Jerry Springer celebrated Elvis Presley‘s birthday just a few months late by reprising his semi-annual impersonation of the King with a rendition of “Love Me Tender” at Matteo’s Trattoria Saturday night in Boca Raton, Florida. In a video obtained by TMZ, which you can watch here, Springer’s impression of the crooner icon is spot-on after he reportedly got on the mic at the end of the night while the crowd cheered him on.
Springer’s Elvis routine is a mainstay in the longtime television personality’s repertoire, going back at least until 2012, where he performed for a shocked crowd while hosting The Price is Right Live. In 2016 and 2017, he honored the rock ‘n’ roll legend on his Jan. 8 birthday at Big Al’s McKinney Avenue Tavern in Dallas, Texas.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The Dallas Observer spoke to Springer and Big Al Mack, co-host of the Kidd Kraddick Morning Show on KISS-FM and owner of the venue back in 2016 about how the tradition came to be, with The Jerry Springer Show host saying his initial time performing Elvis in front of other people was something that happened “purely spur of the moment,” but continued due to the shocked reaction it receives.
“I find when you do things that are unexpected, it gets a nice reaction,” Springer told the outlet at the time. “People always come with some image based on my show on what I’m going to be like live or what the show’s going to be like and when they find out that the show’s just a circus but that’s not really me, it’s just fun to do.”
Mack first heard Springer’s impression on his radio show and said he was “shocked,” but remembered the moment when he was looking to throw an event in honor of Elvis’ birthday. “So I called his publicist and asked if that was something he’d be interesting in doing,” Mack said. “He said sure and flew down here and did it and he was great and we’ve done it every year since.”
Springer added that looking back on his career, so much of it has been unexpected. “What I’m trained to do is business. No one picked me out of high school or college and said this guy’s going to be in show biz, but I’m having so much fun and I don’t want to stop and if I stop at my age, it’s over. So I’ll keep doing it because it’s so much fun,” he said. As for his Elvis impression, the entertainer joked that because the late musician died at just 42, it could be more accurate than anyone ever guessed. “I could be Elvis at 72,” Springer said. “No one knows what he would have sounded like so maybe I’ve got this thing licked.”
