THE ELVIS PRESLEY PERFORMANCE THAT STILL FEELS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO WATCH
There are Elvis Presley performances that make you want to dance.
There are performances that make you scream.
And then there is “Trying To Get To You” from Rapid City, June 21, 1977 — a performance that feels completely different once you know what was happening around it.
At first, it looks like another Elvis concert.
The lights are on. The audience is waiting. The band is ready. And then Elvis steps forward and begins to sing.
But within seconds, something changes.
His voice suddenly cuts through the room with an intensity that is difficult to ignore. The performance becomes raw, emotional and almost painfully personal. This wasn’t the young Elvis who had shocked television audiences in the 1950s. It wasn’t the explosive superstar of the 1968 comeback. This was Elvis in the final months of his life — and somehow, when he reaches for this song, that history seems to disappear for a few moments.
The result is astonishing.
“Trying To Get To You” had been part of Elvis’ musical story since his earliest recording years. He originally recorded it at Sun Studio when he was only around 20 years old. Decades later, he was still returning to the song on stage. The official Elvis site identifies the Rapid City performance as having been recorded on June 21, 1977, and later released on Elvis In Concert.
And that is what makes this footage so fascinating.
How could a singer who was visibly struggling in the final period of his career suddenly unleash moments of such enormous vocal power?
That question has fascinated Elvis fans for generations.
The performance was filmed by CBS cameras for the planned Elvis in Concert television special. Interestingly, this particular performance of “Trying To Get To You” did not make the final broadcast edit, which makes surviving footage even more compelling for fans who want to see what happened beyond the officially televised moments.
There is also something haunting about the timing.
The Rapid City concert took place on June 21, 1977.
Less than two months later, Elvis Presley would be gone.
That fact inevitably changes the way modern audiences watch the performance. Every pause feels heavier. Every powerful note feels more significant. Every glimpse of the man behind the legend becomes harder to separate from what we already know about the ending.
Yet this should not simply be viewed as a tragic final chapter.
Because Elvis does something extraordinary here.
For a few minutes, the mythology disappears.
There is no “King of Rock and Roll.”
There is no impossible celebrity machine.
There is simply a singer standing on stage, fighting through a song that demands everything from him.
And when that voice rises, it reminds us why Elvis became Elvis in the first place.
Not because of the jumpsuits.
Not because of the fame.
Not because millions of people screamed his name.
But because when he opened his mouth and truly committed to a song, something happened.
Something that cameras could capture but never fully explain.
The Rapid City version of “Trying To Get To You” has therefore become much more than an old concert recording. For many listeners, it represents one of those rare moments when the past, the present and the inevitable future collide.
You know what happened next.
Elvis didn’t.
And perhaps that is what makes watching this performance so powerful.
The audience in that room was witnessing a concert.
Decades later, we are witnessing history.
Listen closely — because hidden inside those final performances is the reason Elvis Presley remains unforgettable.