Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite is a concert starring American singer Elvis Presley that took place at the Honolulu International Center and was broadcast live via satellite to audiences in Asia and Oceania on January 14, 1973. The show was presented with a delay in Europe. In the United States, to avoid a programming conflict with Super Bowl VII and Elvis on Tour which was playing in cinemas at the time, NBC opted to air a ninety-minute television special of the concert on April 4.
Presley returned to performing tours throughout the United States in 1970. Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China inspired Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, to promote a live broadcast concert featuring Presley and he arranged a deal with RCA Records and the NBC network to produce one. The show benefited the Kui Lee Cancer Fund.
Marty Pasetta produced and directed the program. A filmed rehearsal concert took place on January 12. The show earned good ratings in the countries targeted by the live broadcast. The television special presented in the United States became NBC's highest-rated program of the year, and it received a favorable reception from critics. Its soundtrack album became Presley's last chart-topper on Billboard album chart.
Background
After a seven-year hiatus from live performances to focus on his acting career, Elvis Presley returned with his 1968 NBC television special Elvis. Following the critical success of the special, by 1969, Presley returned to releasing non-soundtrack albums with From Elvis in Memphis. His manager, Colonel Tom Parker, arranged for him to play a concert residency at the newly built International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. For this engagement he assembled a band, later known as the TCB Band: James Burton (guitar), John Wilkinson (rhythm guitar), Jerry Scheff (bass guitar), Ronnie Tutt (drums), Glen Hardin (piano) and Charlie Hodge (rhythm guitar, background vocals). The Sweet Inspirations, the Imperials, the Stamps and Kathy Westmoreland provided backing vocals, and the show also featured the 30-piece Joe Guercio orchestra. Presley began to tour the United States again in 1970 after a thirteen-year hiatus.
Presley's early 1972 albums, Elvis Now and He Touched Me, charted at number 43 and 79 on the Billboard 200. That year, Presley embarked on a 15-city tour that was filmed for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) documentary Elvis on Tour. The film earned a Golden Globe Award for best documentary. A planned soundtrack album was never released as the recording equipment failed during the fourth night of performances.
Presley appeared at Madison Square Garden in New York City in June 1972; the performance was released as a live album the same month and reached number 11 on Billboards Hot 100. Demand for Presley was strong in Europe and Asia, where Presley was eager to perform, but Parker prevented this. This has been attributed to Parker's status as an illegal immigrant; Parker concealed his origins as a Dutch national, and feared deportation if he left the United States.
NBC aired the ninety-minute television special on April 4. The Stokely-Van Camp Company and Toyota presented the show. It opened with an animation of the satellite "beaming" Presley to different parts of the world, with audio signals in Morse code saying "Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii". Pasetta added clips of Presley's arrival by helicopter to the Hilton hotel and the show outside the arena to the concert sequences. The additional recordings Presley made after the show were also integrated. Pasetta used split-screens to show Presley and the scenery images he had filmed of Hawaii. The track "No More" was not used. The show earned a Nielsen rating of 33.8 and a 57 share.
Billboard praised the special's camera work, declaring that Presley "dominated the tube with showmanship" and concluded that at 38, Presley "still knows how to sing rock". The Los Angeles Times review remarked on Presley's "polished skills" while calling his antics "an amusing parody" of his early career. It called the performances of "An American Trilogy" "stunning", and "I'll Remember You" as "poignant". In contrast, The Boston Globes negative review rated the show with two stars out of five. The reviewer felt the set decorations were "trappings" and that Presley's performance was "buried in folderol". The piece drew a comparison with his appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and declared "the electricity was gone" and that "he was mocking himself and his milieu".
