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which, in its signature segment, presents a vital and attractive Elvis in a black leather suit, jamming with his old Sun-era bandmates, guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana — was credited with restoring Elvis’ credibility with rock fans; renewing the singer’s interest in touring; and inspiring a renewed commitment to purposeful music, which brought him back to Memphis and to Chips Moman’s American Sound Studio in 1969 for his most powerful recordings since his days with Sam Phillips.
Binder, who lives in Oxnard, California, was in Memphis this week to participate in “Elvis Week” events at Graceland, to promote the new edition of the TV special and to discuss his new book from Meteor 17 publishing, “Comeback ’68 / Elvis: The Story of the Elvis Special,” a lavishly illustrated tome that examines the origins, production and aftermath of the special.
Binder was hired for the Elvis job after years in television working on “The Steve Allen Show” and other projects. He said Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, and the honchos at NBC wanted Elvis for a conventional Christmas special, but Binder and producer Bones Howe had more ambitious plans.
Said Binder: “He was balking about doing it. The first thing I said to him was, ‘Elvis, I haven’t seen you on the Billboard chart in years.’ I said to him, ‘Elvis, if you do a national television special, the next day, if it fails, you’ll still be remembered for your early hit records and your movies but you won’t have a career going forward. But if it’s a big hit, all the doors re-open for you and you have another opportunity to do all the things you really want to do.’”
Although Presley was a movie star, Binder said he was not prepared for how truly camera-ready Elvis appeared. “I took one look at him and I said, I never saw a guy who looked so perfect. Normally, they want to show the right side of your face or the left side, but there were no flaws, at least that I could see physically.”
Binder said Elvis had his own ideas, once he realized the special’s potential. “It was Elvis who came to me and said, ‘Would you mind if we tried to get Scotty and D.J. to come West and do it with us?’”
It was this “unplugged” jam-style live performance segment — unseen in its entirety during the original special but restored to the longer home-video releases of the material — that most fulfilled Binder’s ambition to present “Elvis as he really was.”
Said Binder: “Up until then you only saw the character they created for him for the movies, the suit-and-tie-looking guy with slicked combed hair. Nobody got to see what I was getting to see every day at NBC in rehearsals. And when I went to the Colonel about this segment he basically said, ‘Over my dead body,’ he was so controlling of Elvis’ image. But I just kept pestering him and pestering him because I instinctively knew the real gold-platinum part of the show was going to be this improvisation segment. And the Colonel instinctively — not necessarily intellectually but instinctively — knew it [Elvis’ relevance] was over unless he did something, and he eventually agreed.”
In the years since, Binder has been involved in multiple “‘68 Comeback” reissues, restorations and books. He’s also met with Memphis movie and TV director Craig Brewer and Australian director Baz Lurhmann (“Moulin Rouge”) to discuss proposed movies based on the special.
Summarized Binder, about his collaboration with Elvis: “I’m very proud of it and I’m very happy our paths collided in 1968. I would say though it was a short period of time in one’s lifetime, it’s something I’ll never forget.”