On March 5, 1971 CAMDEN issued "You'll Never Walk Alone". With sales of 200,000 copies the budget album entered the "Top LPs Chart" on the 20th of the month, had a run of 12 weeks and peaked at number 69. This was caused by the low price. To avoid "bought" chart successes by price dumping, Billboard calculated the charts by using the value in USD. In contrast to Billboard the RIAA counted the sold units and honored the domestic commercial success with Gold (1992), Platinum (1999) and Double Platinum (2004). In Great Britain, where the charts were also calculated by sold copies, "You'll Never Walk Alone" reached the top 20. In continental Europe the album was quite popular, too. In total CAMDEN was able to retail five million units, which equals 750 million paid streams or 7.5 billion paid streams of individual tracks. Therefore this budget album belongs to the best sellers of the Presley catalogue. On Spotify it was streamed 72 million times.

The picture on the sleeve was taken on November 14, 1970 in Los Angeles/California and (at least for me) belongs to the strongest cover photos on the later releases of the king. The backside was used to advertise the previous CAMDEN releases.

Even though "You'll Never Walk Alone" was not a part of "The RCA Album Collection", Sony Music Entertainment released the longplayer on the streaming platforms in Hi-Res and also Sony 360 Real Audio. I guess it was done due to the popularity of the king's gospel recordings and because of the fact, that this album is a best seller of the Presley canon.

In 1970 CAMDEN had released a budget version of "Elvis' Christmas Album", which had not included the four gospel songs of the original version. Half a year later the label presented these tracks on a separate album and added the gospel single "We Call On Him" / "You'll Never Walk Alone", two pseudo-religious movie songs and a leftover from the 1969 Memphis sessions. In total the tracks added up to a running time of 26:13 minutes.

Elvis recorded "You'll Never Walk Alone" on September 11, 1967 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee and delivered one of his very best performances. He seems to loose himself in the song, his voice is full of emotion and he sounds absolutely stunning. The master is a splice of takes 1 and 8. "You'll Never Walk Alone" was written by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II in 1945 for a musical called "Carousel". In the same year Frank Sinatra also recorded a version of this classic. Elvis received artistic recognition when the Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences nominated his performance of "You'll Never Walk Alone" for a Grammy Award. In early 1968 RCA Victor had released the song on the b-side of "We Call On Him", which sold poorly and barely reached the mark of half a million copies.

The religious ballad was written by Charles Rusty Goodman and was recorded on February 22, 1969 at American Sound Studio in Memphis/Tennessee. Elvis just needed a single take to nail the song, on March 25th Chips Moman added strings and harmony vocals. The first recording of "Who Am I" was made in 1964 by The Inspirations. For the fans this track was an incentive to buy the album, because it had never been released before.

The same applies to "Let Us Pray", even though some fans might have known the song from the movie "Change Of Habit". For me this is one of the best movie tunes and also could have been released on a regular studio album. "Let Us Pray" was written by Buddy Kaye and Ben Weisman, the recording was made on March 6, 1969 at Decca-Universal. Two days later harmony vocals were added. Because Elvis didn't like his performance, he re-recorded his vocals on September 26, 1969 at RCA Studio A in Nashville/Tennessee.

On January 6, 1957 Elvis had surprised his audience when he performed the gospel "Peace In The Valley" on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Seven days later he recorded it in the studio within nine takes. Originally Thomas A. Dorsey had written the song for Mahalia Jackson, but the big hit was by Red Foley & The Sunshine Boys. Their version made it to number 7 on the "Country & Western Charts" in 1951 and became the first gospel record that sold more than a million copies. I am known for disliking most of the ballads Elvis recorded in his early days, but "Peace In The Valley" is the big exception. His voice sounds nothing but great and he performs with depth, warmth and believable feelings. RCA Victor had released "Peace In The Valley" on an extended player of the same name and on "Elvis' Christmas Album".

Fred Karger, Ben Weisman and Sid Wayne had written the ersatz-hymn for the movie "Easy Come, Easy Go", but finally it wasn't used for the project. And so Elvis recorded it on September 11, 1967 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee for next year's Easter release. The king did the best he could, but even he wasn't able to raise "We Call On Him" above the level of an average movie tune. 

Elvis recorded it on January 12, 1957. Take 9 was selected as the master. The king surely sings it well, but he certainly would have done it better a few years later. Erwin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl and Al Stillman had written "I Believe" in 1953 for Jane Froman. The song was covered by many great artists like Perry Como, Dolly Parton and Frank Sinatra. Elvis' recording was known from the ep "Peace In The Valley" and the longplayer "Elvis' Christmas Album".

The same applies to this one. Elvis recorded "It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)" on January 19, 1957 within 13 takes. The songs was written by Stuard Carl Hamblen, who also recorded it in 1950.

This faux gospel by Gerald Nelson and Fred Burch is about Jona and Moses and was originally called "Sing You Sinners". In the end Paramount thought it wasn't really appropriate to have Elvis preaching to sinners in a lightweight musical comedy and so the tune was renamed to "Sing You Children". The melody has a touch of gospel and in general it's a good song. On September 28th Elvis invested a lot of time in "Sing You Children" and recorded 22 takes. The track had originally been released on the soundtrack ep "Easy Come, Easy Go", which was out of print in 1971.

This one was also written by Thomas A. Dorsey. At least, that's what the copyright claims, because the melody is based on a hymn by George Nelson Allen called "Maitland". The Heavenly Gospel Singers were the first to record "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" way back in 1937. On January 13, 1957 Elvis needed 14 attempts to do so. The performance was first released on the gospel ep "Peace In The Valley" and later on the longplayer "Elvis' Christmas Album".