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John Lennon once said that if you were to give Rock
‘n’ Roll another name it would be Chuck Berry. Berry became
the “poet” of Rock ‘n’ Roll creating a vocabulary that artists
today still use. What Lennon failed to mention is that if
you were to give one name to an artist who popularized Rock
‘n’ Roll his name would be Elvis Presley. Although Elvis
had appeared on TV prior to “The Ed Sullivan Show” (most
notably on Steve Allen’s “Tonight Show” especially amusing
was Elvis in a surreal comedic segment singing “Hound Dog”
to…a hound dog)his appearances on the Sullivan like The
Beatles appearances there were seminal taking Rock ‘n’ Roll
to the next level. ***
Image Entertainment has packaged Elvis’ three appearances
on the Sullivan show pulled from kinescopes of the show
minus the variety show that surrounded the performances.
This will make the set essential for those aging Elvis fans
who just want to cut to the chase and dig in with Elvis’
performances. One flaw in this set is the lack of titles
telling us when the appearances occurred and the specific
episodes. ***
The first performance isn’t hosted by Sullivan himself
but by guest host Charles Laughton (Sullivan was sidelined
by a car accident at the time). Elvis appeared via satellite
in Hollywood where he was shooting a movie at the time.
His performances of “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Love Me Tender”
are both powerful nicely off set by his humble demeanor.
During the second set he does “Reddy Teddy” and “Hound Dog”
featuring a full band and backing vocals from the Jordanaires.
The camera people were told to keep the camera focused above
Elvis’ waist at the time to prevent mass hysteria (more
on the part of parents) at seeing Elvis’ gyrating hips.
***
The second show broadcast live from New York appeared
on October 28 1956 and the third broadcast on January 6,
1957 feature “Love Me Tender” and “Don’t Be Cruel” (boy
were they pushing these songs). He performs “Hound Dog”
again but the highlights are the debut of “Heartbreak Hotel”,
“When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again” and “Peace in the
Valley”. Ed comes on to assure parents everywhere that Presley
is “a real decent boy” as the show wraps up. ***
If you wonder what the big deal was with Elvis all
you have to do is watch his charismatic performances on
the Sullivan shows. The only flaw with this DVD is that
we get too much repetition with the same songs appearing
with the same arrangements again and again. Of course when
he first did these there was no way to watch these at home
other than watching the broadcast and there was enough time
between performances for fans to not remember that Elvis
performed these again and again. ---
Image & Sound:
Pulled from vintage kinescopes the image quality is
surprisingly good and crisp given the age of source material.
The footage itself is never going to be pristine. ***
Audio is presented in the original mono and in a 5.1
Dolby Digital mix that doesn’t provide much separation but
using digital technology it does sound a bit fuller.
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