10 Most Iconic Live Music Performances Of All Time

3. Elvis Appears On Milton Berle’s Show

Live Aid Queen
MGM

The 1950’s. A Man. Live on TV. Thrusting his pelvis is a provocative manor. It was scandalous. Its funny looking back at this now given some of the highly sexualised live performances we have seen in recent years (Miley Cyrus dancing with Robin Thicke back on 2013 immediately springs to mind, for all the wrong reasons) but at the time the very thought of a man shaking his hips at an audience of adoring fans in such a way was unthinkable.

On the 5th of June 1956, at the age of just 21, Elvis Presley soon became a target of the press and a number of religious groups following his performance of Hound Dog on The Milton Berle Show. America had never seen anything like this before as girls in the audience screamed and swooned with each thrust of his hips. Upon repeat performances on the show Elvis was incredibly only filmed from the waist upwards to prevent any further tainting of audiences watching at home. He had previously performed his songs live before of course, but prior to this they had been relatively restrained, usually just him, his guitar and typically a backing band with very little gyrating movements.

In just one performance Elvis had elevated himself a Rock ‘n’ Roll rebel, and despite fears amongst the media that he was potentially ‘tainting the innocence of young America’ this would eventually lead him along the path to 18 number ones, 33 successful films and his place amongst the biggest and most influential artists of all time. It all started here, with a shaking of the hips.

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