Elvis Presley Seattle, WA. Sick's Stadium (eve)September 1, 1957
September 1st, during Labor Day weekend after performing in Vancouver, BC the previous evening and a matinee show in Tacoma that day, Elvis, Scotty, Bill, DJ and the Jordanaires performed to a crowd of over 16,000 fans at Sick's Stadium, 90% of them teenage girls. Tickets sold for $1.50, $2.50, and $3.50 and the show was supposed to begin at 8:30 p.m. but it was well past 10 p.m. before a cordon of policemen appeared around the stage and Elvis walked out from the dugout as the crowd began to scream in earnest.
Elvis wore a dark shirt and slacks and a gold lame jacket that shimmered in the lights. When he leaned toward the microphone, the tsunami of noise from the audience reached a shrieking crescendo. An ambulance crew strapped a girl to a stretcher who had fainted when Elvis first appeared and carried her down the stairs and out of the stadium. She hadn’t been able to hear even one song.
Myrna Crafoot, a fan in attendance that evening jotted down in her diary the set list: Heartbreak Hotel, All Shook Up, I Got A Woman, That's When Your Heartaches Begin, I Was The One, Teddy Bear, Don't Be Cruel, Love Me, Fools Hall Of Fame, Blue Suede Shoes, Blueberry Hill (with Elvis on piano), Mean Woman Blues and Hound Dog. According to Wikipedia, another Seattle native and fan in attendance that evening, a 14 year old named James (Jimi) Marshall Hendrix took notes of the set list as well.
Toward the end, Elvis stood quietly before the microphone and announced that the next number would be the National Anthem. He burst into 'Hound Dog' instead. John Voorhees, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said the scream from the audience sounded like '12,000 girls all having their heads shaved at once.' He sang two choruses and then he was gone, vanishing through a gate in the right field fence, no doubt avoiding the rush and mass hysteria as had been witnessed the prior evening in Vancouver. A few girls slipped down to the stage and scooped up dirt from around second base before the police shooed them away.
Jimi Hendrix
Several months later the impressionable and now 15-year-old James (Jimi) Marshall Hendrix made a color drawing showing Elvis wielding a guitar. Both that and his notes from the concert had been on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH for a time but have been returned to Experience Hendrix. In 1968 Jimi attended a late-night screening of 'King Creole' during his time in Paris and credited this particular viewing with giving him the additional strength and inspiration needed to further his career. Strangely enough Jimi's last hometown appearance was at Sick's Stadium on July 26, 1970.
Stop, look and listen baby that's our philosophy .... First thing in the morning, last thing at night ... look, stare everywhere and see everything inside .... Stop, look and listen!
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