Fans in Memphis are marking the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s 1968 comeback television special, the Associated Press reports. The special touched off a resurgence in the career of the King of Rock and Roll, then 33 years old. Parts of the special showed Elvis jamming and joking with bandmates in front of a small audience. “I think it was the honesty,” Steve Binder, who produced and directed the special, says of the show’s success, “The fact that he wasn’t controlled, wasn’t reading prepared lines. It was raw and it was powerful, and I think it was who he really was.”