6 Weeks Before Passing Away, Elvis Gave The Performance Of A Lifetime Playing Unchained Melody

Jan 31, 2021 by apost team

Just six weeks before his death, Elvis Presley sang his own heart-wrenching rendition of the beloved song, 'Unchained Melody.' While the track isn't an original piece by Presley, the performance has since gone down in history as one of his most iconic. Even with his health quickly deteriorating, the legendary singer poured all his raw emotion into the song, his voice as compelling as ever. We're taking a look back at that powerful performance, as well as the devastating events that took place in the weeks leading up to his untimely passing. 

In June 1977, although in ill health, Elvis Presley hit the road to film a concert special. It had been a year since the singer had released his last studio album, and his manager Colonel Tom Parker was eager to keep Presley relevant in the industry. The 'Can't Help Falling In Love' singer was only 42 years old at the time, yet suffered from an enlarged intestine, bowel issues, and an enlarged heart. He was incredibly bloated and visibly depressed, and that was all thanks to his years of prescription medication abuse and questionable dietary habits. 

His dire state of health – both mental and physical – made no difference to neither his manager nor his fans. For them, it was clear that the show had to go on. So on June 19, 1997, Parker put together a film crew to record a concert in Omaha. It was meant to air as a television special, and the tracks were to be released on a live album. 

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On June 21, just two days later, the same crew accompanied Presley on the road to Rapid City, South Dakota. That same evening, he put up a show at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center with over 10,000 fans in attendance. It was his second to the last time he would ever perform. Steve Beshara, a local who was among the crowd that night, spoke to KOTA ABC News about the legendary performance in 2017.

“Just electricity was just going throughout the building," he said. "It was just, the hair was standing up on your neck, back your neck and then everyone, just the crowd, the crowd pretty much exploded trying to just to try to see Elvis when he was coming on the stage."

Footage of his last few concerts controversially aired months after Presley's death, much to his fan's and estate's dismay. According to the Hollywood Reporter, many questioned the ethics of profiteering off of a visibly unwell person. While some of those concerts have since been hailed as some of Presley's best, others showed a dark time in the singer's life. 

"[His] performances ranged wildly from embarrassing and sad to brilliant and triumphant," said Elvis biographer Alanna Nash. "Elvis Presley Enterprises chose not to release it on home video, though footage has been available on bootlegs for years." 

Forty years after attending the concert, Beshara got to relive that fateful night by watching one of the scarcely released films. He said he still thought it was the best concert he had ever been to. 

Presley's rendition of 'Unchained Melody' from that same night is proof that Beshara has good reason to hail it as such. His guitarist, Charlie Hodge, held up Presley's microphone as he delivered the emotional song with his enchanting voice. Even with his battered body, Presley still managed to perform what is arguably one of the most powerful moments of his career. 

Rushmore Plaza Civic Center today remains one of the only locations of Presley's last tour that is still intact, which means many fans, historians, and culture enthusiasts still visit it regularly.

"This is the only building intact from that last tour of his that’s still intact and hasn't been renovated so Barnett Arena and Rapid City will forever be linked with Elvis Presley in that way," Craig Baltzer from the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center told KOTA.

Five days later, Presley gave his last performance ever in Indianapolis. According to Rolling Stone, the singer closed his show with his hit song, 'I Can't Help Falling In Love,' a track with which he would often close many concerts. Despite his battling with multiple ailments, addiction, and depression, Presley gave his absolute all for the iconic performance. Peter Guralnick, author of the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, wrote that Presley performed the tune with “an energy and vitality that had been missing the entire tour.” The concert then ended with the singer waving to the audience and saying, "We'll meet you again, God bless, adios."

The last weeks leading up to Presley's death were ones of loneliness and deep sorrow for the singer. By then, his multiple ailments meant he needed round-the-clock care, so he had two medical professionals to attend to him at his home; his doctor, George Nichopoulos, and his nurse, Letetia Henley, the latter of whom became Presley's close friend towards the end.

"I saw the ups and downs," Henley told Express in 2015. "He was not only my patient but a good friend. In the end he was depressed, overweight and lethargic with a passion for pills. But his death came as a complete shock."

According to the nurse, Presley was desperate to get back together with his ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, whom he divorced five years prior. 

"He was very miserable," Henley revealed. "He was depressed about ageing and not having a woman he loved. He missed Priscilla. His friends kept pimping him with pretty 17 and 18-year-old girls but he had ­nothing in common with them," she added.

While it might have seemed like the singer had it all, he was missing companionship in his life. "And that pained him," his former nurse claimed.

On August 16, 1977, his girlfriend at the time, Ginger Alden, found Presley face down in front of the toilet. The paramedics arrived shortly after and, despite their best efforts to revive him, pronounced him dead late that day. Three days later, the coroner stated Presley's cause of death to be a “hypertensive cardiovascular disease with atherosclerotic heart disease” — in other words, a heart attack. That came as little surprise; after all, the singer weighed 350 pounds at the time and was largely bed-ridden. 

His toxicology report, released just days later, revealed that "Codeine was present [in Presley's body] at a level approximately 10 times those concentrations found therapeutically," according to the Huffington Post. The report sparked some controversy, as it seemingly contradicted the earlier stated heart attack as his cause of death. A major toxicologist then reviewed the report and found that the "drugs were the major contribution to [Presley's] demise." 

The revelation came as a surprise to many and sparked a high-profile investigation into the singer's death. The investigation eventually led the Tennessee Board of Health to proceed against Presley's former doctor, George Nichopoulos. According to their findings, the now-disgraced doctor had described a dangerous cocktail of drugs to the singer and enabled his self-destructive addiction. Their evidence showed Nicholopoulos to have prescribed almost 9,000 "pills, tablets, and injectables" in Presley's last nine months, and more than 19,000 overall in his last two years. 

The prescriptions were mainly for strong painkillers such as Dilaudid, Quaalude, Percodan, Demerol, and Cocaine Hydrochloride, but also included uppers and downers. Nichopoulos did not deny his enablement but pleaded that he was forced to prescribe the singer the drugs to keep him away from street drugs. In 1980, three years after Presley's passing, the court found Nicholopoulos guilty of overprescription but stopped short of accusing him of being unethical. According to The Guardian, they ultimately suspended his license for three months and placed him on three years probation. Years later in 1995, Nicholopoulos was stripped of his license after being charged with similar crimes. 

Presley's death came as a shock to the whole world. Beshara recalled the moment he and his wife found out, as she said: 

"Well I wasn't that really big of a fan, but my wife Mary was and I know she shed some tears over him passing, but it was just a really emotional blow to all, anybody that was a fan of his. It was terrible."

Craig Baltzer, on the other hand, said that even though he was only 12 years old at the time, he could understand it was a "gloomy day."

"That evening, I remember mom didn't really cook that day," said Baltzer. "I think we had cold sandwiches for dinner that night and things like that. I remember candlelight and Elvis Presley playing in the background late into the evening."

Presley's last girlfriend Ginger Alden opened up about her finding him on that tragic day years later in her memoir, Elvis and Ginger.

"The world around me had crumbled and my heart was broken. Elvis had become my total focus," Alden wrote, as quoted by Metro. "I had become so consumed by being with him, and taking care of him, that my own needs and identity had been partly steamrolled by trying to keep up with his fast-paced life and be the best partner I could be for him."

While the singer might be gone, his legacy still lives on through iconic performances like his rendition of 'Unchained Melody.' The performance is able to be re-lived by watching the video below:

What do you think of Presley's emotional cover of 'Unchained Melody?' Let us know in the comments, and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!