Timed to coincide with the release of Warner Brothers' "This Is Elvis" RCA issued an accordant soundtrack album. On April 25, 1982 Billboard began to list it on their "Top LPs Chart", but with sales of 150,000 units it stayed for only ten weeks and stagnated at number 115. However, in 2002 "This Is Elvis" had passed the sales of half a million copies and was certified Gold by the RIAA. In Great Britain the album was more successful and reached number 47. Worldwide the record sold a million copies, which translates to 150 million paid streams of the longplayer or 1.5 billion paid streams of individual tracks. Until now Sony hasn't bothered to give "This Is Elvis" a digital release.

For their movie Warner Brothers used some original tracks, but also altered and enhanced many others. The recording session took place on January 30, 1981 at the TBS Studio in Hollywood/California. The band consisted of George Doering (guitar), Demenic Genova (bass), Alan Estes (percussion), Dean Hagen (drums) and Randy Kerber (keyboard). There was also an orchestra with saxophones, trumpets, violins and cellos. The session was produced by Danny Gould, who also conducted the orchestra.

Original recording.

Original recording.

Original recording.

The basic track was taken from a recording of Elvis' appearance on "The Stage Show" on January 28, 1956. Danny Gould tried to archive a more modern and fuller sound by adding some instruments.

The same applies here. This time the song was taken from Elvis' appearance on "The Stage Show" on February 17, 1956.

Same procedure. The basis of this track is the king's rendition of "Hound Dog" on June 5, 1956 on "The Milton Berle Show". At the time the performance caused a media scandal due to Elvis' "obscene" moves.

After his appearance on "The Steve Allen Show" Elvis was interviewed by Hy Gardner. The record offers two minutes of their conversation.

Original recording.

For "This Is Elvis" the recording was shortened to 2:45 minutes and enhanced with strings.

Original recording.

The album cover states, that we hear a live performance from June 6, 1956. But in fact it's a recording of Elvis' appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on January 6, 1957.

Original recording.

Original recording.

Of course the media people were invited, when Elvis joined the US Army on March 24, 1958. This excerpt of the event is quite short, it just lasts for 28 seconds.

Original recording.

Before Elvis went to West-Germany on September 22, 1958, he hosted a press conference. The album "This Is Elvis" featured a minute of the proceedings.

After the king had returned to the States, he held a press conference at his father's office on March 7, 1960.

Original recording.

Original recording.

Original recording.

Original recording.

This is the most interesting remake of the album, it's an edit of two performances taped for the tv special "SINGER presents Elvis". The version of "Blue Suede Shoes" starts sparsely instrumented, as recorded during one of the informal "jam sessions" on June 27, 1968. Suddenly the king steps on the gas and is joined by a band and an orchestra. This part was taped on June 29th for one of the "boxing ring" performances. For me this is the highlight of the album.

Original recording.

Original recording (Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite).

In January 1971 Elvis was named one of the "Ten Most Outstanding Young Men Of The Year". The soundtrack album offers 19 seconds of the king's acceptance speech from January 19th.

Original recording.

Before starting his tour with four sold out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden, he held a press conference of 25 minutes. "This Is Elvis" offers an excerpt of 1:16 minutes.

Here the producers used the alternate recording from March 30, 1972. For the movie "Elvis On Tour" MGM wanted to film a recording session, but of course the king didn't want to have a camera team around when recording new songs. So he staged such a session especially for the production team and simply taped some songs again. One of them was "Always On My Mind". For "This Is Elvis" one of the takes was enhanced with strings, which sounds very good.

Original recording plus previously unreleased introduction (Elvis In Concert).

Original recording (Elvis In Concert).

The final highlight of the album is the king's performance of "An American Trilogy", as recorded on April 9, 1972 in Hampton Roads for the movie "Elvis On Tour". Because MGM opted for a different rendition of the song, this one remained in the vaults. For "This Is Elvis" the live recording was enhanced with strings, which once again was done tastefully and sounds quite good.

Original recording (shortened).