Elvis' Religious Albums

I've never paid much attention to Elvis Presley's religious albums before. And I'm a real Elvis fan.

I definitely have a real spiritual/religious side, but in general I tend to shy away from a lot of religious music. Whatever they're testifying to doesn't usually do much for me. Something about religious celebrities seems like a difficult contradiction to me. I do trust Elvis' spiritual experiences over the years, so that's not the problem. It just wasn't for me.

But recently I've been listening to a little more of it. I got a decent two CD set by Mahalia Jackson and enjoyed some of the spirituals on there. So I'm looking at CDs, and I know these titles, "His Hand In Mine" and "How Great Thou Art," are original albums, now re-released in 2008, and I think Why Not? You love Elvis, why wouldn't you love to hear these (I have heard some of them before, just not much)?

And sure enough, I do love them. They're great. Elvis puts a lot of feeling and intensity into the songs. The first album was recorded, at least for the most part, at one all night session. I read about that session in the notes to the Complete '60s Masters, and he did some inspired work that night. So that's enjoyable. The second album was 1967, I believe, and he sounds in excellent form then too. After those two, I decided, why not get the other one too, "He Touched Me," from the early '70s. If you're going to have something you may as well have it all!

So now, if there's any others ... I don't know about them.