Even though CAMDEN had released "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1" on June 1, 1972 RCA Victor issued "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" just seventeen days later. In its initial sales period the album moved 500,000 copies and was listed on Billboard's "Top LPs Chart" for 34 weeks. It peaked at number 11 and just two months after the first units had been shipped a Gold Award was presented to the king by the RIAA. Posthumously the organization updated the status to Platinum (1988), Double Platinum (1992) and Tripple Platinum (1999). Outside the US "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" was most successful in Australia and Great Britain, where it made it to number 3 of the charts. In total the album sold over five million copies, which translates to 750 million paid streams according to the RIAA. This was twice as much as the king's recent gospel album "He Touched Me" and five times as much as the previously released "Elvis Now". Today "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" accumulates over half a billion streams on Spotify.

The sleeve of the king's current single "An American Trilogy" / "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" announced an album named "Standing Room Only". Because of the media hype it was decided to cancel the planned longplayer and release one of the Madison Square Garden shows instead. To save time RCA Victor simply used the cover art of the planned album and changed the title. The back cover promoted the brand new budget release "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1" and the full price album "Elvis Now", which had been brought into the stores earlier this year.

On the streaming platforms "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" is presented the way it was 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. As a special feature "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" is also available in Sony 360 Real Audio.

On June 10, 1972 RCA Victor recorded the matinee performance as well as the evening show. Because of Felton Jarvis' renal disease Joan Deary and Harry Jenkins acted as producer, the engineering was done by Al Pachucki and Dick Baxter. The band consisted of James Burton (guitar), John Wilkinson (guitar), Charlie Hodge (guitar and harmony vocals), Jerry Scheff (bass), Ronnie Tutt (drums) and Glen D. Hardin (piano). Joe Guercio didn't conduct his own orchestra, but the Joe Malin Orchesra. The harmony voices were provided by J.D. Sumner & The Stamps Quartet (J.D. Sumner, Ed Enoch, Bill Baize, Richard Sterben and Donnie Sumner), The Sweet Inspirations (Estelle Brown, Sylvia Shemwell and Myrna Smith) as well as Kathy Westmoreland. After it was decided to release the evening show the recording was mastered the very next day. To fit the show on a single album the tape was sped up a little. With a running time of 52:30 minutes "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" is the longest album of the king. By the way: When I refer to the tempo of the songs in my review, I am referencing to the actual recording, not the sped up version.

While the vinyl album runs too fast, all other releases feature the concert at its correct speed. This also applies to later vinyl editions, where the recording was spread over two records. In 2012 Sony Music Entertainment released a set of two compact discs and a dvd. For this project the recordings of the matinee show and the evening concert were newly mastered and mixed, the dvd included a short documentary and 8mm footage. The audio of this set, it is named "Prince From Another Planet", is also available on the streaming platforms and is the best sounding source of the shows. A review of the boxed set can be found HERE.

The concert starts with the first part of the symphonic poem by Richard Strauss. The classical piece from 1896 creates a tense expectation which suddenly releases into a rataplan, that leads to a rhythmical "Opening Riff" to which Elvis enters the stage.

Without any break the band moves on to "That's All Right", the first single of the king. By now the tempo is much faster and the song sounds more like Vegas than like country & western. The combination of the classic "Einleitung, Oder Sonnenaufgang" and the dynamic "That's All Right" is a perfect start for a Presley concert.

Two years earlier "Proud Mary" had been released on the album "On Stage - February 1970". Since then the arrangement has changed and the tempo is much higher. I like this version better than the first one.

Here we get the first new song of the album. It's not really new, because two years before Three Dog Night had scored a hit with Hoyt Axton's composition, but Elvis hadn't recorded it before. I like this song a lot, because the lyrics have more than just a touch of irony and the chorus gives the king a chance to display his incredible voice.

In late 1970 Elvis had scored a top 20 hit with his studio recording of "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me", now the fans got a live version. The king still delivers the song with power, but for my taste it's played a tad too fast and Elvis sings somewhat sloppy at times. It's not a bad performance at all, but the studio recording is better.

The album "That's The Way It Is" features a great live version, taped in Las Vegas in August 1970. Two years later at New York's Madison Square Garden Elvis still sings "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" well, but somehow he seems to have lost the feeling for the song. It's less emotional, a bit too fast and a tad too slick.

Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie" is without doubt one of the highlights of the album "On Stage - February 1970". It's still a very good performance, but once again Elvis had increased the speed and changed the arrangement. The spoken introduction is left out, therefore we get a nice bass solo by Jerry Scheff. My impression is that the king had substituted finesse with force.

By 1972 there is not much left of the heartache. Elvis performs the ballad too fast and almost free of emotion. The audience loves it nevertheless.

Once again the speed is very high and the song sounds vastly different to the recording released in 1957. However, the arrangement fits to the tempo of the show and for some unknown reason I like this highspeed-version. It's the second live recording of "All Shook Up", the first one was released in 1969 on the double album "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis".

This one is also played faster and lacks the suicidal mood of the original recording. But still Elvis manages to give his first number 1 hit a bluesy touch and delivers a good, modernized performance.

Both songs are presented with a foot on the gas pedal, but the medley works well this way.

By now it's no surprise that Elvis has increased the tempo of the song. He sings it quite sloppy and it's obvious that "Love Me Tender" isn't one of his favorites. Of course the audience doesn't care and the ladies scream as if they were in their teenage years again.

The song from the musical "Man Of La Mancha" is performed much better. It gives Elvis an opportunity to use his voice to the full extend and also display the abilities of the orchestra and the choir. "The Impossible Dream" is the second song on this album, that has never been recorded by the king before. By the way: It was written by Mitch Leight and Joe Darion.

Elvis introduces his band and the harmony singers.

At first the king performs a slow version of the rock'n'roll classic, then he continues in highspeed-mode. But he doesn't sing the whole song, he simply repeates the same four lines over and over again. The performance has nothing to do with the classic single from 1956, it's even far away from the version released on "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis". In 1969 he also sang just a part of the lyrics, but this small piece rocked like hell. By now "Hound Dog" is pure routine. But it's no surprise that the audience loves every second of it.

Once again Elvis' can't compete with his version from the aforementioned double album. The roughness and energy of 1969/70 simply is missing. However, that doesn't mean the performance is bad or lacks drive. The king still presents the song in a powerful and entertaining way. Just not as great as two or three years earlier.

This ballad is the third song of the album, that hadn't been recorded by Elvis before. "For The Good Times" was written and released by Kris Kristofferson in 1970. The king performs it very well and it's obvious that he likes this kind of music. In 1977 RCA re-used the track on the album "Welcome To My World".

Here we get to hear Elvis' recent single. At the start a lady screams his name to which the king replies "what?" in squeaky voice. After this joke he performs a serious, vocally stunning version of the medley. Without doubt this is the highlight of the album.

The ballad was released in early 1971 on the album "Elvis Country - I'm 10,000 Years Old". On stage the song is played faster and sung with less emotion. However, the gimmick is to have the house lights turned up so that Elvis can interact with the audience.

This one was also known from the double album "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis" (1969). In 1972 Elvis isn't as rough and wild, but still powerful and it's obvious that he likes the song.

Because Elvis closed almost all of his shows with "Can't Help Falling In Love", the ballad is also included on his first live album. I don't like any of his concert performances, because they are all played too fast and they are all sung without any emotional depth. But that's not the point. The audience knows that this is the final song, Elvis shakes the last few hands, throws his final scarf into the auditorium and poses with his stretched out cape for the last pictures. Seamlessly the band has moved on to the "Closing Riff" to which the king ultimately leaves the building.