Las Vegas. Apart from two shows in 1961 and a recent TV show, Elvis hadn't performed on stage for 11 years. After years of increasingly worse movies and diminishing record sales, he had just managed to turn his career around with his 1968 TV special. The show had aired on December 3, 1968, and it was a surprising reminder to the world of just how magnetic a performer Elvis Presley still was. Just weeks later Elvis recorded more than 30 songs in Memphis, some of the best work of his career, and the return to live performances on July 31, 1969 was the third step of his resurrection as an artist. The entire four-week engagement was sold out, and fans and critics were ecstatic. There was a wild, almost manic, energy to the performances, displaying a burning desire from Elvis and his band to show the full potential of their abilities. This show demonstrates all the charm and charisma of Elvis and his great, new band, combining repertoire of mainly blues-tinged rock ‘n’ roll, with a few beautiful ballads and his two, new, hit singles, ‘In the Ghetto’ and ‘Suspicious Minds’. Recorded at the 2,000-seater showroom of the International, the intimate setting also gave Elvis the opportunity to talk to his audience, cracking jokes and telling a 10-minute story of his career, giving a rare insight to an otherwise very private man.
