The image is fixed in everybody’s memory. 1968. Elvis Presley in black leather, seven years off a concert stage, standing before a small audience with a bright red electric guitar in his hands—the moment he reclaimed his entire career.
That guitar did not belong to him.
It is a red Hagstrom Viking II, a Swedish-made hollow-body electric. Elvis had planned to use a different instrument entirely. Then he saw it on set, decided the red popped perfectly against the black leather and dark staging, and borrowed it for the performance.
The owner was a session musician working on the show. He handed it over when the production asked for something flashy for Elvis to hold on camera.
Elvis Presley, ’68 Comeback Special
Elvis played it that one time. A few minutes, on one television program, in 1968. That was enough to make it one of the most recognizable instruments in rock and roll history.
Because of what those few minutes meant, Elvis had spent the sixties buried in forgettable films while the Beatles and the Rolling Stones took over the world. He was 33 and widely written off. Minutes before going on, terrified, he told the director, “Steve, I can’t do it.” He went out anyway — and the special became the highest-rated show of the season.
That’s All Right,” ’68 Comeback Special
The other half of that show is the part musicians love most. For the sit-down segment, the director built a tiny square stage, packed the audience around all four sides, and put Elvis in the middle with his original 1950s bandmates—guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana, who had no kit and played a guitar case with his hands.
They ran through the old songs, including “That’s All Right,” the record that accidentally invented rock and roll in 1954. No script. No set. Just four men and some chairs.
The red Hagstrom has since gone to auction, with estimates running into the millions. Not bad for a guitar somebody lent him for an afternoon.