How Great Thou Art

How Great Thou Art is a album by Elvis Presley; it was his first non-soundtrack album recording of new material since 1962’s Pot Luck and his first album release not to include any soundtrack recordings since His Hand in Mine (1960). How Great Thou Art was Presley’s second full-length gospel LP and won a Grammy Award in 1967 in the Best Sacred Performance category . The album reached #18 on Billboard album charts.

Although Elvis Presley prepared for this recording session months in advance, most of the songs on the album were last minute choices. Sessions took place at RCA Studios in Nashville between 25th and 28th of May, 1966. The thirteenth track, “Crying in the Chapel”, was recorded back in October 1960 for his first gospel album, His Hand in Mine, but was not released in fact until 1965 when it came out as a single and scored a hit. Elvis Presley wrote and copyrighted five arrangements for the album.

It is quite well known that Elvis enjoyed gospel music, and had first recorded songs in the genre in 1957, for the extended-play single Peace in the Valley. He would eventually record three full albums in the genre.

The producer of this album was Felton Jarvis who, except for the 1969 Memphis recording sessions, turned out to be Elvis’s sole record producer until 1977.