"Elvis Now" was released in early February 1972 and was retailed 400,000 times during its initial sales period. On the 12th of the month the record entered Billboard's "Top LPs Chart", had a run of 19 weeks and peaked at number 43. On March 4, 1972 the magazine started to list "Elvis Now" on their "Hot Country LPs Chart", too. It made it to number 45, but appeared just twice. The RIAA honored the domestic sales with a Gold Award in 1992. I Great Britain the album was more successful and peaked at number 12. Worldwide "Elvis Now" sold a million copies, which equals 150 million paid streams of the complete album or 1.5 billion paid streams of individual tracks. While the acceptance was good during the initial sales period, the demand soon vanished and the album more or less stopped to sell. Therefore RCA Victor deleted it from the catalogue just a year after its release. In the following decades there were re-releases, but in total "Elvis Now" sold as bad as "Speedway", which was the worst selling Presley album. Today "Elvis Now" accumulates approximately 28 million streams on Spotify, more than twice as much as "Something For Everybody". So the taste of the fans obviously has changed.

The slogan "Elvis Now" was used to promote the current Vegas season of the king, the picture on the cover had been shot during the "Elvis Summer Festival 1971". The backside advertised RCA's "gold boxes".

On the streaming platforms "Elvis Now" is presented the way it was issued in 2016 as part of the set "The Album Collection". Therefore it includes the bonus tracks "I'm Leavin'", "It's Only Love" and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". 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.

During the first half of 1971 Elvis had recorded enough material to fill another album, but it was decided to clear the vaults and use the leftovers first. And so "Elvis Now" became a mixed bag of recordings made from 1969 to 1971. It's always bitter to see how careless Elvis was regarding his products. He obviously agreed to anything as long as it made money and didn't require too much effort from his side. In total the longplayer has a running time of 31:34.

In 2010 Sony Music Entertainment's own collector's label Follow That Dream Records released a special editon of "Elvis Now", which also includes outtakes. For a review just tap HERE.

The singer feels lonely and wants to convince a lady to spend the night with him. Just like on the album "Elvis Sings The Wonderful World Of Christmas" the king's voice sounds somewhat weary, but it fits the song quite well. Elvis recorded "Help Me Make It Through The Night" on May 17, 1971 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee. Even though the song had been performed a few weeks earlier in Vegas on a regular basis, the singer taped 16 takes without being able to produce a satisfactory result. In the end Felton Jarvis had to edit parts of the 11th and 16th attempt to create a master take. On June 22nd he overdubbed strings. In 1977 RCA released a re-mix of "Help Me Make It Through The Night" on the album "Welcome To My World". The song was written by Kris Kristofferson, who also recorded it in 1969.

I guess the tracklist of the forthcoming gospel album "He Touched Me" was already finalized and nobody wanted to waste an expensive recording by filing it away. Otherwise I can't explain a song about the chaplet on a secular album. "Miracle Of The Rosary" was written by Lee Denson, who was a neighbor of the Presleys in the late 1940s/early 1950s at Laudadale Courts in Memphis. He offered the song to Elvis himself, maybe the king wanted to do him a favor by recording it. He did so on May 15, 1971 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee within four takes. On May 19th the king recorded his harmony vocal, the backup singers were taped on the same day. Strings and horns were added on May 25th, further strings followed on June 22nd. The overkill of kitsch fits Elvis' excessively emotional performance well, somehow this overproduced track develops its own kind of appeal.

Unfortunately one cannot say that about "Hey Jude". On January 21, 1969 at American Sound Studio in Memphis/Tennessee the idea to record The Beatles' hit came up spontaneously, but neither the lyrics were available, nor was Elvis' chesty voice able to hit or hold the notes. He tried to sing McCartney's "Hey Jude" seven times, but managed just one complete performance. And even that one had to be edited heavily. Still Chips Moman and Felton Jarvis added harmony vocals (January 24th), horns (March 18th) and strings (March 19th). They obviously assumed that Elvis would re-record his vocals, but as he never did not even CAMDEN used the track on one of their many budget albums. However, Colonel Parker couldn't stand a recording not earning its costs back by gathering dust in the vaults and so "Hey Jude" ended up on this album. Too bad his client didn't care for his products and approved things like this.

