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Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, set the capital on fire. The hip-shaking, gyrating rock sensation of the 60s and the 70s was in full regalia - his trademark long sideburns, high-collared sequinned jacket - as he belted out favourites like “Jailhouse Rock” and “All Shook Up” in his deep resonant baritone.
Only it was not the King in person. Award-winning Canada-based Elvis tribute artiste Stephen Kabakos took the audience back in time to the swinging 60s and the 70s in the country’s first ever Elvis Presley tribute concert at the Hotel Radisson Wednesday night.
The hour-long gig, a part of Kabakos’ nine-city India tour, was sponsored by United Spirits Limited.
The performer, who was crowned the Grand Champion at the 2001 “Images of the King World Competition” in Memphis, Tennessee, is one of the top three Elvis tribute artistes in the world.
For the capital bred on a staple of contemporary western and Indian sounds, the experience, as some members of the audience put it, was “uncanny”. “It is like the King is here on-stage,” said a 50-year-old executive from Gurgaon.
Stephen was true to Elvis Presley. “I do everything that Elvis did on stage and nothing that he did not do,” he told the media. And on cue, the concert began with a high-voltage rendition of the legend’s early number “Blue Moon”.
He followed it with hits like “Jailhouse Rock”, “Good Rocking Tonight”, “Love Me Tender”, “All Shook Up”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “In the Ghetto”, “Viva Las Vegas” and “Suspicious Minds”. Kabakos was accompanied by a 15-piece string and horn orchestra and background vocals.
The audience cheered, sighed, danced and screamed for repeats.
The concert titled The Way It Was spanned the rock’n'roll legend’s Sun Studio years, his pre-army movie era and the explosive concert years of mid 60s and 70s.

hindustantimes.com