70 years ago today, Elvis Presley serenaded a dog on live TV
The voice of Elvis Presley speaks for itself. As soon as those vocals pierced the airwaves on radios around the States, people were in awe.
However, when Elvis made real headlines, it didn’t have anything to do with his voice, but was instead a repercussion of how he moved when performing. You have to keep in mind that these were very different times. These days, it’s pretty hard for live performers to cross the line as far as what is considered appropriate and what’s a bit too much.
Take a band like Fat White Family, for instance; in his book, Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure, band member Lias Saoudi recalls a gig in Sheffield when he shat on the stage, rubbed it over his face and then kissed one of his other band members. A right disgusting image, and yet, such a move was enough to sell out the rest of the tour overnight.
It’s hard to imagine, with such mishaps happening onstage in the modern age, that somebody merely moving their hips was enough to cause controversy, but that’s what happened with Elvis. When he played on The Milton Berle Show and performed ‘Hound Dog’, he moved with a freedom that people hadn’t seen before. His hips flailed around, he couldn’t keep his feet still, and the performance divided audiences right down the middle.
People who were already somewhat in the know with rock ‘n’ roll weren’t surprised by the moves, as they were being practised in venues and clubs up and down the country, but such a style of performance hadn’t been seen by mainstream audiences before, and as a result, there were a lot of fresh eyes borderline burning at the sight of Elvis on stage.
One of the kings of television at the time, Ed Sullivan, spoke out against the way that Elvis performed, saying that he was “unfit for family viewing”. It would be interesting to know what Sullivan would make of some of the modern punk bands out here today and what they do, but alas, his opinion will forever remain a mystery.
Of course, whether you agreed or disagreed with Elvis’s performance style, there was no escaping the fact that ‘Hound Dog’ was an absolute hit, such that his vocals and the energy attached to the song are pretty hard to ignore even now, let alone in 1956. Jerry Leiber helped to write the song and wanted it to have a raw sound, which he achieved with the iconic opening line, saying, “I wanted something that was a lot more insinuating. I wanted something that was sexy”.
So, TV stations wanted Elvis on the air, given his song was good, and he was guaranteed to get viewers, but they were worried about potential backlash if they did broadcast him. Thus, the solution, as worked out by The Steve Allen Show, was having Elvis perform his song ‘Hound Dog’ to a literal dog, in a bid to get him to stand still and stop gyrating when on stage.
The show put Elvis on strict orders not to wiggle and instead focus solely on the dog. The dog in question was called Sherlock, and The Steve Allen Show spared no expense on dressing him in a full tuxedo, ready for his TV debut. The video makes for pretty comical viewing, and even with the whole thing being so bizarre, it’s pretty hard to ignore how good Elvis’ voice still sounds.
