After the 1962 decision to release movie soundtracks as albums, Elvis had few opportunities to record regular material. When he did it was usually because the movie that the soundtrack was based on was a little short on songs for a full album. The soundtrack albums continued to sell well for a period, peaking when “Roustabout” was at number 1 in the USA in 1964. But Elvis now had fresh competition from England in the form of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, who were not constrained and who re-vitalised the pop music scene after its “Bobby period”. The only person ever to work with Elvis, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones was Roy Orbison. His early career also hit a peak in 1964 with “Oh, Pretty Woman”. Roy is often credited as one of the key links that kept rock ‘n’ roll going between the early Elvis and the Beatles periods, even though he was mainly a ballad singer.
One of the few exceptions to the movie soundtrack approach came in 1966, when Elvis recorded his second full album of gospel music, “How Great Thou Art”.
In 1965, Elvis had a number 1 UK single with “Crying in the Chapel”. The single was also a number 3 hit in the USA. The song had been recorded in 1960 but had remained unreleased. Apart from Roy Orbison’s two singles “It’s Over” and “Oh, Pretty Woman”, in 1964, “Crying in the Chapel” was the only UK number 1 by an American male singer since Elvis’s own “(You’re the) Devil in Disguise” in 1963. This was the direct result of the sudden dominance of the British groups of the period, all of whom would credit Elvis as an influence. John Lennon would say, “Before Elvis, there was nothing.” The success of “Crying in the Chapel” gave Elvis the ammunition he needed to propose a second gospel album to RCA. For once, the economics favoured Elvis’s desire to do something more creative than was being offered by the movie soundtracks, so RCA agreed.
The album was released in 1967 and finally won Elvis a Grammy in March 1968, shortly after the album was certified gold. In 2010, the album was upgraded to multi-platinum status. In the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, rock ‘n’ roll singers were ignored by the Grammys, at least when it came to winning. As always, Elvis’ musical instincts had been proven correct, but he still had another couple of years of movie contracts to see out.
The songs on “How Great Thou Art”:
- How Great Thou Art
- In the Garden
- Somebody Bigger Than You and I
- Farther Along
- Stand By Me
- Without Him
- So High
- Where Could I Go but to the Lord
- By and By
- If the Lord Wasn’t Walking by my Side
- Run On
- Where No One Stands Alone
- Crying in the Chapel
