Compilation producers: Ernst Mikael Jorgensen, Roger Semon.

Recorded live at the Honolulu International Center, Honolulu, Hawaii on January 14, 1973.

One of the two most famous television specials Elvis ever created, this Hawaiian concert comes to DVD with a standard full-frame 1.33:1 image that preserves the original aspect ratio. The music has been remixed in excellent Dolby Digital 5.1. There are neither subtitles nor closed-captions. Even though there are no extra features on this release, the 20-plus songs and the historical value of the concert itself makes this an ideal disc for Elvis fans, and an interesting keepsake for rock & roll historians. ~ Perry Seibert

Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite is a double-album set that captures Elvis' celebrated live television concert from 1973. Arguably, it also captures the peak of the Presley live extravaganzas of the '70s. Spanning two albums and 30 songs (the single-CD reissue from 1992 trims the number of songs to 24), the record finds Elvis pulling out all the stops, running through a set that favors covers and new material at the expense of classics. That's hardly a complaint, since the whole point of his concerts in the '70s was a sensory onslaught, where a bluesy (albeit over the top) version of "See See Rider" could sit next to a schmaltzy showstopper like "American Trilogy." And the key to the whole thing is that Elvis actually sounds more committed to "American Trilogy" than "See See Rider." That passion and energy are carried over to each song, and that's what makes the entire enterprise so entertaining. It's also why the record was a massive hit upon its release and why so many fans have fond memories of Aloha from Hawaii decades after the actual concert. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Throughout the late-'60s and early-'70s, Elvis Presley and his manager Colonel Tom Parker staged a series of media events designed to keep Elvis in the spotlight. The NBC comeback television special, Elvis' return to live performance, and a four-show run at Madison Square Garden (with a live album released one week after the final concert) were all publicity coups that focused national attention on the King. Each, however, required that the next event be even larger and more spectacular. This is certainly the thinking that motivated ALOHA FROM HAWAII VIA SATELLITE, a concert broadcast live to the Pacific and (one day later) to Europe (the show did not air in the U.S.until several months later).

A reported one billion viewers tuned in, undoubtedly making the ALOHA show the single-most watched concert of all time. ALOHA is a mix of rockers, quiet ballads, and bombastic pop, all performed with full-throttle energy and emotion. This edition of ALOHA includes for the first time several Hawaiian-flavored songs recorded immediately after the concert, to be used on the soundtrack of the U.S. broadcast. Also among the after-hours batch of songs is Elvis' version of Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain."