From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:Welcome Home Elvis was a 1960 television special on ABC starring Frank
Sinatra and featuring Elvis Presley in his first televised appearance
since coming home from his military service in Germany. The special was
officially titled It s Nice to Go Traveling, but is more commonly known
as Welcome Home Elvis having featured Elvis on his first TV appearance
in three years. This was also Frank Sinatra s fourth and final
television special that he did for sponsor Timex. The special also
featured Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Nancy
Sinatra, who later starred with Elvis in his 1968 film Speedway. Elvis
performed Fame and Fortune and Stuck on You , which were the two
sides of his first post-army single. He also performed a duet with
Sinatra. Elvis performed Sinatra s classic Witchcraft while Frank
performed the Elvis classic Love Me Tender . None of these performances
were released on record until the 1980s. Presley also sang a verse
during the opening production number, It s Nice to Go Traveling , which
has yet to be commercially released. The remainder of the special
consisted of performances by the additional guest stars. Peter Lawford
and Sammy Davis Jr. sing a duet together in this show: Shall We Dance,
after Davis did some impersonations. Davis also sang There s A Boat
Dat s Leaving Soon For New York earlier that show. The show was a great
success grabbing 41.5 percent of the ratings. Excerpts from this show
appear in Warner Bros. 1981 documentary film This Is Elvis.
Background
On July 15,
1959 it was announced that Presley, upon his release from the US Army,
would be making his first television appearance on Frank Sinatra s
fourth and final Timex-sponsored variety show. For the special,
originally titled Frank Sinatra s Welcome Home Party for Elvis Presley,
he would receive 125,000, an unheard of sum at the time for a single
television appearance. Sinatra was not happy about the amount, knowing
full well that even he was not being paid that much for the whole show.
He accepted, however, that Presley s appearance would attract huge
ratings for his show, something that his three previous specials had
failed to do. Presley s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, also made it very
clear that this sum was for only two songs, approximately 6 8 minutes.
Parker had hoped that showcasing Presley on Sinatra s show would
re-introduce him to an older audience, an audience that would be less
likely to forget him in favor of the next teen idol. The television
special would bring together two of the music world s biggest stars,
each with their own legendary titles Sinatra was known as the Voice and
Presley was known as the King. Realizing how big an opportunity this
was for his client, Parker was intent on seeing things run as smoothly
as possible.
On March 3, 1960
Presley returned to the United States from Germany. Sinatra had arranged
for his daughter, Nancy, to be part of the welcoming party, presenting
Presley with a box of dress shirts on behalf of her father. When asked
who his current favorite singers were, Presley mentioned Sinatra along
with Dean Martin, Patti Page, and Kitty Kallen. Two days later, two
years after he d been drafted into the US Army, Presley was honorably
discharged. Two weeks later he was in Nashville, Tennessee, to lay down
some new material for an eagerly anticipated single release and an
album. Two songs he recorded on March 21 were the ones chosen as the two
sides of his first post-army single, and the songs he would perform
live on the television special Stuck On You and Fame And Fortune .
That same day, after completing two more songs for the album, Presley
boarded a train from Nashville to Miami, Florida. Arriving in Miami the
next day, Presley checked into the Fontainebleau Hotel, the venue where
the show would be taped. He spent the remainder of the week rehearsing
for the show, which was scheduled to be recorded on March 26, and met
with Sinatra to promote the show in a carefully staged meeting that was
photographed for press release.
The meeting between the two was
eagerly monitored by the media. Sinatra and Presley had been musical
rivals since the 1950s, and on occasion they had each been asked their
opinions on the other. Sinatra had written an article in a French
magazine, Western World, in 1957, describing rock and roll music as
sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by
means of its almost imbecilic reiterations and sly, lewd in plain fact,
dirty lyrics, and as I said before, it manages to be the martial music
of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth this
rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore. When asked his reaction to
hearing this, Presley responded He has a right to his opinion, but I
can t see him knocking it for no good reason. I admire him as a
performer and an actor but I think he s badly mistaken about this. If I
remember correctly, he was also part of a trend. I don t see how he can
call the youth of today immoral and delinquent. The press, either known
or unknown to Sinatra and Presley, was attempting to cause a rift
between the pair. They, however, had nothing but good things to say
about each other when asked specifically how they felt. Sinatra, when
specifically asked about Presley s singing style, responded Only time
will tell. They said I was a freak when I first hit, but I m still
around. Presley has no training at all. When he goes into something
serious, a bigger kind of singing, we ll find out if he is a singer. He
has a natural, animalistic talent. For his part, when asked again about
Sinatra s previous comments regarding rock and roll, Presley was just
as kind about Sinatra I admire the man... He is a great success and a
fine actor . Before the taping of the show, Sinatra was questioned
about whether or not he had changed his mind about rock and roll music.
