Elvis recorded the album “How Great Thou Art” at RCA Studio B in Nashville in May 1966.
It was Elvis’s first non-film recording session since January 1964. Which gives it a very special meaning.
An album that shone like a diamond in the midst of Elvis’s Hollywood days. 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 with Lisa Marie in my heart, one of the songs from this album sounds in my head: “Where No One Stands Alone”, which would later be recorded with Lisa’s voice doing a duet with her father.
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 very lonely. He always surrounded himself with his people, his friends, his family… But no one, except the person who gave him life and who would leave too soon, and his beloved daughter, who unfortunately has also just left too soon, would get alleviate that enormous interior emptiness that always lived in his tormented soul.
Later, in 2008, RCA released a compilation album called “Where No One Stands Alone”. The album features archival vocal recordings of Elvis, mostly from the gospel albums “How Great Thou Art” from 1967 and “He Touched Me” from 1972, accompanied by new instrumentation and backing vocals.
In this album there is a shocking and emotional song, which gives it its title and which is the star song of the album, and it is none other than “Where No One Stands Alone”, and it is the emotional duet recorded with his daughter Lisa Marie.
Now, they will both be singing it together in heaven, in that place where they will never be alone.
In tribute to you, Lisa. Rest in peace.
Here is the link to the song… It’s hard to listen to it without tears in your eyes…
