The Comeback: Elvis and the Story of the 68 Special (Omnibus Remastered)

By Simon Goddard, Foreword by Bob Stanley

'This fine book more than justifies its existence… Goddard not only knows his Elvis but deftly weaves in the cultural background of the era.' MOJO

As 1968 dawns, the once King of rock‘n’roll faces cultural oblivion. While elsewhere the Sixties are swinging, for Elvis they’re sinking – in terrible films, drug addiction, paranoia, religious mania and the mercenary wiles of his psychopathic manager. In the words of the hip young director assigned to his first TV special, Elvis’s reputation was “in the toilet.” However the same director, Steve Binder, was now about to save it. Together they would embark on the biggest creative fight of Elvis’ life.

The Comeback plots the incredible true story of Elvis’ fall and rise from Army discharge to iconic black leather resurrection. Simon Goddard takes the reader inside the life, music and mind of Elvis, isolated from an America unravelling in its own Sixties chaos of war, racism, riots and assassinations, until his world and theirs collide in the greatest performance of his life. 

A genre-busting modernist rock‘n’roll fable unlike any music biography you’ve ever read, The Comeback is the definitive account of how it took Elvis eight years on the big screen to lose his crown – but just one magical hour on a small one to win it back.

'A fascinating exploration … Goddard certainly has form as a music biographer, but
this audacious and pacey study of The King goes further. It broaches exciting new
ground.' The National

Publication Date: 23.04.26
ISBN: 9781917274029
Extent: 352 pages
Format: Paperback

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