the performance with al- most uniform negativi- ty. “Mr. Presley has no dis- cernible singing ability…. For the ear, he is an unu- tterable bore,” wrote cri- tic Jack Gould in the next day’s issue of the New York Times. “His one spe- cialty is an accented mo- vement of the body that heretofore has been pri- marily identified with the repertoire of the blonde bombshells of the burle- sque runway. The gyration never had anything to do with the world of popular music and still doesn’t.” The New York Daily News described Presley’s per- formance as “tinged with the kind of animalism that Tog dana gitaru je ostavio po strani i predstavio nam svaki deo svog bica u skandaloznoj izvedbi hita Hound Dog/ On that day he set his guitar aside and put every part of his being into a scandalous performance of “Hound Dog”
ja . Zaista, Elvisova izvedba pesme Hound Dog tog juna ostala je za- pisana kao jedan od najvecih tre- nutaka u celoj njegovoj neverovat- noj karijeri.
5 TH JUNE 1956 BEWARE OF ELVIS PRESLEY
By the end of 1955, Elvis Presley had amassed nearly 18 months of nonstop touring and had two do- zen singles already under his belt, though his only hits were on the Country and Western charts. The next six months would make him a superstar. If “Heartbreak Hotel” is what made him the king of the ra- dio during the spring of 1956, it was television that truly made him the King of Rock 'n' Roll. And if any sin- gle moment could be called his co- ronation, that would be his 5 th Ju- ne 1956 guest appearance on The Milton Berle Show, when he set his guitar aside and put every part of his being into a blistering, scanda- lous performance of “Hound Dog”. This was not Presley’s first TV appe- arance, nor even his first appearan- ce on Milton Berle. But all previo- us appearances had featured Elvis either in close-up singing a slow ballad, or full body but with his mo- vements somewhat restricted by the acoustic guitar he was playing. It was during his second appearan-
ce on the Milton Berle Show that he finally set aside the guitar and ena- bled America to witness, for the very first time, the 21-year-old Elvis Presley in all his glory, from head to toe, gyrating his soon-to-be-famo- us (or infamous) pelvis. The mainstream media reacted to
should be confined to bordellos”, but Catholic Weekly America got right to the point in its headline: “Beware of Elvis Presley.” True, the King's performance of Hound Dog on that June evening stands out as one of the greatest moments of his entire incredible career.
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