By 1968, Elvis Presley had not played a proper concert in seven years. He was making three films a year, most of them forgettable, and the soundtracks were selling worse each time. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones had rewritten what a rock star was supposed to be, and Elvis was not part of the conversation.
Then, on 3 December 1968, NBC broadcast an hour of television called Singer Presents... ELVIS. Everyone now calls it the '68 Comeback Special, and it is the reason there was anything left to come back to.
It was almost a Christmas show
Colonel Tom Parker sold the special to NBC as a seasonal programme: Elvis in a dinner jacket, carols, a brief wave to the camera. The director assigned to it, 32-year-old Steve Binder, thought that would finish Elvis off for good.
Binder's argument to Elvis was blunt. He told him the special needed to show who he actually was, or there was no point making it. Famously, Binder took Elvis out onto Sunset Boulevard and let him stand on the pavement to see whether anyone recognised him. Barely anyone did. Elvis agreed to do it Binder's way.
The black leather suit
Costume designer Bill Belew put Elvis in a two-piece black leather suit with a Napoleonic collar. It is probably the single most reproduced outfit in music history, and it worked because it was the opposite of everything the film years had made him: no pastels, no lei, no sand.
Belew would go on to design Elvis's entire stage wardrobe for the next decade, including the jumpsuits. We cover that in Elvis's jumpsuits explained.
The sit-down session
The heart of the special was not planned as a set piece. Binder had noticed that Elvis spent the breaks in his dressing room playing guitar and swapping old songs with his original band. He decided to film exactly that: Elvis on a small square stage, surrounded by audience, with Scotty Moore on guitar and D.J. Fontana keeping time on the back of a guitar case.
What you get is unguarded. He forgets words, laughs at himself, tells the story of being called Elvis the Pelvis, and plays That's All Right, Baby What You Want Me to Do and One Night like a man remembering why he started.
If I Can Dream
Binder still had a Christmas song to deal with. Instead he commissioned Walter Earl Brown to write something new. Brown delivered If I Can Dream, written in the shadow of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in Memphis eight months earlier.
Elvis recorded it in the small hours, reportedly curled on the studio floor in the dark, and sang it in a white suit against enormous red letters spelling his name. Parker lost the argument. The carol never happened.
What it changed
The special was the highest-rated programme of its week and NBC's biggest ratings success of the year. Within six months Elvis was back in a studio in Memphis cutting Suspicious Minds and In the Ghetto, released as From Elvis in Memphis. In July 1969 he opened a residency in Las Vegas. He performed live for the rest of his life.
How to own a piece of it
The '68 special has become the store's most popular design family, gathered in the Return of the King: Elvis collection.
- Listen: the '68 Comeback Special 50th Anniversary 7-Disc Box Set has every take from both the sit-down and stand-up shows.
- Wear: the '68 Comeback Special T-Shirt, the matching pullover hoodie, or the red '68 Comeback Red Sign T-Shirt. There are women's V-neck and tank cuts too.
- Display: the Funko Pop! Rocks '68 Comeback Special, its Diamond Glitter variant, or the Aloha from Hawaii and '68 Comeback bobblehead set.
'68 Comeback Special FAQs
When did the '68 Comeback Special air?
3 December 1968 on NBC, under the sponsor's title Singer Presents... ELVIS. It was taped in Burbank the previous June.
Who designed the black leather suit?
Bill Belew, who then designed Elvis's stage clothes until 1977.
Why is it called a comeback?
Elvis had not toured since 1961 and had spent most of the decade making films. The special put him back in front of a live audience and directly led to the 1969 Memphis sessions and his Las Vegas residency.
What should I buy first if I'm new to it?
Start with the music, then the shirt. If you want a single disc rather than the box set, browse CDs and vinyl, or read our guide to the best Elvis albums.
Styling tips for the all-black look are in our Elvis apparel style guide.