In his book CARELESS LOVE, Peter Guralnick rates this album as a must-have for any fans of Elvis and of American music. He's dead-on correct. This album is unbelievable, and shows a completely overlooked side of Elvis.

These days, Elvis Presley is almost criminally overlooked as an artist -- drowned in a sea of fat jump-suit bad-movie jokes. But what other artist can sing rock n'roll, country, R&B, schlock like "My Way" and gospel music so effortlessly and convincingly? Answer: No one.

"Amazing Grace" suffers from double-album disease, i.e. weaker songs interspersed with heart-stopping tunes. But repeated listens to songs like I,John, Bosom of Abraham, Lead Me, Guide Me, and the soaring How Great Thou Art are without question worth the cost of this 2-CD set. Gospel was the music that moved Elvis most, and you can just feel it in his voice -- the conviction, the faith, the anguish. No music lover should be without this album.

This collection is made up of all the tracks from the Peace in the valley EP and three LP's (His hand in mine, How great thou art and He touched me) plus various other tracks that didn't appear on any of those, together with some live cuts. If this sounds like a bit of a mixed bag, it isn't. For whatever reason, Elvis seemed to enjoy recording gospel music, so these recordings are as good as anything else he recorded.

Crying in the chapel was a massive hit for Elvis in Britain (where it was a number one) and America, but there are many other famous songs here. These include Amazing grace, You'll never walk alone, Swing low sweet chariot, I believe, How great thou art, Farther along and Peace in the valley. Even people who are not interested in gospel music are familiar with most, if not all, of these songs. Of the other songs here, A thing called love was a big hit for Johnny Cash but I'm not clear why Elvis included it on He touched me -its not really a gospel song, but Elvis sings it superbly. He is my everything is an adaptation of There goes my everything.

Elvis clearly took his religion seriously. It shows in these wonderful recordings, which no Elvis fan should ignore.

I have a large number of Elvis CDs at home but "Amazing Grace" has been getting the most play at home and in the car for about the last six months. Elvis' love of gospel music is legendary and, by all accounts, his knowledge of both white and black gospel acts was staggering. I interviewed Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick in late '98 when "Careless Love" was published and, when asked what he thought Elvis might have been doing had he lived, said that he thought that Elvis would have concentrated on gospel music later in his career, since it was what he really loved singing and was happiest doing. RCA has collected probably 98% of Elvis' gospel recordings on this 2-CD collection, along with a number of previously-unreleased tracks (mostly rehearsals and impromptu recordings). The collection includes excellent liner notes that also lists the original sources for the songs (mostly gospel records that Elvis grew up with by the Statesmen, the Blackwood Brothers, the Golden Gate Quartet, and others). The mastering is excellent, fully revealing the tremendous vocal work of not only Elvis but also of the Jordanaires, the Imperials, the Stamps, and the other vocal groups that backed Elvis on these numbers. I'd like to think that 100 years from now the jokes about Elvis' personal life, his weight problem in his later years, etc. will be largely forgotten and that, instead, he'll be remembered for his terrific music. Though his Sun recordings were probably more revolutionary, his gospel recordings were at least as exciting and probably say a lot more about the man in the end.

This compilation is a must for any fan of gospel music. Elvis was the first contemporary Gospel singer. Sample a few of the music clips and you will the understand why this *Rock Star* was awarded three Grammy Awards for his Gospel music.

The negative to this set is the compilation is not complete. For some reason RCA chose to leave off the song Who Am I that was recorded at American Sound Studios in 1968 and the song I Got A Feelin In My Body recorded at Stax Studios in 1973.

So unfortunately as with many of RCA's box sets you will have to purchase a few more albums to have all the gospel songs.

The positive is they chose to add some rehearsals that were previously unavailable and you can actually feel what Elvis got out of this music and understand why he continued to love gospel music to the day he died.

Well, well ... imagine ME wanting to listen to GOSPEL music.They say the Lord DOES work in mysterious ways ... I got thisset...and it's pretty cool.

I really love the first few tracks on disc 1: I Believe, Peace In The Valley, Take My Hand Precious Lord, It Is No Secret --- those are the only ones I'd heard before, but if I'm gonna buy some Elvis gospel, then dangit I want the best collection there is, and this seems to be it.

Some of the rest are really "deep South" sounding, but they are all very uplifting spiritually and I am very happy with this set. I just have to "get used" to so many songs that I am unfamiliar with. But, Hey! It's ELVIS!

Elvis has about a gazillion CD's, right? Well, get this set, and also the 2-CD "50 Worldwide Gold Hits" ...and you will have all the ELVIS you will ever need.