Reviewed by Paul Poulton

Here it is. If you do ever find yourself on a sinking ship, do whatever you have to to retrieve this CD. If there really is only one disc allowed on a desert island, this is the one you'll need. The 24 gospel songs neatly assembled for us by BMG range from 1957 to 1973. Elvis sold 250 million gospel recordings in the US alone, no white boy did it better, Elvis was a singer par excellence. Hear his extensive vocal range - just one or two notes short of three octaves - on "Milky White Way," he's got the strength of a bassman and the sweetness of a tenor. What great songs: "I Believe In The Man In The Sky", "Where Could I Go But To The Lord" swoop and turn like a skylark. The Jordanaires add class and more than a hint of doo wop to the earlier sessions. "Crying In The Chapel" is perfectly executed with feeling, tenderness and emotion. Of course it would be easy to be cynical about these songs, their message is not easy to listen to if you're a non-believer. Plus Christian music has developed over the years but we need to remember these are the songs that made it grow. So many aspects of this collection stand out, one of them being the quality of the earlier recordings; it's all there, with no frequencies missing, the upright bass hits me where it should. Elvis' 'How Great Thou Art' album received a Grammy for Best Engineered Album. The only song that could afford to be removed is the "Miracle Of The Rosary". Elvis was Assemblies of God, I don't think I could get away with singing it in my AOG, not that I'd want to. The heritage we have in Elvis' gospel music is a gift to the world.

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