Elvis Presley – On Stage - February, 1970

Even people who are diehard Elvis fans may take a jaded look at the number of live albums he released in the ‘70s (6 including ‘From Memphis to Vegas’ in 1969) but I really think that ‘On Stage’ from June 1970 is his best. For one thing, there are no ‘50s song medleys which are not my personal favorite parts of any of his live recordings. ‘On Stage’ saw Elvis as a contemporary easy listening crooner - mostly delving into the pop hits of the day and making some of them his own. This would be the pattern for most of his live recordings throughout the rest of his life. ‘On Stage’ is also not burdened with the often maudlin songs that plagued these latter day recordings as well. Elvis was in great shape, upbeat and dynamic - not burnt out and morbidly overweight as he was on ‘Elvis in Concert’. ‘On Stage’ featured the definitive versions of such Elvis live staples as opener “See See Rider”, “Polk Salad Annie” and “Proud Mary”. My personal favorites would be the aforementioned “Annie” and Joe South’s “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” which though probably not intended for Elvis initially, seems to fit the King like a glove as he seemed to completely empathize with the lyric. “Sweet Caroline” and “Release Me” are also pretty sweet and showed Elvis was as comfortable with new songs as well as his favorite country standards. One thing else that I find appealing about ‘On Stage’ is that it is so compact - not one song is wasted which wasn’t always the case on any of the other live records. For the casual Elvis who doesn’t really dig live albums - I would certainly talk this one up. I know y'all haven’t been down south too much…but there’s a plant that grows…that’s all they had to eat….but they did alright…