Elvis At The International

This album was recorded on August 23, 1969 at the midnight show in Las Vegas. Very similar to the "All Shook Up" album, Elvis is still not fully in his comfort zone from his hiatus from live performances during the 60's. I had read in an article that the opening night album (which is only available by bootleg only) was so long because he would pretty much tell his whole life story, that the International asked Elvis to cut down the time of his shows. So on this album Elvis has a complete 10 minute rant on crickets, woolly boogers and how he hated to film some of his movies. The cover of this album which is available on FTD records, is the coolest cover I've seen. I know the picture is way over used but it showed the new Elvis in action. New energy, new sound, but same favorites are on this album. Surprisingly I loved the Jailhouse Rock/Don't Be Cruel medley, normally I don't like the classics in the later years but he pulled these two off quite well. What really struck me as a cool song live was "Reconsider Baby" the way he sang that sounded almost as good as the original version, I was yelling. My two least favorite songs on the album were "What I'D Say" and "Yesterday/Hey Jude". In my opinion Elvis really sang "What'd I Say" too hard causing him to sound like it took way too much out of him and as for "Yesterday/Hey Jude", I just don't like anything associated with the Beatles. This album has really good sound quality and is very entertaining. Definitely in my top 5 Vegas shows.