The Memphis Boys triumphantly declare hits-filled legacy during Elvis Week

Get the lowdown along with exclusive photos and videos on the Memphis Boys’ 2014 hometown concert held during Elvis Week at Graceland. The session cats and maverick producer Chips Moman revived Elvis Presley’s moribund recording career with “In the Ghetto” and “Suspicious Minds” in 1969 at American Sound Studio. In the accompanying still the smoldering 33-year-old matinee idol pauses for a wardrobe fitting in character as resourceful newspaper photographer Greg Nolan between takes of director Norman Taurog’s final film, “Live a Little, Love a Little,” at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Hollywood sometime between March 13 and May 1, 1968. It is debatable whether the beard stubble is genuine, but according to For Elvis CD Collectors forum user Bripet56, the scene can be found when Presley “wakes up after having slept for three days on Bernice [Michele Carey]´s couch, and the white sport shirt is the one he wears just before singing ‘Edge of Reality.’” Image Credit: FECC messageboard / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

It was a long time coming for the Memphis Boys, the band solely responsible for resurrecting Elvis Presley’s moribund recording career in the spring of 1969 with incendiary jewels like “In the Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy,” and “Kentucky Rain.”

Mere hours after basking in the limelight of a hometown ceremony bestowing historical marker status on the location where American Studios once stood before being unceremoniously torn down in 1989 and rebuilt as a Family Dollar store, pianist Bobby Wood, organist Bobby Emmons, drummer Gene Chrisman, and guitarist Reggie Young returned to the Graceland property on Wednesday, August 13, 2014, for their first concert at Presley’s beloved home since Elvis Week two years earlier. Or more precisely, the Elvis Week Main Stage was directly across Elvis Presley Boulevard from the Graceland mansion.

With all tickets reserved as general admission for $40, the rare hits-packed performance was attended by fiercely independent producer Chips Moman, who encouraged his musical comrades from the front row. Incidentally, two other renowned musicians, Muscle Shoals bassist David Hood and saxophone player Jim Horn [e.g. the Beatles, John Denver, Eric Clapton], were onstage, preferring to stay in the shadows.