On October 14, 1969 RCA Victor released the king's first double album. "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis" sold 300,000 copies and entered Billboard's "Top LPs Chart" on October 29th. It had a run of 24 weeks and peaked at number 12. On December 6th the set also entered the "Hot Country LPs Chart", on which it stayed for 22 weeks and reached number 5. Just two months after the release the RIAA honored the domestic sales with a Gold Award. Worldwide "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis" sold 3.5 million copies, which equals 525 million paid streams of the complete album or 2.1 billion streams of individual tracks. Today the album clocks in at 168 million streams on Spotify, 160 million for the live album and 8 million for the studio tracks.

The cover was made up with two photos from the tv special "SINGER presents Elvis" and several ones, that had been shot during the king's current Vegas stint. To boost the sales RCA Victor included special photo cards.

In November 1970 RCA Victor deleted the double album and released the tracks on two separate longplayers instead. Neither one made it on Billboard's "Top LPs Chart", but there was a constant request and the label kept them in the catalogue. Especially "Elvis In Person At The International Hotel" performed very well and was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2011.

On the streaming platforms "Elvis In Person At The International Hotel" and "Back In Memphis" are presented the way they were issued in 2016 as part of the set "The Album Collection". For this project all tracks were scanned with high-resolution equipment and remastered. Therefore the album can be presented with the golden Hi-Res emblem. The better sound of these versions is owed exclusively to the new mastering (the elimination of interfering noise). Because first one cannot turn an analogue recording into a high resolution recording just by scanning the tape with hd equipment and second even an old cd with 16 bit/44.1 kHz exceeds the auditory sense of a human being. The double album has a running time of 68:44 minutes.

The first disc of the set was recorded between August 24th and 26th, 1969 at the International Hotel in Las Vegas/Nevada. The engagement was regarded to be a sensation at the time, because Elvis performed in front of a paying audience for the first time since 1961 and filled the biggest showroom of the city twice each night for four weeks. His band consisted of James Burton (guitar), John Wilkinson (guitar), Charlie Hodge (guitar & harmony vocals), Jerry Scheff (bass), Ronnie Tutt (drums) and Larry Muhoberac (piano). The line up was completed by The Bobby Morris Orchestra. The harmony vocals were provided by The Imperials (Terry Blackwood, Mimmie Murray, Roger Wiles and Armond Morales) and The Sweet Inspirations (Emily Houston, Myrna Smith, Estelle Brown and Sylvia Shemwell).

The second album was produced in two sessions at the American Sound Studio in Memphis/Tennessee. The first period of recording lasted from January 13th to 22nd, the second one from February 17th to 22nd. The sessions were produced by Chips Moman (American) and Felton Jarvis (RCA) and engineered by Roy Shockley (American) and Al Pachucki (RCA). The band consisted of Reggie Young (guitar & sitar), Tommy Cogbill (bass), Mike Leech (bass), Gene Chrisman (drums), Bobby Wood (piano), Bobby Emmons (organ), John Hughey (steel guitar) and Ed Kollis (harmonica). Between January 22nd and May 7th further instruments and harmony voices were added. The first bunch of the recordings had been released on the album "From Elvis In Memphis". At the time Chips Moman was upset, that Elvis had agreed to release the majority of the remaining tracks on a second longplayer. His concept of recording was to produce a collection of songs, select the best ones for the album and file away the others. To him "Back In Memphis" was nothing but a compilation of second-rate leftovers.

For reviews of the longplayers just tap on the accordant covers.