In 1970, Elvis Presley is on stage in Las Vegas in a white jumpsuit, singing “Love Me Tender” — one of the most tender ballads he ever recorded. And instead of standing at the microphone, he is walking the entire length of the stage kissing women in the front row, one after another, while continuing to sing the song in the gaps.
By one count, he kisses 29 people in about four minutes. He does not miss a lyric.
It sounds like a one-off. It was not. By 1970 this had become a regular part of his show — a full routine that fans knew was coming and positioned themselves for. Accounts of his Las Vegas years describe audiences who would claw their way toward the stage, hoping to be among the ones he reached.
Elvis Presley ” Love Me Tender” – 1970
It went back to the very start of the Vegas run. A description of his 1969 opening night notes that during “Love Me Tender,” Elvis “planted kisses on as many female fans in the front row as he could reach.” It worked so well he kept doing it.
What makes the footage genuinely strange is the setting. This was not a stadium of teenagers losing their minds. It was a Las Vegas showroom where people sat at tables, having dinner. Servers were moving between the seats. And in the middle of that polite supper-club atmosphere, the biggest star in the world was working his way along the front row like a man greeting relatives at a wedding.
Elvis Presley 1970 Las Vegas International Hotel full show
You have to place it in its time to make sense of it. This was an era when a television game show host routinely kissed female contestants on the mouth on national television, and nobody thought anything of it. Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass both did something similar with their audiences. It was showmanship, and it was read it as generous rather than anything else.
And it had a partner ritual that became even more famous. From 1970 onward, Elvis started giving away scarves — dabbing the sweat from his face and then draping the scarf around somebody’s neck in the front row. His friend Charlie Hodge kept him supplied, and over the decade he handed out tens of thousands.
So the routine was really two things at once. A kiss and a scarf, distributed to as many people as he could physically reach, night after night.
Watch the video, and you’ll notice something else people always mention. His face. He isn’t being seductive, nor is he showing off. He looks amused — like a man who knows precisely how funny this is, patiently working down the line while his drummer waits for him to come back and finish the song.
It is the perfect Elvis artifact. The most beautiful ballad in his catalog, completely derailed by a man refusing to leave anybody out.