In January 1981 RCA released an album called "Guitar Man". On the 14th of the following month it entered Billboard's "Top LPs Chart" for 12 weeks and peaked at number 49. On February 21st the longplayer also entered the "Hot Country LPs Chart". Here it had a run of 31 weeks and charted at number 6. The album sold a million units, which can be translated to 150 million paid streams of the complete album or 1.5 billion paid streams of individual tracks. Talking about streaming: Sony hasn't issued a digital release yet.

After the "less is more" approach of the "Our Memories Of Elvis" releases hadn't paid off commercially, RCA tried to come up with something new. This time they wanted to modernize the sound by recording new music tracks. Throughout 1980 several sessions were staged at Young 'un Sound Studio in Murfreesboro/Tennessee. Just like in the old days, when Elvis was alive, the tracks were produced by Felton Jarvis. Chip Young, a former studio musician of the king and now the owner of the recording facility, acted as sound engineer. Some of the musicians, like Chip himself (guitar), David Briggs (piano), Larrie Londin (drums) and Mike Leech (bass) also had worked with Elvis. The goal was to beam the king's music into the new decade give the songs a modern sound.

The 45 "Guitar Man" / "Faded Love" was the forerunner of the album and made it to the top of Billboard's chart for country & western singles. On the more important "Hot 100" the 750,000 sold units were enough to get the release to number 28. Later RCA also issued "Loving Arms" / "You Asked Me To". It sold a tad worse, wasn't listed on the "Hot 100", but peaked at number 6 of the chart for country music.

For the album cover RCA used a photo from the movie "Stay Away, Joe". It showed a smiling, tanned Elvis wearing a cowboy hat. Even though "Guitar Man" wasn't promoted as a country album, it was aimed at this very segment of the market.

The title song was recorded on September 10, 1967. The new music track sounds less exciting than the original recording, especially the steel guitar, which substituted Jerry Reed's great original guitar track, is a let down. However, in contrast to the original release the new one includes a few lines of "What'd I Say".

Once again all the egdes are gone. The song sounds very smooth, especially the harmony singers turn "After Loving You" into some kind of radio music. The original track was recorded on February 18, 1969 at the American Sound Studio in Memphis.

Surprisingly the Chuck Berry song was handled the opposite way. Now it features an electric guitar and the drums are way more prominent in the mix. I wouldn't prefer the 1980's version to the original, but at least it hasn't gotten worse.

Now it gets even better. The smartly paced beat and the steel guitar are a real improvement and I cannot help to like this one better than Elvis' original version from 1967.

This ballad also benefits from the new arrangement. It's a tad simpler, I especially like the steel guitar and the subtle harmony vocals. The original was recorded on December 13, 1973 at Stax in Memphis.

Two days earlier the king had taped a cover version of Waylon Jennings' "You Asked Me To". The major differences to Elvis' original recording are the guitar and drum parts. The sound a little more modern.

Elvis recorded the track on October 23, 1968 for the MGM motion picture "The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It)". The new arrangement features an electric guitar and the drums sound somewhat more jaunty.

On February 2, 1976 Elvis tried out three different styles. The first try was based on George Jones' original recording, afterwards he gave the song a more bluesy touch, before he finally settled for the well known arrangement. For the "Guitar Man" project Felton Jarvis used the bluesy version and so this one vastly differs from the track on the single "Moody Blue" / "She Thinks I Still Care" (1976). For me this song is the highlight of the album.

The remake sounds more polished than Elvis' original release, I especially like the steel guitar and the harmony vocals. The king recorded "Faded Love" on June 7, 1970 at RCA Studio B in Nashville.

The album ends with "I'm Movin' On". Maybe this was considered to be the statement of this release. Elvis was moving on, his music was adjusted to the current taste of the masses. The new arrangement sounds more funky, in contrast to the original it includes an electric guitar and a steel guitar. But it's also less edgy.