Fifty years ago tomorrow, on October 14, 1976, Elvis rolled into Chicago after a 35-day break and opened a brand-new tour. It was already his eighth tour of that year, and he booked two nights at the old Chicago Stadium.
The place was packed. The Chicago Daily News counted around 20,000 fans, and a seat cost $12.50. The Chicago Tribune called it a “capacity crowd” and said scalpers out front were asking about $50 a ticket, which was a small fortune back then.
Elvis came out in his Inca Leaf jumpsuit and gave the crowd everything he had. One reviewer tried to keep count of the scarves he tossed out and finally gave up, writing that Elvis “must have thrown more than 50” of them into all those reaching hands.
Then came the moment people still scratch their heads over.
Elvis finished his newest single, a big ballad called “Hurt.” The crowd went wild. And then, instead of moving on to the next number, he reportedly turned right around and sang the whole thing again.
Here’s the song he reportedly loved enough to do twice in one night.
Elvis Presley, “Hurt”
Listen to it and you’ll understand why. “Hurt” is one of those big, soaring songs that lets a singer pour out every ounce of feeling he’s got. It climbs to a huge, almost operatic finish.
For Elvis in 1976, it had become a showstopper. He threw his whole heart into it. And the Chicago Daily News reviewer who was there wrote plainly that he sang “his current single ‘Hurt,’ which he did twice.”
Can you imagine being in that crowd? You’ve just heard Elvis Presley knock a song clean out of the park, you’re still clapping, and then he grins and does the entire thing over again like a surprise encore right in the middle of the show.
That’s the kind of thing that made an Elvis concert different from everybody else’s. He wasn’t just running down a set list. If a song felt right, if the room lit up the way he wanted, he’d ride that feeling as long as he pleased.
Twenty thousand people in Chicago got a double helping of “Hurt” that night, and plenty of them talked about it for years afterward.
Give the song a listen above, then picture hearing it twice in a row from the man himself. Lucky crowd.