You’re reading a story from Sidelines 100, a project showcasing a century of student storytelling at Middle Tennessee State University. Sidelines 100 plans to highlight 100 stories from the newspaper archives this fall and spring.

This story originally ran in the March 19, 1974, edition of Sidelines. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay on top of all things Sidelines 100.

It was downright weird.

The scramble for tickets had been almost vicious. Tales were floating about that scalpers had sold seats for as much as $80 each.

On concert night, fans battled traffic jams and parking problems. And even after arriving more than an hour early, they had to plod along through a massive line merely to enter Murphy Center last Thursday night.

An air of excitement prevailed as the crowd gobbled up souvenir programs at $3 a crack and purchased opera glasses so that not a single gyration would be missed.

Finally, the waiting was over, and the capacity crowd greeted a living legend, Elvis Presley, to Murfreesboro.

Perhaps it was the fact that the veil of secrecy surrounding him since the mid-1950s has turned Elvis into something other than a real person in the minds of his fans.

Whatever the reason, his warmup songs were greeted by a very strange quietness from the audience.

The hand-clapping and the screaming came, but only after Elvis had sung his heart out to prove that he was very human indeed.

The music spanned the years since the birth of rock ‘n’ roll. For the “oldtimers,” it went all the way back to the early Presley rockabilly version of “Tryin’ to Get to You.” For the slightly younger set, there were monster hits such as “All Shook Up.” From the Elvis renaissance of the late 1960s and early 1970s came “Suspicious Minds.” And from today came his new recording of “Help Me.”

Obviously, the singer was well aware of the audience’s makeup. There were pre-schoolers, such as the little girl in the front row, who presented Elvis with a lei and were rewarded with a “You’re beautiful” from the singing idol. There were the teenagers, the MTSU students, the original devotees now in their thirties and the older folks whose peers once put down rock ‘n’ roll as something other than moral that simply couldn’t last. And, of course, there were the girls — of various ages – screaming, fighting policemen to rush toward the stage in hopes of coming away with one of Elvis’ prized scarves.

There was something for everybody, just as one knows there always will be when Elvis appears in concert.

Elvis may be nearing 40. He may be a bit heavy around the middle. He may not have the soulful sound he had before his music was de-countrified and cluttered up with a lot of noise from a big band. He may be resorting to trivia such as “Got a Thing About You Baby” to hit the Top 40.

But in person, he’s still the most magnetic and influential performer in the history of American music.