In 1969, Elvis Presley had a 57-show engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. Night after night he wowed the sold-out 2,200-seat showroom with energetic performances of his many hit songs.

During the midnight show on 26 August, Elvis began to sing Are You Lonesome Tonight. All was well for the first four lines of the song. Then things went off the rails.

What Elvis was supposed to sing was, “Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare? Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?”

What he sang that night was, “Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare? Do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair?”

I’ve read that this spontaneous change was because a guy near the front had taken off his toupee and waved it in the air. Whatever the reason, the bald head line made Elvis laugh, and then, try as he might, he couldn’t get control of his laughter.

The song has a long spoken part that begins, “You know that someone said the world’s a stage and each must play a part, And fate had me playin’ in love. with you as my sweetheart.”

Elvis would manage to say a word or two, give in to the laughter, say another couple of words, and laugh some more.

He never does get control, and at the end of the song during the applause, says of his botched performance, “That’s it, man. Fourteen years right down the drain.”

The performance is funny and endearing, but there is something that makes it even funnier: the background singer. A soprano provides a high obbligato part to accompany the main melody, and as Elvis’s performance deteriorates, she never misses a note. At one point, Elvis acknowledges her steadfastness by saying (while laughing), “Sing it, baby.”

The backup singer’s birth name was Emily Drinkard. Her nickname was Cissy and her married name was Houston. Cissy Houston was part of a quartet of female singers, the Sweet Inspirations, that often worked as backup singers for Elvis.

Houston said that after shows, such as those in Las Vegas, Elvis would often hang out and sing with the quartet. “We would jam with him for an hour, singing gospel. He really loved it, had a feel for it, and was tickled to have four ‘church sisters’ backing him up.”

There is no video of the laughing version of Are You Lonesome Tonight, but there is a recording, which you can easily find online. Some people try to be clever and piece together shots of Elvis singing and sync them up to the sound, but it’s distracting. Don’t watch, just listen.

And if you listen, do it twice. The first time, it’s easy to focus on Elvis’s struggles to get back on track with the song. The second time, zero in on Cissy Houston’s soaring vocal ability. As you listen, you won’t be at all surprised that she is the mother of singer Whitney Houston.

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