NBC's 'Christmas at Graceland': The show's top moments, from Lana Del Rey to Post Malone

Fifty-five years after the so-called "'68 Comeback Special," the renowned prime time production that galvanized Elvis Presley's career after close to a decade of Hollywood torpor, NBC on Wednesday night again showcased the King of Rock 'n' Roll in a network holiday special.

Of course, an "Elvis" TV special in 2023 must compensate for a disadvantage that was not present in 1968, namely, the fact that Elvis Presley is not alive. To that end, the hourlong "Christmas at Graceland" presented performances by eight talented musical artists, who, in various locations in and around the Presley estate, presented tasteful covers of songs associated with the holiday, the mansion's former owner, or both.

Touted as a "live" production but with almost no actual live-on-air content (most of the performances were shot days in advance), "Christmas at Graceland" — co-produced and low-key hosted by Elvis' granddaughter, actress Riley Keough — aired at 9 p.m. Memphis time, after "Christmas at Rockefeller Center," which NBC has carried since 1997.

Will the Graceland special also become a tradition? Local film crew workers hope so, even if relatively few were employed this year: The fact that most of the show was shot on various days in November meant more paychecks. (Meanwhile, commercials during the show promoted next week's "Christmas at the Opry," indicating that NBC has cast its hopeful holiday-ratings net beyond the Bluff City.)

What was special about the special? Here are five notable elements:

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Words: "Home on the Range" is no Christmas carol, but Wednesday night, at least, Graceland went beyond even Gene Autry's vision of an idealized location, to become a place "where never is heard a discouraging word." Not that one would expect or even want anything different during a show titled "Christmas at Graceland."

"This is like the manifestation of a dream completely come true," singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey told Riley Keough inside the Graceland kitchen, where Keough made this disclosure: "On my God, I love Christmas." Post Malone summed it up: "Christmas is bad a**."

Meanwhile, outside the Graceland barn, country singer Kane Brown revealed that Elvis was "one of my nana's favorite singers." Country singer Lainey Wilson added: "I am so excited to be celebrating two of my favorite things at the same time — Elvis Presley and Christmas."

In addition to the performers (who were accompanied in most segments by small backup bands), guest celebrities — including Dolly Parton, Jennifer Hudson, Jon Bon Jovi and Cher — contributed video testimonials and childhood recollections. Parton — whose new hit album, "Rockstar," includes a song titled "I Dreamed About Elvis" — remembered sneaking "through the woods and through the bushes" as a child, to peep through the window of a less impoverished neighbor "who did have a TV" to watch Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show. Cher recalled talking her mother into taking her to an Elvis concert, "so my mom and I were jumping up and down screaming to Elvis, and I was 11."

The performances on 'Christmas at Graceland'

Songs: The show began with what appeared to be about its only legitimately live moment, when country singer-songwriter Lainey Wilson drove up to the front of the mansion in a pink Cadillac, and then performed Elvis' bawdiest Christmas song, "Santa Claus is Back in Town," while wearing a red bellbottomed jumpsuit-style outfit and red cowboy hat.

One of the more impressive segments featured Lana Del Rey in the Jungle Room, covering Elvis' cover of "Unchained Melody," a song that had been a hit for Roy Hamilton, whom Elvis admired, and, more famously, the Righteous Brothers.

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Other performers included Kane Brown, who did "Blue Christmas" outside the Graceland barn, after petting a Graceland horse; Alanis Morissette, who sang "Last Christmas," by Wham!, near the Lisa Marie airplane (Morissette was the only person to add "Happy Hanukkah" to "Merry Christmas," and she also was about the only person to possibly ad-lib, asking viewers to remember not just Elvis and her friend Lisa Marie but George Michael); and Kacey Musgraves, who sang "Can't Help Falling in Love" on the mansion's front porch. She then got into the pink Cadillac that Lainey Wilson had left behind and drove out through the Graceland gates, presumably into the Whitehaven night...

John Legend, The War and Treaty deliver songs with a 'message'

'Protest' songs: In addition to the five performers mentioned above, two musical acts contributed what might be described as "message" or "protest" songs. On a reproduction of a "'68 Comeback Special" stage, The War and Treaty, a gospel-influenced country/Americana twosome that made history when its members became the first Black artists to be nominated for the Country Music Association's Duo of the Year award, sang "If I Can Dream," the civil rights era-evoking song that Elvis insisted on performing on NBC in 1968.

They were followed by Oscar-winning pop/R&B star John Legend, who began his segment by lighting votive candles with Keough inside the Graceland Chapel, where a piano owned by Elvis awaited him. "It's really something to think that his hands have touched these keys," said Legend, who, during this time of extended warfare in Ukraine and the Middle East, performed the tuneful protest song "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," which John Lennon and Yoko Ono composed in 1971, in response to the Vietnam War. ("Put your political message across with a little honey," Lennon explained.)

Post Malone shows off Elvis tattoo, jumps in Graceland pool

Post Malone croons: The show's eighth performer was the garishly tattooed and grilled Post Malone, who has reinvented himself as the sort of harmlessly eccentric cousin whose occasional antics are tolerated as the expressions of an exuberant heart. Wheeled around the Graceland grounds in a sort of golf cart driven by Riley Keough, Malone showed off the small Elvis tattoo on his right hand, then accompanied himself on electric guitar for a crooning version of "Devil in Disguise," which he performed while standing alongside Elvis' kidney-shaped swimming pool.

"It is so bad a** to be performing here at this really b******' pool," said Malone who, after finishing the song and having a word bleeped from his thank you's, jumped into the aforementioned pool, guitar in hand. This behavior is what qualified as "zany" during an otherwise impeccable, risk-free production that demonstrated that Keogh will be an adept overseer of the Elvis legacy. (Along with John Legend, Malone is a veteran of prime time Presley programming on NBC: Both men appeared on "Elvis All-Star Tribute," a 2019 special that featured more than a dozen performers, including Blake Shelton and Jennifer Lopez.)

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Home-movie clips of Elvis, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley

Images: The performances were interspersed with home-movie clips featuring Elvis, Priscilla Presley and young Lisa Marie, mostly clowning around at Graceland; the charming footage of Lisa as a baby and small child was more eloquent than any wordy tribute to the late daughter of Elvis/mother of Riley probably would have been.

If Graceland looked cool in the vintage footage, it also looked great in the new musical segments, the holiday decorations and colorful gel lighting giving the home a hip space-age retro feel. At times, footage of a giant-sized Elvis, Priscilla and Lisa Marie was projected on the outside walls of the mansion, as if to reassure viewers that the Presley presence remained as much a part of the house as its colonial revival architecture and its peacock stained glass.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: NBC's 'Christmas at Graceland': Top highlights from holiday special