It's January twenty-seventh, and on this day in 1971... Elvis Presley kicked off a new engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas with a major change that would define his stage presence for the rest of his career. For the first time, instead of walking onstage to the upbeat intro from “Baby I Don’t Care,” the King made his entrance to a powerful, orchestral rendition of “Also Sprach Zarathustra”—the dramatic theme famously associated with *2001: A Space Odyssey.* From this night forward, that thunderous buildup would become the unmistakable signal that Elvis was about to take the stage.
