In January 1974 RCA released "A Legendary Performer - Volume 1". On February 2nd the album entered the "Top LPs Chart", where it stayed for 14 weeks and peaked at number 43. On February 16th Billboard also started to list the record on their "Hot Country LPs Chart". Here it had a run of 47 weeks and became a number 1 hit. After Elvis' demise "A Legendary Performer - Volume 1" re-entered the "Top LPs Chart" on September 17, 1977. It stayed for another 14 weeks and peaked at number 62. As early as 1975 the RIAA honored the domestic sales with a Gold Award. In 1999 the status was updated to Platinum, in 2017 it was updated again to Tripple Platinum. For it's archivements in the country & western segment the album was also honored with a Golden Boot Award. On the domestic market "A Legendary Performer - Volume 1" sold three million units, abroad another million copies were retailed. The amount of four million physical album sales equals 600 million paid streams of the complete album or 6 billion paid streams of individual tracks. For Elvis these figures must have been a slap in the face, because this compilation of old material sold as many units as his latest four studio albums combined! For RCA it was the proof, that it had been the right decision to buy the rights to royalties for all Presley recordings made prior to 1973.

Just like "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" this album was accompanied by a booklet, which could be seen through a hole in the sleeve. Later editions were not packaged in such an elaborate style. They came without the booklet and the photo of Elvis was simply printed on the album sleeve.

Because the material is available elsewhere today, Sony Music Entertainment doesn't distribute "A Legendary Performer - Volume 1" via the streaming platforms.

In early 1973 Elvis had sold his rights to royalties for all recordings he had made until 1972 (excluding the song "Fool") to RCA. So the label was free to use the material without having to pay the singer or to coordinate the releases with his manager. The newer material had been released in the summer of 1973 on an album named "Elvis", now RCA wanted to exploit the complete catalogue. Joan Deary, who had also produced "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" (1972) and "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" (1973), was assigend to compile an album, that appealed to the general public as well as to avid collectors. She came up with a mixture of well known masters, unreleased performances of classic Presley tracks and snippets of interviews from a long deleted extended player.

The album begins with the a-side of Elvis' first single, the song, that had started it all.

This track was pure gold for the collectors, because it wasn't the well known master (a splice of the takes number 3 and 5), but the unreleased second take.

The king's first number one hit is presented in form of the master.

Here the fans got an excerpt of the press conference, that Elvis had given on September 22, 1958. A few hours later he would be on his way to Germany to serve the US Army until March 1960. The recording had been released previously on the extended player "Elvis Sails", but by 1974 the record was out of print for almost a decade.

The single "Don't Be Cruel" / "Hound Dog" was released in the summer of 1956 and became the best selling 45 of the whole decade! So it was a logical step to include the a-side on this retrospective.

"Love Me" was a long-time favorite of the fans. But instead of the regular version this album offered a live performance, that had been taped on June 27, 1968 in connection with the tv special "SINGER presents Elvis".

The performance of "Trying To Get To You" had been recorded on the same occasion and was also unreleased at the time.

The unknown renditions of classic tracks are followed by the regular version of the ever popular "Love Me Tender".

The religious side of Elvis is represented by the gospel "Peace In The Valley".

This is another excerpt of the press conference, the king gave on September 22, 1958 before he went to Germany. As written before, it was released for the first time on the extended player "Elvis Sails", which was long deleted from the RCA catalogue.

Here we have the regular version of this country-pop.

This song was a new one, at least for the US audience. Back in 1960 Jeacques Offenbach's "Barcarole" had been turned into "Tonight Is So Right For Love". The song was to appear in the movie "G.I. Blues" and on the accordant soundtrack album. It soon turned out, that "Barcarole" wasn't in public domain all around the world and so a substitute was needed for several countries. The solution was "Tonight's All Right For Love", which was based on Johann Strauss' "G'schichten Aus Dem Wienerwald". Paramount filmed both songs in front of the same stage design and RCA pressed two versions of the album. So the releases were altered according to the legal situation.

While the song itself was well-known, the performance was previously unreleased. It had been taped during the second "informal" session on June 27, 1968 for the tv special "SINGER presents Elvis".

In general this is the regular version of "Can't Help Falling In Love", but for some reason the harmony vocals of The Jordanaires are missing.