Track Listing

1. Take My Hand Precious Lord
2. I Believe
3. It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)
4. Amazing Grace
5. Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus/Nearer My God To Thee
6. How Great Thou Art
7. Farther Along
8. Crying In The Chapel
9. In The Garden
10. Working On The Building
11. He Touched Me
12. Where Could I Go But To The Lord
13. Peace In The Valley
14. Put Your Hand In The Hand
15. By And By
16. Somebody Bigger Than You And I
17. Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho
18. Reach Out To Jesus
19. Swing Down Sweet Chariot
20. Milky White Way

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2577 in Music
• Released on: 2003-03-22
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Long live the king
I was looking for gospel records when I saw this in Amazon, and bought it after some hesitation. All my Elvis' memories were of a depressive fat guy dressed in fancy clothes and slave to several drug cocktails. I use to say that the worst thing about him was to see him in his late years. I didn't know anything about his fervient gospel work and recordings, which in fact gave him several Emmys. My doubts were proved stupid, because this is a very good gospel record, and a very good example of Elvis' work.

His voice is mellow, deep, and above all, understanding and feeling of the songs and themes he sings. You can hear in them a man of faith, even when his ways took him (or perhaps because of that) far away from the chapels he sings about. Some of them are classical gospel songs, some are arrangements of other themes, and all of them are adapted by Elvis to his own style and liking. The only negative comment on this record is about the one I don't like is the most melodious, recitative "I believe".

The record comes with an booklet which describes Elvis' gospel background, his involvement in recordings and revivals, and all in all makes this a very good piece of gospel music, which also will make you listen to good King's songs.

Buy it, listen to it, give it as a present.

Elvis's first love
Gospel music was Elvis' first love and at the time of his discovery by the late Sam Phillips he was seriously considering joining the Songfellows, a gospel quartet, instead of signing to Sun Records. Throughout his career Elvis always used full gospel groups rather than backing singers, on stage and in the studio. At the same time that he was recording All Shook Up in January 1957, he was also recording songs for a gospel EP, Peace In The Valley, all of which were included on Elvis' Christmas Album later that year, and also appear here.

This collection also draws from three gospel albums that Elvis released: His Hand In Mine (1960), How Great Thou Art (1966) and He Touched Me (1971) and a couple of stray tracks including his hit single Crying In The Chapel, plus a medley of two songs he recorded and filmed at the Elvis On Tour sessions but which remained in the can until 1994.

Although a great rock singer, unlike his contemporaries, Elvis had the range to sing with an unmatched purity and sincerity on both devotional gospels and secular ballads and wasn't afraid to match his voice with the best gospel singers in the business, as this set ably demonstrates

The king praises the King
On this impressive collection of gospel songs Elvis is variously backed by the Jordanaires, Sweet Inspirations, Imperials and the Stamps Quartet. Chronologically the material ranges from songs recorded from 1957 to the early 1970s. They are mostly gospel classics but there are also later compositions like Put Your Hand In The Hand which was a pop hit in 1971.

Several styles are represented, from the slow and solemn hymns like Take My Hand Precious Lord, He Touched Me and I Believe to rhythmic uptempo tracks like Joshua Fit The Battle, By And By and Working On The Building with its lovely backing vocals. My personal favorites include the opening track Take My Hand, this version of Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art, In The Garden and Where Could I Go But To The Lord.

I was a bit surprized to learn that Swing Down Sweet Chariot is an uptempo rock song, not the well-known Swing Low Sweet Chariot. The music is inspiring and soulful, revealing the devotional side of the magnificent king of rock and roll. The booklet contains an informative history of Elvis' gospel recordings by Brian Nevill and four photographs: full color one of the Jordanaires and Millie Kirkham, a black and white one of the Imperials plus the front and back pics of Elvis.