‘Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback’ Boss on the King’s Defiant Return to the Top

It’s hard to believe there was a time when anyone doubted that Elvis Presley was the King.

After exploding onto the national music scene in 1956 with his hip-swiveling performance of “Hound Dog” on The Milton Berle Show, Elvis racked up hit after hit. But his famously controlling manager, Colonel Tom Parker, signed him up to make movies and soundtrack albums during much of the ’60s, when The Beatles and other newer stars were stealing his pop culture thunder.

Elvis went seven years without performing live, until 1968, when he got back onstage for a TV special then simply called Elvis. It was a concert so successful and career-redefining that we now call it the ’68 Comeback Special. His stunning performance helped him regain his throne as the King of Rock ’n’ Roll.

The new documentary Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback recounts how that consequential show wasn’t supposed to happen at all. Parker had made a deal with NBC for a comfy holiday concert starring his client. Believing that concept settled, Parker handed the director Steve Binder an audiotape with Elvis singing 30 Christmas songs. Binder, however, knew that younger fans wouldn’t be interested in the charismatic entertainer in a cozy sweater crooning carols like Andy Williams. He had another idea in mind—if Elvis agreed.

Courtesy of Paramount

Luckily, Binder had quickly bonded with the fading superstar after he boldly told Elvis his career “was in the toilet,” Binder recalls, from years of hiding his prodigious talents in middling movies with forgettable music, all thanks to Parker. “For a split second, I thought he’d kill me. Instead he laughed and said, ‘Finally, somebody is talking truth to me.’”

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Binder wanted to tell Elvis’ life story through his music. Surprisingly, the star nixed Parker’s plan and went along with Binder. According to John Scheinfeld, director of the new doc, “It’s one of the few times in his career that he crossed the Colonel.”

Reinventing Elvis finally gives fans the full behind-the-scenes story of the making of that special, the top-rated program of the year. Using the expanded 90-minute “Complete Version” (there are five versions) from the show’s 40th anniversary deluxe DVD set, the Emmy-winning Binder narrates how the special was put together. Adding to the commentary: insights from Elvis experts and recollections from several dancers and members of the small audience, all of whom still remember their awe-inspiring brushes with the icon five-plus decades ago.

The extended show also includes flubs, redos, joshing between Elvis and the audience and numbers cut for time in 1968. One production, a brothel scene featuring an unexpectedly sensual exchange between Elvis and a dancer playing a prostitute, was nixed because it was too hot for the advertiser, Binder shares.

Describing the doc as “a morality tale,” Scheinfeld portrays Binder as the forward-thinking hero, Parker as the obstructive villain and the star as being “pushed and pulled between them.” But the moment in time celebrated here is a joyful one showing the best of Elvis Presley, a way, says Scheinfeld, to rescue him from the caricature he is today for those who know little about him 46 years after his death.

PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Anyone in doubt of Elvis’ talent should check out his peerless performances in the documentary, both with his former sidemen and solo. He’s indelibly charismatic, his baritone in fine shape, he’s having fun and putting everything into his music. In one segment, the star improvises a warm acoustic reunion with sidemen D.J. Fontana and Scott Moore. Parker, who caused their split with the singer, didn’t want them on the special, but Elvis and Binder prevailed.

The show’s most memorable moment is clearly when Elvis comes out in that form-fitting black leather suit soon to be plastered on posters around the world, and launches into an unforgettable medley of “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Hound Dog,” “All Shook Up” and more. “You had Elvis perform in a way he hadn’t performed in a decade,” author Gillian Gaar (Return of the King: Elvis’s Sweet Concert) says in the doc. “Ding! He was there and he never looked back!”

Elvis didn’t want any changes to the TV show. Binder says, “He just said, ‘I love it, let’s do it.’ I think the heart of the whole documentary is a man rediscovering himself. Elvis got his chops back, and he went on to make some of the greatest records of his life.”

All without Binder. After the special ended with Elvis singing a deeply personal and emotional original ballad, “If I Can Dream,” the director says he never saw the legend again because “Colonel Parker didn’t want me in Elvis’ life anymore.”

Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback, Premieres Tuesday, August 15,  Paramount+