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thank you deb I listen to it quite often. I had this in cassette, but don't have a cassette player anymore. I was so glad to see Amazon had it and at a very reasonaable price.
He absolutely loved it. I gave this as a gift to my dad for Father's Day.
All 3 cds are great. No one sings gospel like Elvis Presley. A great value for your money If you are not an elvis fan you might not like the 3rd CD since it is mostly recorded at sun studios in the 50's. I was never interested in gospel music until I heard this CD. You can tell from this cd that elvis really enjoyed singing gospel.
There's an extended version of "Saved" from the TV Special and an incredible solo on "The Lord's Prayer". It opens Disc Three. He's firmly in Opera territory on this "informal" opus. Interesting that the one song which was sent to the shelf, "Crying In The Chapel", became a huge international hit in 1965, and most likely instigated the "How Great Thou Art" album, released in '67.That album is also on Disc One, to me a better album than "His Hand In Mine", A and R-wise and in performance. A miraculous RCA/BMG production, of course containing the three E.P.
Another one is with "When The Saints Go Marching In", twice in '56, then a movie soundtrack medley element. He soars on "I, John" and "Bosom Of Abraham" (aka "Rock A-My Soul"), and delivers a creative re-wording of "There Goes My Everything", with "He Is My Everything".A very interesting time-line is detected with "Peace In The Valley". It appears that the jam session version from late '56 led to the Ed Sullivan rendition which led to the polsihed studio recording. (I still can't forget an earlier Elvis Gospel collection which featured "Where Did They Go, Lord", which was *not* a Gospel song).; lastly, why include the 1956 home recording of "When The Saints Go Marching In" where after about 15 seconds it shifts into parody.
It's not bad, as parodies go, with Elvis intentionally singing off-key, surely a dfifficult thing to pull off. Gospel albums, the 1957 Extended Play, and all the individual songs adorning the secular Presley releases. I think RCA missed the boat when they didn't issue the title song on a single at the time. Once again, Presley's under-appreciated talent for arranging is a big part of this Grammy award winner. Another issue is in the mixing here, where Elvis' voice is basically isolated in the center. That, in itself, shouldn't *be* an issue, but where he steps back to let the Jordanaires have the spotlight, there's a sense of self-control which can be disconcerting to the listener: we get a small silence between his last note and the group's closing notes.
With Charlie Hodge's input, they got together a brilliant arrangement, which provided a platform for one of Elvis' greatest long high notes. This appears to be a very personal tribute to the "Quartets", and by extension to the assembled choir right in the Nashville studio, as he defers to the song, the arrangement, and the singers, in a vocal approach almost devoid of mannerism - he stays in that falsetto range for the most part, rarely employing chest tone.
I prefer the songs on the second album, but here Elvis' voice is strong, with almost none of the stylistic business as before. Then, of course, the "Farther Along" revisistation on "How Great Thou Art".I deckine from 5 stars because of a somewhat monotonous sound on "His Hand In Mine" and a some tired tracks from "How Great Thou Art"; plus the few considerations mentioned above.
His idol, Mario Lanza, would not have been unimpressed.Disc Two has the 1972 "He Touched Me" album, his all-around best. That pretty much covers the first two Discs; Disc Three is the *fun* one, with relevant selectioons from "The Million Dollar Quartet", and some priceless "fly on the wall" home performances - he's still *Elvis*, but he's as relaxed as he's gonna be, just singing his heart out with his friends.
Although he's perhaps not in his best voice, and to my ears is projected from a slow running master tape, this album is a classic. It's a beautiful sound but one wonders how much greater some things like "Joshua Fit The Battle" or "Swing Down, Sweet Chariot" would have fared with more "signature" Elvis, shall we say.
Some small onjections: there's no reason not to have the tunes in chronological order; there's no reason to include the *Inspirational* songs "I Believe", "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "Life", as engaging as they are. Well, it's still Elvis.and his does have his piano."His Hand In Mine" tracks open Disc One, recorded in late 1960.
Thank you for having this - it was what my daddy wanted.It was in good shape as promisethanks
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