Elvis Collector's Gold

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“I Know Practically Every Religious Song That’s Been Written” – Elvis Presley

Gospel Medley (On Tour)

The Imperials (First Day In Heaven)

One side that has received very little attention is the outstanding relationship between Elvis and Gospel Music. That Elvis loved gospel music has been mentioned many times. But few accounts have gone beyond that simple statement. Elvis was influenced by gospel music, he had gospel groups as his backup singers, and they toured with him when he gave concerts. When Elvis wanted to relax or when he wanted to warm up for recording sessions, he used gospel music to get him in the mood.



In the early 1950’s when Elvis was working his way through Humes High School, Memphis was still known as “the home of the blues” and deserved this title. Without as much fanfare, Memphis was also emerging as another musical center..one of gospel music. American pop was embracing religious music with a startling fervor. As Americans listened to Eisenhower speeches and fiddled with their new television antennas, they hummed along to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing “May The Good Lord Bless And Keep You.” In short, nobody with any musical curiosity growing up in Memphis in the 1950’s could have escaped a good dose of black gospel. But the same was true of this music’s counterpart, white gospel. The original Stamps Quartet in a sense founded the white gospel style in 1927 when it recorded “Give The World A Smile,” the archetype for the snappy, up-tempo manner often defined as “four men and a piano.”

Then in August of 1950, the Blackwood Brothers, perhaps the most popular radio quartet in the nation, moved their operations from Shenandoah, Iowa to an office on Jefferson Avenue in Memphis. They began twice daily programs on WMPS, continued to develop their own record label, and started a series of concerts at Ellis Auditorium, only a few blocks from the river, in June 1954 the Blackwoods got to take their music to a national TV audience when they appeared on the hit CBS show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” Memphis Major Frank Tobey issued a proclamation designating the date as Blackwood Brothers Quartet Day for the great credit the group brought to the city. Ironically, two weeks later two members of the quartet were killed in a plane crash. Their funeral..held in Ellis Auditorium, where they had held so many concerts, was attended by 5,000 fans.

Three days after the funeral 19-year old Elvis Presley went into the Sun Studios to make his first recordings. It is quite likely that he was one of those mourners who filed past the caskets of R.W. Blackwood and Bill Lyles, as he had been a fan of their music since he was fourteen. Even earlier in his childhood Elvis had heard country gospel music on his mother’s old 78 rpm records. Elvis later told bluegrass gospel singer Carl Story that his mother had “all” his old records. It was shortly after the Blackwood plane crash that Elvis Actually had a change to join a gospel quartet. Not the Blackwood Brothers, but one that was an offshoot of the Blackwoods. The group were called the Songfellows and was formed by Jim Hamill and Cecil Blackwood, a nephew of James Blackwood. Elvis knew both and asked for an audition. After some awkwardness, the group turned him down. Jim Hamill recalled years later: “I didn’t tell Elvis that he couldn’t sing. I told him he couldn’t hear harmony. As long he was singin’ lead, he was fine, but when the baritone or the tenor took the lead, someone had to sing harmony, and he could not harmonize. That was the reason we didn’t take Elvis into the quartet with us!” At the end of 1956, when Elvis returned to the Sun Studio to jam with what would become known as The Million Dollar Quartet (Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash And Carl Perkins), the young stars filled their time doing gospel quartet classics like “Just A Little Walk With Jesus.” Nor it was any wonder that when Elvis’ mother died in August 1958, he chartered a plane to fly the Blackwoods in so they could sing “Precious Memories” her favorite song.



As his own recording career got under way, Elvis made gospel a part of it from the start. His first use to the Jordanaires was not a gospel session, but the July 1956 date that produced “Don’t Be Cruel.” Though The Jordanaires had been recording for RCA and Capitol since 1949, they were not listed on the first editions of the records. But the sound worked, and the Jordanaires would be Elvis’ regular back-up group for the next fifteen years.

Elvis was a spiritual seeker, and his spiritual side of him took many different forms. The books he had repeatedly were religious and about spiritual quests. Elvis’ books were an important part of his life, and they went along on his trips and tours. The bible was always with him, but he also read the Autobiography of a Yoga and the Prophet and books on Eastern religion and mysticism. Although his fame and popularity were overwhelming and difficult to deal with..he had problems with drugs and dealing with the pressures of his life..he was very open in the search for meaning in life. Elvis was troubled, and he constantly sought spiritual guidance from books and individuals, but he seemed to find the most comfort and satisfaction in gospel music. He sang gospel music and his own personal record collection, the records he actually listened to, always contained a large portion of gospel records. Particularly Southern Gospel Quartets!..

Elvis made his three famous appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and on the third one, in January 1957, he sang Peace In The Valley. Partly to help his deteriorating image with conservative parents, Elvis sang the song in a slow, almost sedate manner. Dealers were swamped with request for a record of the song, and RCA rushed into production what would be Elvis’ first all-gospel album: a 4-song ep, called Peace In The Valley. Recorded in Hollywood, the ep also included “Take My Hand Precious Lord,” “It’s No Secret (What God Can Do),” and “I Believe.” “Peace In The Valley” was a million seller and became the best-selling gospel ep of all time. It wasn’t until the fall of 1960, after he had gotten out of the army and completed two movies, that he was able to follow up his 1957 ep with his first full-length gospel album, called “His Hand In Mine. “ This album was recorded in Nashville at a typical marathon session just before Halloween. The usual Nashville gang began gathering in RCA’s Studio B down on 16^th Avenue about 10:00 the night of October 30, and prepared to work through the night..or however it took. Scotty Moore was present, but so was the legendary Hank Garland, a guitarist as much at home in jazz as country, Bob Moore (bas) and D.J.Fontana (drums) where also there, as were relief drummer Buddy Harman and pianist Floyd Cramer. The Jordanaires were on hand, with additional back-up vocalists Millie Kirkham and Charlie Hodge.

The album His Hand In Mine sold steadily enough to eventually win a gold record, but the surprise success of “Crying In The Chapel” encouraged Elvis, Col. Parker, and RCA to start thinking of yet another gospel set. In May 1966 Elvis returned to Nashville and, after three years of nothing but movie soundtracks, embarked on a marathon four-night session that yielded 18 new tracks. Most were gospel, and 12 were chosen for the new lp, How Great Thou Art. While the earlier album had been a tribute to the classic Southern quartet sound, both white and black, the new one featured the more formal solo music..what variety liked to call “Religioso” music, what others called “Church Specials.”

When the How Great Thou Art album was released in March 1967, it was well received and won Elvis his first Grammy award for Best Sacred Performance. The praise encouraged him to add an occasional gospel piece to sessions he cut in the late 1960’s . In September 1967 (at the Guitar Man Session in Nashville)..Elvis recorded two more gospel songs; “We Call On Him” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”



By 1971, after he made a spectacular comeback and resumed touring, Elvis began planning a third all-gospel album, and in 1972 Elvis was nominated “Best Inspirational Performance” for the He Touched Me Album. Elvis’ love for gospel music continued throughout his life. In the documentary film “Elvis On Tour,” Elvis said, "We do two shows a night for five weeks. A lotta times we’ll go upstairs and sing until daylight, gospel songs. We grew up with it. It more or less puts your mind at ease. It does mine.”