Looking back at the 1968 TV special that made Elvis Presley matter again
Just how far removed from cultural relevance was Elvis Presley in 1968?
When Singer - the maker of sewing machines - brokered a deal with NBC to sponsor three TV music specials, the company's go-to artist list consisted of Hawaiian pop crooner Don Ho, Las Vegas king of glitz Liberace and Presley.
If that weren't enough, Presley's manager, Col. Tom Parker, envisioned his client's show as a traditional holiday special. At his first meeting with Steve Binder, who produced and directed the special, Parker handed him an audiotape containing 20 Presley recordings of Christmas songs; on the box was a picture of the King, a holiday wreath behind him.
All that was missing was an ugly sweater.
"I thought, 'This is not going to work,' " Binder says in an interview with The Times. "'I don't want to do some Andy Williams or Perry Como TV special.' I thought it was over."
Yet in mid-1968 when the negotiations were underway for Presley's appearance on NBC the following December, Binder managed to forge a bond with the singer that resulted in him defying Parker, however briefly.
The result was
