Elvis Presley - Bridge Over Troubled Water - 3 September 1973, CS (Funny and Unusual Version)

The closing show to Elvis' ninth Vegas season was unusual to say the least. It was a fun show with Elvis having a lot of jokes both with the band and the audience.
What is evident occasionally during this show, is that Elvis is also in a bad mood, not with the audience or band, but with the Hilton hotel's hierarchy and their treatment of one of it's employees, Mario a favourite maitre'd of Elvis in the hotel's Italian restaurant.
This version of Bridge Over Troubled Water is unique in the Elvis musical library. It is obvious that the next song should be Suspicious Minds and the band start to play this but Elvis sings Bridge to the tune of Suspicious Minds and after some laughter decides to do Bridge. Still having fun, he changes the lyrics and then loses track and forgets the lyrics. Charlie Hodge attempts to jog Elvis' memory by singing the words to which Elvis jokingly replies, 'Ted Mack Amateur Hour' and the rest of the band and much of the audience respond by joining in unison to end the first verse, to which Elvis gives a grateful appreciation - priceless, touching and great fun.
It must be said though, that having read many reviews of this show, and they range from those who think this performance of 'Bridge' and the show in general is good fun, to those who suggest that Elvis was being unprofessional to criticise the Hilton hierarchy in public whilst also in a lucrative contract with them. Many of the reviews then continue to criticise suggesting that he was being disrespectful to the music, his band and the audience for changing and clowning around with the lyrics so much, citing this track as prime example since in their opinion that is not what the audience paid for.
The aftermath of this show saw the infamous sacking of Col. Parker by Elvis after he questioned Elvis' professionalism, and the Colonel then countering with the threat of a lawsuit for around $5 million.
The story goes, that with the Colonel having kept Elvis away from the business side from the very beginning, and therefore Elvis' lack of business nous perhaps made him or more so his father panic at the lawsuit threat prompting Elvis to give in and reinstate the Colonel.
In hindsight the threat from the Colonel was probably no more than that, and any half decent lawyer would likely have either called his bluff or saw the Colonel off with a payout, which was would more than likely be slanted in Elvis' favour. Rumours also persisted that Jerry Weintraub, who was the long time promoter of Elvis' tours, was poised to step in having proposed new management for Elvis and promising a world tour within the year.
This show was released by Sony on the FTD label in 2004 titled Closing Night and some commentators have criticised that decision saying this show should never have been released as it did not show Elvis in the best of lights.
It is worth noting however that this was the last of a 58 show run with two per night so after such an exhaustive run of shows why should he not have some well earned fun with the audience on closing night?