The album “How Great Thou Art” was recorded by Elvis at RCA Studio B in Nashville between May 25 and 28, 1966 and released in February 1967.
Not only was it the first non-film recording session of Elvis since January 1964, but it was also the first Elvis session that Felton Jarvis produced on behalf of RCA, teaming up with recording engineer Jim Malloy. .
From this point on, neither Steve Sholes nor Chet Atkins, who had hired Jarvis as a staff producer, had anything to do with the Elvis sessions. Some years later, at the behest of Elvis, Jarvis would resign from RCA and work exclusively for him.
An album that shone like a diamond in the midst of Elvis’s Hollywood era.
With impeccable musicians, choirs and production.
Gospel in its pure state. A jewel, an island filled with his broken soul, which earned Elvis the first of his three Grammy Awards, for Best Sacred Performance.
And from this album the song “Where No One Stands Alone” sounds in my head, which Elvis, curiously, only performed very emotionally live on one occasion, playing the piano himself, on February 16, 1977 at the Garrett Coliseum, Montgomery. , Alabama, in the home stretch of his life.
But the studio version, recorded on May 26, for me, is so heartfelt and careful, that perhaps it shows us even more his pure soul in the privacy of the studio. Impossible to hear them with the ears. Only your soul will be able to hear them
https://youtu.be/PbMJuGOn82o
Elvis tells us about a place where no one will be alone, and he asks God to take his hand and lead him to that place. For me, an absolutely autobiographical song. The projection of his soul in solitude. Elvis always felt lonely, except when he was on stage. He always surrounded himself with his people, his friends, his family, all the women who filled his life. But nothing and no one, except the person who gave him life and who would leave too soon, managed to fill that enormous interior void that he always lived in his tormented soul.
He left you the two links. May the heart of each one of you be the one who chooses, although I believe that perhaps it is not necessary to choose…
ELVIS. The Boy from Tupelo.
Rosa Garcia Mora.