The fans knew this one from a band named Ocean, who had scored a number 2 hit with it the previous year. Elvis recorded four takes of "Put Your Hand In The Hand" on June 8, 1971 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee and selected his second attempt for release. The message of this rockin' song is "Everything's fine as long as you trust in Jesus". James Burton offers some nice riffs and Elvis obviously has fun. The song was written by Gene MacLellan, whose "Snowbird" the king had recorded in September 1970 for his album "Elvis Country - I'm 10,000 Years Old". I guess that "Put Your Hand In The Hand" was supposed to be released on "He Touched Me", but was used here when it didn't make it on the finalized tracklist.

The ballad was recorded on May 17, 1971 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee within eight takes. The final one was enhanced with strings on May 22nd. Because Elvis wasn't satisfied with the result, he recorded another ten takes on June 8, 1971. This time the rhythm was emphasized a bit more. In the end he went for his first attempt, which was released on a single in January 1972, but didn't make it past number 40 of the Billboard Charts. The song, written and first released by Buffy-Sainte-Marie, describes a relationship, which is not considered to last long. Elvis sings very emotional, sometimes his voice even sounds fragile. In general I like "Until It's Time For You To Go", but it's played a tad too slow for my taste. I like the live versions better.

This track originally was released on the b-side of "Until It's Time For You To Go". Because several magnetic tapes are lost, we don't know how many takes Elvis recorded. But it's safe to say that "We Can Make The Morning" was taped on May 20, 1971 and overdubbed on May 25th (strings) and June 21st (horns and additional strings). The singer offers himself to a lady for a night as a strong shoulder to lean on (and maybe some other things), but sounds a little bit weary. In the summer of 1970 Elvis certainly would have performed "We Can Make The Morning" better. However, even in May 1971 he still sounds impressive at times.

After a drunken night the singer wistfully observes the start of a Boing 707, because he knows that the plane will fly over his home in a few hours. Elvis sings with a lot of emotion, the performance even benefits of his somewhat weary voice. He recorded Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain" on March 15, 1971 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee. Even though he taped 12 takes, he wasn't able to deliver a single releasable performance. So Felton Jarvis spliced the master take of the attempts number 3, 10 and 12. Three days later the track was enhanced with harmony vocals. On January 14, 1973 the king re-recorded "Early Morning Rain" for the US version of his television concert "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite". A live version can be heared on the double album "Elvis In Concert" (1977).

The power ballad was written by Geoff Stephens and Les Reed and recorded by Elvis on June 8, 1970 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee. Take 8 was selected for release and enhanced with additional instruments (June 9th), harmony vocals (June 22nd), strings and horns (July 20th) and further strings (July 22nd). The narrator yearns for Sylvia, who ignores him and doesn't call. The track was neither used on "That's The Way It Is" (1970), nor on "Elvis Country - I'm 10,000 Years Old" (1971) or on "Love Letters From Elvis" (1971). It obviously wasn't considered to be good enough for these albums, so I don't know why the king approved the release on "Elvis Now". However, in Brazil the track was coupled with "Put Your Hand In The Hand" on a single and peaked at number one.

James Burton, who had also played on Ricky Nelson's version (which peaked at number 12 of the "Hot 100" in 1963), started to fool around with the tune and Elvis spontaneously decided to record it. Way back in 1966 he had taped a version of "Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Treat)" at home, singing along to an instrumental which he played on a record. On May 18, 1971 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee he recorded 24 takes in a professional environment. The ballad was written by Rube Bloom and Johnny Mercer and was originally released in 1940 by The Bob Crosby Orchestra. I personally think that "Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Treat)" is nothing but boring elevator music.

This track was used on the album "Elvis Country - I'm 10,000 Years Old" (1971) as a link between the songs. On June 4, 1970 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee the king suddenly started to sing the song and the band joined in. The jam was so great, that producer Felton Jarvis recorded it and used it on the "Country" album. In the song the narrator claims to have been present at different occurrences in the Bible and does it in a funny and entertaining way. Obviously "I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago" was well known by the musicians and it's pure pleasure to listen to the track. The group reacts spontaneously to each other and everyone seems to enjoy the jam immensely. I guess Colonel Parker simply knew that the fans want to own the song in its complete form and thought the inclusion on the album might be a nice incentive to buy "Elvis Now".