Elvis Presley Still Has Ability To Wow His Audiences
by Barry Brown
San Antonio Light
April 19, 1972

His hair is now modishly long. His style is a bit more subdued.

But his ability to relate to an audience remains unchanged. Elvis Presley the entertainer who made the pelvis a national cliche in the 1950's brought his music to San Antonio, Tuesday night.

And the result was a sell-out performance a few ear-piercing shrieks and an example of Presley's musical appeal.

Dressed in a white sequined jump suit with a red-lined cape, Presley performed for more than an hour before a crowd of 11,000-largest attendance in the history of the convention center arena.

ROCK CLASSIC

He began with "C. C. Rider." a rock-and-roll classic made popular by Chuck Berry in the mid-50s and a leg wiggle.

Later came a medley of oldline Presley hits (the ones that made him famous and very, very rich) and a little more of the "Presley mystique."

And that, for the most part, consists of leg wiggles, hand wiggles and body wiggles.

Included in the medley were portions of "I'm All Shook Up," "Don't Be Cruel," "Heartbreak Hotel," and "You Ain't Nothin' But a Hounddog."

And then Presley threw a red scarf that he had used to mop his brow into the audience.

The front row of the crowd clutched for the "souvenir" and police broke up the resulting scuffle.

It was plain: Presley had his audience.

"The King" - a title judiciously nurtured for Presley by his manager, the legendary, Tom Parker then sang "Love Me Tender."

MORE SCARVES

After singing several additional songs and flinging two more scarves into the audience (with the same result), Presley finished with a subdued "Can't Help Falling in Love with You."

Highlights of the performance were Presley's renditions of "Proud Mary," "Polk Salad Annie," and the country-western "For the Good Times."

A Presley version of "American Trilogy" - a ballad consisting of portions of "Dixie," "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "All My Trials" - was impressive in spots, until audience squeals got in the way.

But such is Elvis' long-live appeal ... audiences come an buy-and continue to squeal.

Presley is a showman, a good one, and Tuesday's audience reflected his continuing appeal. On hand was a generation whose members are now past 30 years of age - those who helped Presley make rock-and-roll dominant in popular music.

And seated beside the older persons were the youngsters - those that squealed and screamed and who, for the most part, weren't born when Presley began to add his hit to America's collective nostalgia.

Courtesy of Mr. Archie Bald