Elvis: Ultimate Gospel

This is a perfect way for Elvis fans of all levels of mania to get into the King's gospel recordings, and those recordings sound better than ever.

Elvis Presley only scored one big gospel hit on the pop charts during his amazing career - 1965's "Crying In The Chapel," a re-release of a performance from 1960, coming at a time when he desperately needed it = but gospel music, both "white" and "black," was an important component of both his singing style and his worldview. How odd, then, that of the massive amount of material Elvis recorded in his lifetime, there were only three full albums and one EP recorded in this vein. In fact, The King is said to have sometimes regretted not becoming a straight gospel artist, although it's not clear if that was a reaction to the unprecedented scope of his fame.

RCA being RCA, many various comps of Elvis' gospel music have already been assembled, but this can claim to be the first single-disc assemblage, two dozen of the finest selections from his spiritual oeuvre, remastered to perfection and featuring great artwork and extensive liner notes. All of the albums and the EP are represented proportionally, and while the non-chronological sequencing may put off some, that likely won't make much difference to most King fans old and new. Think of this as the #1s collection for the spiritual side of Elvis. Neophytes should be warned, however: while far from dull, Presley's view of sacred music was a hushed, quietly reverent one. Not many hosannas here.