ASSEMBLING THE BAND

Over the next few weeks Elvis held auditions for various musicians and up to this point James Burton had brought in Larry Muhoberac (formerly Larry Owens) of Memphis, whose band originally worked with Elvis previously when they appeared on the Bill of his Memphis Charity Concert in February 1961. Larry himself played on various movie soundtracks. He, in turn suggested a drummer from Dallas by the name of Ronnie Tutt and it looked like at one stage he wasn't going to get the chance to show Elvis what he could do as he was the last one to arrive, but thankfully it worked out in the end and he got the gig. Burton also contacted pianist and arranger, Glen D. Hardin who wasn't available at the time and bass guitar player Jerry Scheff (who wasn't really keen on doing it at the time) but decided to give it a shot anyway and really liked Elvis and how he let the musicians do their own thing.

Tom Diskin contacted The Imperials, and told them Elvis wanted to provide the kind of Male Gospel Quartet back up that he had always liked. The Imperials had already sang backing vocals on Elvis' "How Great Thou Art" sessions back in 1966. Group leader Jake Hess had left due to ongoing health issues, so the line-up was now made up of Armond Morales, Joe Moscheo, Jim Murray, Roger Wiles and Terry Blackwood. Elvis also contacted "The Sweet Inspirations" (Emily "Cissy" Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, Myrna Smith and Estelle Brown), whom he'd never met, but admired their work after Marty Lacker and George Klein recommended them and gave Elvis a copy of the "Sweet Inspiration" single that he played a lot in Graceland. Finally he rang rhythm guitarist John Wilkinson (an Elvis fan, who had just signed a contract with RCA as a solo artist) and told him to come over to this house as the band were having a jam and Elvis wanted to see how John would fit in. Elvis' idea for the show was that it would contain all of the music that influenced him, and bring it all together on one stage complete orchestral backing. Bobby Morris who had worked for Bill Miller at the Flamingo was now working for the International and met with Colonel Parker who arranged for him to meet Elvis at his house in California. Over the next few weeks he listened to hundreds of recordings so he could find out exactly what Elvis wanted. 

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Colonel Parker gave each of the successful applicants a suitcase filled with Elvis albums to take them home to listen and learn. Elvis though wanted the band not to imitate what had gone before, but to interpret and modernise the material to work with a live audience.