💿 ELVIS DISCOGRAPHY (1967): "HOW GREAT THOU ART"

HOW GREAT THOU ART
EDITED FEBRUARY 26, 1967
ALBUM, STUDIO B RCA NASHVILLE

1. RUN ON
2. SO HIGH
3. BY AND BY
4. STAND BY ME
5. WITHOUT HIM
6. IN THE GARDEN
7. FARTHER ALONG
8. HOW GREAT THOU ART
9. CRYING IN THE CHAPEL
10. WHERE NO ONE STANDS ALONE
11. SOMEBODY BIGGER THAN YOU AND I
12. WHERE COULD I GO BUT TO THE LORD
13. IF THE LORD WASN’T WALKING BY MY SIDE

INFORMATION

Perhaps tired and frustrated with how his musical career was evolving by 1966, it was decided to hold a new recording session in Nashville in May of that same year and make a new Gospel album. Reasons for this were… their last big hit had been “Crying In The Chapel” in 1965 and the last Gospel album recorded in 1960 “His Hand In Mine” had done very well, both in sales and in critics. And above all Of all, there was his personal satisfaction of returning to his musical roots again…and at the same time focusing again in some way on his “musical” rather than cinematographic career. Said and done, from those sessions the LP How Great Thou Art appeared in February 1967, a sincere album, more sober than His Hand In Mine but just as effective. Elvis’s voice doesn’t seem the same on this album as on his recent soundtrack LPs…he seems inspired, focused…happy to work with those songs. This LP also marked the beginning of the collaboration between Elvis and producer Felton Jarvis that would last until 1977.

Commercially, the album initially did not captivate everyone (initial sales were approximately 200,000 copies) but the critics were very good and allowed him to finally obtain his first Grammy (very unfair awards with Elvis’s career).
Finally time did justice to this album and it is currently triple platinum certified by the RIAA.

New and frustrating soundtracks would still come, but this LP set the path for what would happen months later.