Due to the great commercial performance of "If I Can Dream - Elvis Presley With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" Sony Music quickly released a successor. "Elvis With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - The Wonder Of You" hit the market on October 21, 2016. It was available for download or streaming (in Hi-Res, MQA and Sony 360 Real Audio), on compact disc and on vinyl. There was also a de-luxe edition, which included a compact disc (now enhanced with three bonus tracks), a vinyl edition, a booklet of 12 pages and a poster. Later Sony additionally issued a set of two compact discs with "The Wonder Of You" and the previously released "If I Can Dream".

On the Billboard Charts the new album peaked at number 1 (Classical Albums), number 16 (Top Album Sales) and number 47 (Top 200). In Great Britain "The Wonder Of You" entered the chart at number one and made Elvis the most successful solo artist of the UK Charts. Until this very day the king had to share this status with Madonna and Robbie Williams, who each had 12 number one albums. Sony and Elvis Presley Enterprises celebrated this archivement in grand style, but somehow forgot to mention, that the total record (for solo artists and bands) still was held by The Beatles with 15 number one albums. Fun fact: In 2019 Robbie Williams' album "The Christmas Present" peaked at number one of the UK Charts and therefore Elvis once again had to share his spot with another artist.

Commercially "Elvis With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - The Wonder Of You" was a hit. As written before, in the UK the album peaked at number one, but it also was successful in Australia (#3), Germany (#11) and Belgium (#14). The Dutch audience preferred the double disc (including "If I Can Dream"), which peaked at number 24 of the national album chart. The success in Great Britain was honored with a Gold Award (2016) and a Double Platinum Award (2020).

Today the album is available through the various streaming platforms in Hi-Res. While the physical release of "The Wonder Of You" was more successful than "If I Can Dream", the streaming figures on Spotify paint a different picture. The first RPO album clocks in at 200 million streams and the second one at 150 million. So in the long term "If I Can Dream" turned out to be the more popular one.

The record was produced by Nick Patrick, Don Reedman and Priscilla Presley, who also helped Roger Semon to supervise the art direction. The cover was designed by Johnathan Elliot, who used a promotion photo for the movie "Wild In The Country" from 1961. The rhythm tracks were recorded at the RAK Studios and the Shine Studios by Peter Schwier. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recorded their part under the guidance of Steve Sidwell and Robin Smith at the Abbey Road Studios. The vocal performance of Helene Fischer was produced by Alex Christensen and Peter Konemann. All these tracks were mastered by Vic Anesini at the Battery Studios, the digital editing was done by Kirsty Whalley and Cecile Tournesac. 

The song starts with a classical intro, then the band takes over and it starts to rock. The orchestra still is there, but the focus is on the rhythm group. Elvis' vocals were taken from the dress rehearsal for his "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" show, taped on January 12, 1973 in Honolulu. However, the audience was edited out, so it sounds like a studio recording. It's a pleasant rendition of "Big Hunk O' Love", but it lacks the drive of the original recording.

This one is a real surprise. The intro was borrowed from "Baby, I Don't Care" and the rest of the song also sounds very different to Elvis' original recording from December 1973. One might say, this is a completely new song.

Just like "A Big Hunk O' Love", this one begins with a classical intro. The orchestra is present throughout the song, but doesn't add anything worth writing home about.

This track is a bit out of line, because it's a mono recording from the 1950s. At the time everything was recorded on a single track and in the middle of the 2010s there was no technology to separate the various elements. The solution was to use the complete recording, copy the arrangement and add the newly taped tracks. Besides that, harmony vocals (which of course also had to mirror the ones on the original recording) and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were added. The result sounds much fuller than the release from 1958, I'd even say, it sounds better.

Curiously, nobody bothered to write a new arrangement for this song. The musicians more or less copied what can be heared on the original recording. Unfortunately the girls and guys lack the drive of the king's band and therefore the re-make doesn't even come close to the performance from 1970.

The string section of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra can be heared all throughout the song, the finale was altered. Now Elvis sings a final "Just Pretend", which was taken from another part of the original performance. The result meets my taste.

Elvis' original performance was enhanced with additional instruments and harmony voices. It doesn't sound as intimate as Elvis' release, but it certainly has its charm. The king's vocals were taken from his re-recording of "Love Letters", taped in the summer of 1970.

For me this is the highlight of this album. The new string arrangement sounds marvellous and really improves the track. Great stuff!

Back in the 1960s the third take of "Starting Today" was selected for release. For this new album the producers decided to use Elvis' vocals from the first take. Besides that, parts of the performance were used several times to lengthen the track. Compared to the sparsely instrumented original, this new version sounds much fuller. I cannot say which version I like better, but this new one certainly is a nice alternative.

The new intro has a touch of Hollywood, the performance itself sounds quite similar to the original. Due to the technical improvements the audio quality exceeds Presley's original from 1969, but on the other hand the special sound of the American Studio Band is missing.

Here we get more instruments, more orchestra and more harmony singers. Therefore the sound is much fuller, but also much more kitschy. For me neither Elvis' original, nor the remake is something to write home about.

Once again nobody wrote a new arrangement. The musicians simply copied Elvis' recording. The audio quality is a bit better (due to the technical improvement between 1970 and 2016), but otherwise it's more or less the same. However, the studio musicians hired for the remake lack the drive of the king's original band.

This one is even more bizarre, because the producers used a string-arrangement, which Elvis had explicitly rejected back in 1972. At the time his producer, Felton Jarvis, had overdubbed Presley's recording of "Always On My Mind", but didn't meet the taste of his boss and had to remove the newly added track. This "new" version of the ballad sounds much less intimate and somewhat cheesy, but I cannot say, that I don't like it. I wouldn't trade this one for the original, but on an album like this it's ok.

While Elvis' single featured a live performance from February 18, 1970 (taped during the midnight show of that day at the International Hotel in Las Vegas), the producers of this album used the vocal track from the king's dinner show on August 13, 1970 (also at the International Hotel in Las Vegas). The new arrangement is very close to the original, so a remix might have done the job, too. However, it sounds very nice.

The recording basically is the one, we have heared before. But this time some parts of the song are performed by Helene Fischer and here and there both artists can be heared together. Technically Mrs. Fischer is the better singer, but she cannot sell emotions as well as Elvis could. But on the other hand: That was the king's key competence and the guy could make you believe everything he sang. Why did Sony ask Helene Fischer to duet with Elvis? Simply, because she was one of the most successful singers in Germany, had released several number one albums and sold almost twenty million records within 14 years. To evaluate the success, one has to know, that Helene usually sings in German language and her market is limited to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Germany was the second largest music market in the world and Mrs. Fischer was releasing her material through Sony. Two factors, that certainly contributed to the decision to have her sing along with the king.