He suggested he hadn t by simply responding The kid s been away two
years, and I get the feeling he really believes in what he s doing.
Taping
On
March 26, at 6.15pm, taping for the show took place at the
Fontainebleau Hotel. It was Presley s first appearance on
television in over three years, and his first serious performance since
1957, making Presley nervous about how he would be received. Colonel
Parker, perhaps due to nerves of his own, had arranged for as many
Presley fans as possible to fill the audience, although at least half of
it was still made up of Sinatra fans. For the occasion, to fit in
with Sinatra s rat pack persona, Presley wore a tuxedo.
Presley s
first, very brief, appearance on the show was at the beginning.
Entering in his army uniform, Presley joined the other guests on the
show, including Sinatra s daughter Nancy, to sing a part of It s Nice
To Go Trav ling . His other two songs, Stuck On You and Fame And
Fortune , had been released only days before the taping of the special.
Presley also performed with Sinatra, each singing a song the other had
made famous, taking turns to sing a verse each Presley sang
Witchcraft and Sinatra sang Love Me Tender . Both songs were sung in
the swing style that Sinatra was famous for, although critics were
divided on how well it had sounded Presley had difficulty with the
melody of the Sinatra hit. The harmony between the pair on Love Me
Tender came off in good style.
After approximately eight minutes on screen and a quick promotional plug for his new film
G.I. Blues, Presley was gone. The remainder of the show revolved around Sinatra and his rat pack friends.
AiringThe
show, now titled The Frank Sinatra Timex Special and sponsored by the
Timex Company, aired nationally on ABC-TV on the evening of May 12,
1960 between 9.30 and 10.30pm EST. Viewing figures for the
show were high, with a 41.5 Trendex rating, approximately 67.7 of the
overall television audience. To put that into perspective, the
second rated show in that time-slot, NBC s Ernie Ford Show, featuring
Johnny Cash and Groucho Marx, pulled in an audience share of 21.1 .
ReceptionReviews
for the show were generally good, although not everyone was impressed.
Life Magazine said Sinatra does his best singing of the season. , and
referred to Elvis as still a reigning favourite after two years in the
Army .
Billboard magazine stated,
The
expected dynamite was, to put it politely, a bit overrated... Presley
has much to learn before he can work in the same league with pros like
Sinatra, Joey Bishop and especially Sammy Davis Jr., who just about
broke up the show with his chanting and impressions... The real winner
was probably the Fontainebleau Hotel, where the show was taped last
March. The hostelry got a terrific publicity break.
The New York Times was a little harsher on Presley when they reviewed the show.
While
he was in service, he lost his sideburns, drove a truck and apparently
behaved in an acceptable military manner. But now he is free to perform
in public again, as he did on last night s Frank Sinatra Show over
Channel 7... Although Elvis became a sergeant in the Army, as a singer
he has never left the awkward squad. There was nothing morally
reprehensible about his performance it was merely awful.
Ed
Sullivan, the man who only three years earlier had called Presley a
real decent, fine boy when the young star last appeared on his show,
also gave a very harsh critique of the Sinatra special. Writing in the
New York Daily News, Sullivan said that Presley minus his sideburns,
has substituted what the ladies probably would call a high hair-do .
His hair is so high in front that it looks like a ski jump . Sullivan
also criticized Parker s ability to acquire 125,000 for eight minutes
work Col. Tom, using the logic of a farmer, is a firm believer in not
giving a hungry horse a bale of hay . However, Sullivan had failed to
take into account the fact that the special did not belong to Presley,
it was Sinatra s show, and there were other guests that had to be given
airtime. In her book, Elvis For Dummies, author Susan Doll notes how
important this television special was to the career of Presley. She
writes Appearing with Sinatra suggested that Elvis was following the
same career path as Sinatra and was therefore the natural heir to the
Voice . She also points out that Presley s singing style and appearance
on the show clearly signaled that Elvis was courting a mainstream,
adult audience .
