Watch Elvis Deliver A Powerful Performance Just Weeks Before His Death

Elvis Presley was by most accounts in bad shape in the months before his death on Aug. 16, 1977, at the age of 42.

He was prone to forgetting lyrics, wandered off the stage for 30 minutes at one show, and delivered a performance at another that led to a reviewer calling him “paunchy, puffy, lumbering, frequently off-key, apparently under-rehearsed,” according to the Elvis History Blog.

Yet he still sometimes had the ability to reach back and unleash the raw power of his unmistakable voice.

The clip above is one of those times, delivered during one of his final performances.

Recorded for a TV special in Rapid City, South Dakota, on June 21, 1977, the show took place less than two months before his death.

Heavily sweating, Elvis sat down at the piano and launched into a powerful version of “Unchained Melody.”

Long live The King.