Kings and quarterbacks alike were making history on January 14, 1973. The latter was Bob Griese, starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins for the 1972 season. He was also the starter for Super Bowl VII, which saw the Dolphins take on the Washington Redskins at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that mid-January afternoon. The Dolphins scored their first Super Bowl win 14 to 7 and made history as the first team in NFL history to achieve an undefeated season.
While the Dolphins and Redskins fought it out on the field, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was preparing for a groundbreaking concert 2,555 miles away. Elvis Presley was in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he would become the first performer to broadcast a full-length concert over communication satellites. A live recording of the performance would later become Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite, Presley’s penultimate live album and his last chart-topper.
Videos by American Songwriter
Despite the performance taking place in the States, satellites didn’t actually broadcast Presley’s show to the Lower 48. Countries lucky enough to see Elvis’ Hawaii show live included Australia, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, South Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Pop culture legend would say the U.S. broadcast clashed with the Super Bowl game, but this was more quippy rumor than fact.
Was Elvis Presley’s Hawaii Concert Shafted for a Football Game?
In short, no. On the most surface level, the two events wouldn’t have clashed with one another. Elvis Presley’s Aloha from Hawaii concert took place at 12:30 am Hawaiian time, which would have been 2:30 am in Los Angeles. Super Bowl VII hadn’t even happened yet. Kickoff wasn’t for another ten hours. While the idea of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll being shafted for a football game, no matter how historic, makes for a compelling story, the truth is far more technical. Scheduling conflicts didn’t limit the Hawaii broadcast. Mechanical limitations did.
The satellite responsible for broadcasting the Elvis Presley concert around the world (or at least to the Eastern Hemisphere) was Intelsat IV F-4, which scientists launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the early 1970s. A single satellite can broadcast only so far from its location, which significantly limited the countries that could watch the Elvis show live. But even if technicians coordinated enough satellites to create a truly worldwide broadcast, time zones would mean some parts of the world would be tuning in during impractical times. (For many Elvis fans, that’d be no problem at all, but still.)
RCA Records released the live album from Elvis’ historic concert in Honolulu, Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite, a couple of weeks after the show on February 1. On April 4 of that year, NBC aired the 90-minute concert footage in its entirety, allowing American Elvis fans to finally match the bedazzled American Eagle Suit to the King’s distinctive, warbling voice crooning hits like “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, “Hound Dog”, and “Suspicious Minds”.
Photo by Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Most Viewed
-
LOS ANGELES – 1985: Singer Rosemary Clooney poses for a portrait in 1985 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry Langdon/Getty Images) -
AUSTIN, TEXAS – Lloyd Maines performs onstage during "Austin City Limits Celebrates 50 Years: A Special Anniversary Taping" of the long-running music series "Austin City Limits" at ACL Live on November 21, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images) -
English rock and pop group The Hollies perform the song 'Sorry Suzanne' on the set of the BBC Television pop music television show Top Of The Pops at Lime Grove Studios in London on 27th March 1969. Members of the band are, from left, Tony Hicks, Bobby Elliott, Allan Clarke, Terry Sylvester and Bernie Calvert. (Photo by Ivan Keeman/Redferns) -
Country singer George Morgan portrait circa 1949. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) -
Portrait of American musician, author, and comedian Kinky Friedman as he poses backstage during the Farm Aid benefit concert at Texas Stadium, Dallas, Texas, March 14, 1992. (Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images) -
Actor, singer, songwriter, musician, Kris Kristofferson wearing a white T shirtsits on a piano bench with a microphones in front of him while playing an acoustic twelve string guitar at Combine Studios in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. (Photo by Al Clayton/Getty Images). -
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Musician Bobby Osborne of the Osborne Brothers performs onstage during the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival at Golden Gate Park on October 7, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