The New York Daily News praised Pasetta's work on the production and Presley's performance that used "fewer tricks" but delivered "a skillfully paced concert". A negative review in the Chicago Sun-Times said the program consisted of "a 90-minute documentary of Presley's sweat glands at work, masquerading as an entertainment special". It criticized Presley's lack of "body movements" and his "feet-apart stance that was more appropriate to address a pinball machine". The Charlotte News review said that while Presley "pushed himself to the limit" for the performance, the ninety-minute presentation was "entirely too much". The piece criticized NBC's choice to broadcast a special by Ann-Margret immediately following Presley's show. The Cincinnati Enquirer reviewer felt "captivated" by Presley's "singing and stage talents", but lamented the "unnecessary segment" depicting Presley's arrival and reception by fans. Meanwhile, the newspaper's rock critic felt that the abundance of close-ups of Presley "knock out about half of the mystique".
Soundtrack
RCA Records released the soundtrack album worldwide in February 1973 in quadraphonic sound. RCA employed two of its record pressing plants to manufacture the album. The LP's sleeve contained the phrase "we love Elvis" written in different languages. The double-LP reached number one on the Billboard 200. Aloha from Hawaii was Presley's second double album (not including compilations) as well as his first chart-topper since 1965, and the last during his lifetime. The album sold half-a-million copies in two weeks and was certified gold one week later. The album went on to be certified 5× platinum.
Legacy
The 1967 Our World black-and-white television special was the first live international concert presented via satellite. Aloha from Hawaii was the first live satellite broadcast to feature a single performer. The production cost of the special was a total of US$2.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ), setting a record at the time of its broadcast. The show was NBC's highest-rated program of the year.
Belew made two costumes for the show, each worn in one of the concerts. Both of Presley's costumes are kept by Elvis Presley Enterprises; one of them is on display at Graceland mansion. The short-cape worn by Presley during the special was caught by Honolulu Advertiser sportswriter Bruce Spinks. Spinks sold it to collector Andrew Kern. After Kern's death in 1995, his mother followed his wish to donate the cape to be displayed at Graceland. The second cape was sold at an auction in 1999 for US$105,250 (). In 2014, the long cape was listed by RR Auction. The bids reached US$90,000 (), short of the reserve price. The seller and buyer had to negotiate a final price.
In 2007, a life-size bronze statue of Presley commissioned by TV Land was unveiled at the site of the concert. It commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of Presley's death. In 2013, a five-day celebration for the fortieth anniversary of the concert took place in Hawaii. On January 14, a special screening of the concert was played at the same venue, now named the Neal Blaisdell Arena.
Home media
Aloha from Hawaii was first released on VHS in 1984. In September 2004, Aloha from Hawaii: (Deluxe Edition) was released on DVD. The two-disc package includes the concert, the rehearsal, and the extended US special. Additionally, the set contains the complete sequence of Presley's arrival and the entire post-concert session. The picture and the sound were digitally remastered from the original master tapes. Allmusic gave the release four stars out of five, and declared "the January 14 show remains genuinely exciting 31 years later", and praised the audio and video remastering.
RCA first reissued the original double album on compact disc in 1992; In 1988, RCA had issued The Alternate Aloha, containing the previously unreleased dress rehearsal from February 12 1973, two days before the broadcast concert. In 1998, RCA again reissued the original album with five bonus tracks. A single-disc special edition version of the concert was released in 2006. In 2023, Legacy Recordings announced the release of a newly remastered box-set consisting of three CDs and a blu-ray, or two LPs. The label set the release date for August 11, 2023, while it also announced the screening of the concert at Graceland on August 16, 2023 and a Q&A event.
Charts and certifications
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!scope="col"|Chart (2004)
!scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
|Australian Top 40 Music DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|Austrian Top 10 Music DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|7
|-
|Belgium (Flanders) Top 10 Music DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
|Belgium (Wallonia) Top 10 Music DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|Ireland Top 20 DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|17
|-
|Japanese DVDs Chart
|style="text-align:center;"|117
|-
|Netherlands Top 30 Music DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
|New Zealand Top 10 Music DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|6
|-
|Norwegian Top 10 DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
|Spanish Top 20 Music DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|6
|-
|Swedish Top 20 DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|}
{|class="wikitable"
!scope="col"|Chart (2006)
!scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
|Italian Top 20 Music DVDs
|style="text-align:center;"|14
|-
|}