ABSTRACT
The career of Elvis Presley embodies both the glorious optimism of the American dream and the desperate tragedy of the American nightmare. Indeed, the regular 'sightings' of Elvis Presley – some 30 years after his death, there are hundreds of reports each year – testify to the significance that his story continues to hold for the personal component of American political life. In fact, many of the biographical details included in analyses of Presley's career only become meaningful when they are seen as indices of the wider social and cultural contexts in which they were embedded, and/or as signposts to the consequences which followed. In 1968, the intervening moment of choice between the Hollywood years and the Las Vegas years was provided by an hour-long NBC TV show. Sponsored by the sewing machine manufacturer, it is correctly titled Singer Presents ELVIS. However, it has come to be known as the Comeback Special.
