Elvis Presley is one of the most legendary singers of all time. While he has gone down in history as the King of rock ‘n roll, it’s important to remember that Elvis was also a talented gospel singer who had many soulful hits in the genre.
That’s why we’ve decided to count down Elvis’ top 10 gospel songs. Scroll through these and see if your favorite made the list!
10. “Peace in the Valley” (1957):
Recorded on January 13, 1957, “Peace in the Valley” was the title song of Elvis’ very first gospel record. Elvis recorded the song in Hollywood one week after he sang it on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York City.
Prior to this song, Elvis had been criticized as a bad influence on America’s youth. His commitment to both this gospel song and its message played a huge role in rehabilitating his image in the eyes of many across the nation.
Like many of Elvis’ other songs, it still holds up to this day!
9. “Joshua Fit the Battle” (1960)
This has long been one of the most popular tracks on Elvis’ 1960 gospel album “His Hand in Mine.” Elvis recorded the song with the Jordanaires, who he toured with.
“After rehearsing it a few times, he was ready to roll tape,” claimed Jordanaires’ member Gordon Stoker. “Listen to it; those words are not easy.”
Elvis’ voice blends perfectly with the Jordanaires on this song, and it took a few takes for them to get the tone and tempo down. When they finally did, however, the result was pure perfection!
8. “Run On” (1967)
In May of 1966, Elvis headed to Nashville to record enough material for a new gospel album. Fourteen musicians joined him in the studio for this, including the Jordanaires, The Imperials, and a female vocal trio.
“Run On” was the first song that they recorded. Ernst Jorgensen, who produced many of Elvis’ box sets, later described the song as “an up-tempo number in the jubilee tradition.”
“The second take was full of energy, with the full electric band and eleven singers making a very joyful noise,” he added. “It was a remarkable updating of traditional gospel music—tough, powerful, even threatening—different from any religious music he had ever recorded.”
The results of their efforts truly has to be heard to be believed!
7. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (1968)
Elvis recorded “You’ll Never Walk Alone” in a Nashville studio in September of 1967. It was the final night of his recording session, and Elvis sat at the piano before asking that the lights be turned down.
“He started playing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ over and over, not pausing between takes, just endlessly repeating, driving every bit of emotion from the song, seemingly lost in his own world,” Jorgensen and Mike Cimicata recounted in the sleeve notes for the 2009 Elvis gospel compilation “I Believe.”
After the song was recorded, producer Felton Jarvis edited the tape to produce a master, and this was then released as a single. The song was immediately a huge hit, earning Elvis a 1968 Grammy nomination for “Best Sacred Performance.”
6. “I Got a Feelin’ in My Body” (1974)
Throughout his career, Elvis enjoyed warming up for his recording sessions by gathering his background singers around a piano and singing spirituals with them. This is exactly what he did when he reported “I Got a Feelin’ in My Body” at a Memphis recording studio in December of 1973.
Jorgensen described the song, which was written by Dennis Linde, as a “funkily rhythmic contemporary religious number.”
This song has gone down in history as one of the highlights of Elvis’s 1974 album, Good Times.
Related: Top 5 Best Elvis Albums
5. “His Hand in Mine” (1960)
Elvis recorded this song in Nashville in 1960 with the same background singers that he used for his pop recordings. “His Hand In Mine” was one of fourteen masters that they recorded in a single marathon session, with this being the second song that they recorded that night.
Jorgensen said that Elvis’ army buddy Charlie Hodge, “who was as familiar as Elvis with the genre,” harmonized with the king of rock ‘n roll for this song.
“Over the course of only five takes, they developed an impressive vocal arrangement featuring both the Jordanaires and Millie Kirkham—further evidence of the familiarity of everyone on the session with the material,” he added.
The song perfectly exemplifies why Elvis should be seen as one of the greatest gospel vocalists of all time!
4. “He Touched Me” (1972)
“He Touched Me” was the title of song of Elvis’ fourth and last gospel LP, and it was recorded on May 15, 1971 in Nashville in the middle of a week-long series of recording sessions.
This is one of Elvis’ most emotional songs, and it showcases Elvis’ life-long familiarity with Christian films.
The song had been the signature tune of The Imperials, and they were on-hand to provide backup vocals on it. The song was a major hit, winning Elvis his second of his three Grammy awards the very next year.
3. “Crying in the Chapel” (1965)
It was at the end of a long night of recording various other songs that Elvis told the Jordanaires that he wanted to sing “Crying in the Chapel.”
“We were tired when we recorded it, but I’m thankful we don’t sound tired on the record,” Stoker later recalled.
It took five years to get the publishing rights to this song, which is why it was left out of the His Hand in Mine album. In 1965, RCA finally released the song as a single, and it quickly shocked everyone by skyrocketing up Billboard’s pop chart to number 3.
This would ultimately become the most commercially successful of all of Elvis’ gospel records!
2. “Saved” (1968)
Elvis recorded “Saved” for his 1968 television special, and it really is some of his best work.
This is one high energy vocal from beginning to end, and Elvis put everything he had into it. The song was used in the television special as a gospel medley, and a standalone recording of it wasn’t released until many years after Elvis died of a heart attack in 1977 at the age of 42.
Watching Elvis perform “Saved” now serves as a reminder of what a one of a kind talent he was. There will never be another one like him!
1. “How Great Thou Art” (1967)
Though this would eventually become Elvis’ favorite gospel song, Stoker recalled that “When we first discussed cutting it, he said he had never heard of it.”
It was only after Elvis heard the Jordanaires sing it that he decided to record “How Great Thou Art” himself.
“Neal Matthews, our second tenor, made an arrangement of it,” Stoker later explained. “Elvis listened to it, rehearsed it and recorded it by memory.”
Elvis recorded the song with a sincerity and dedication that only he could bring to the table. It later became the title track of his 1967 gospel album, and it won Elvis his first Grammy. Elvis later won another Grammy for a live version of it in 1974.
Elvis’ love for spiritual music is evident in all of these gospel songs. He was a true legend, and may God bless Elvis Presley!
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