Many of Today's Biggest Music Stars Pay Tribute to Elvis on NBC Special

by Julian Spivey

NBC aired an All-Star Tribute to Elvis Presley on Sunday, Feb. 17 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Elvis’ 1968 Comeback Special which aired on Dec. 3, 1968 on the very same network. The tribute special featured fantastic performances of Elvis classics performed by some of today’s biggest music stars like Blake Shelton, who also hosted the program, Carrie Underwood, Shawn Mendes, John Legend, Post Malone, Keith Urban and more.
​
The special began with an interesting mashup of Elvis performing “Guitar Man” from the ’68 special and Shelton performing it from the studio in Los Angeles. It was a cool idea, but it didn’t quite work for me because the song, written by country music legend Jerry Reed, really doesn’t fit Shelton’s voice and ended with him being outshined clearly by Elvis a half century ago.

It was honestly the weakest performance of the entire two-hour special. Pretty much every other performance during the telecast was at the very least passable, with many being very entertaining covers. The only real issue is there really weren’t any artists who completely stepped out of the box and did these songs in a different, modern or unique way. All of the performances were pretty faithful to Elvis’ originals. I would’ve liked to have seen some of these fantastic artists put their own spin or arrangements on the songs.

One of my favorite performances of the evening came early on during the special from Rock Hall of Fame Legend John Fogerty who performed “Jailhouse Rock.” Surprisingly Fogerty was the only old rocker on the entire program. It would’ve been nice to see some of the other artists who were the first generation inspired by Elvis perform on the show.

It was also great to see singer-songwriter Mac Davis on the program. Davis wrote songs for Elvis such as “In the Ghetto,” “A Little Less Conversation” and “Memories.” Davis did an excellent performance of “Memories.” John Legend performed “A Little Less Conversation,” in a bit of a more soulful and slower performance than we’re accustomed to and it didn’t quite work as well for me, despite Legend’s terrific voice.

Among the other fascinating performances of the night were the beautiful vocals of Pistol Annies on “Love Me,” Alessia Cara on “Love Me Tender” and Darius Rucker on the soulful “One Night.”

One of the most surprising moments of the night was the collaboration between Keith Urban and Post Malone on “Baby, What You Want Me to Do,” which shows that Post Malone is more than just a pop-rapper selling millions and topping Billboard.

Jennifer Lopez was really the only performer of the special to get the sultriness of Elvis down pat with a nice rendition of “Heartbreak Hotel.” One of the most interesting things about the special is it wasn’t very showy, and Elvis was rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest showman in its early days.

There was a lengthy portion of the special toward the end where Carrie Underwood and Yolanda Adams brought the house down with great gospel numbers “How Great Thou Art,” “He Touched Me” and “You Never Walk Alone” showcasing the religious side of Elvis’ repertoire.

Other performers on the special included Shawn Mendes doing “Hound Dog,” Dierks Bentley doing “Little Sister,” Adam Lambert performing “Blue Suede Shoes,” Little Big Town harmonizing on “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” and Josh Groban knocking “It’s Now or Never” out of the park.

The show ended with another mashup of modern superstars performing with Elvis from the ’68 special on “If I Can Dream,” which Elvis famously debuted during that special as a finale for the show. The mashup was good performance-wise featuring Underwood, Mendes, Shelton, Post Malone and Rucker, but it kind of left me just wanting to see the entire Elvis performance from ’68. I think that would’ve been a better way to end the show.