Just weeks before his death, on June 21, 1977, Elvis Presley sat down at a piano in front of around 10,000 fans in Rapid City, South Dakota, and sang “Unchained Melody.”
He was 42, nearing the end of another concert tour, and performing with television cameras recording the show.
The footage would become one of the best-known clips from his final year. But several details about that night tend to get lost.
What Happened at the Rapid City Concert
The show took place at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. Elvis wore his white Mexican Sundial jumpsuit, decorated with a large sun design, and worked through a set that included “Jailhouse Rock,” “It’s Now or Never,” “My Way,” and “Hound Dog.”
“Unchained Melody” came late in the concert. By then, he was visibly sweating and tired.
Rather than standing at the microphone as he did for much of the show, he sat down at the piano to accompany his singing.
And yes, Elvis really did play the piano!
Although the guitar was a much more familiar part of his public image, the piano was also part of his musical life.
The man holding the microphone beside him was Charlie Hodge, his longtime friend, guitarist, and backing singer.
Hodge kept it close to Elvis’s mouth while both of the singer’s hands were occupied at the keyboard.
Once the song began, Elvis moved from the low opening phrases into the much higher, sustained passages that make “Unchained Melody” such a difficult number to sing.
His appearance showed the strain of touring and poor health, but the power in those climactic notes was still there. That contrast helped make the performance so memorable.
Let’s watch this memorable performance in the video below:
The Song and the Recording Behind the Famous Clip
The song itself was already more than 20 years old. Composer Alex North and lyricist Hy Zaret wrote it for the 1955 film Unchained, with Todd Duncan singing it on the soundtrack.
The Righteous Brothers released their famous recording in 1965, featuring Bobby Hatfield’s lead vocal.
So Elvis was putting his own stamp on an established favorite.
There is another detail worth knowing for anyone who owns Moody Blue. The “Unchained Melody” recording on that album comes from a different concert: April 24, 1977, at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The famous Rapid City video and the album track capture two separate performances.
The television history has a surprise, too. Although the June 21 concert was filmed for the CBS special Elvis in Concert, “Unchained Melody” was left out of the original broadcast.
The special aired on October 3, 1977, after Elvis’s death. The piano footage later appeared in the 1990 home-video release Elvis: The Great Performances, Volume One: Center Stage.
Decades later, it reached another generation through Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 film Elvis. The closing sequence moves from Austin Butler’s recreation of the performance to footage of Presley himself.
Was This Elvis’s Last Performance?
Despite the labels frequently attached to the clip online, Rapid City was not Elvis’s farewell show.
He continued touring and gave his final concert on June 26 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
His final song that evening was “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”
Elvis died at Graceland on August 16, 1977, less than two months after the Rapid City concert.
The cameras had captured one of his last major vocal performances, with Elvis himself at the piano and his unmistakable voice still powerful enough to remind everyone why he was called the King of Rock and Roll.