In November 2021 Sony followed the previous year's "From Elvis In Nashville" with a boxed set called "Back In Nashville".  It was released on compact disc, vinyl and digitally for streaming and download. In Europe the set was received well and peaked at number 18 (Scottland), 25 (Germany), 31 (Austria), 39 (Switzerland), 46 (Spain), 62 (The Netherlands) and 63 (Great Britain). The vinyl release also charted in the top30s and top40s of the accordant countries. However, in the US the reception wasn't all that great and "Back In Nashville" failed to reach the top100 of the Billboard Charts.

 Today the album is available in 24 bit/90 khz flac. That means, if the platform of your choice supports high resolution audio, you can enjoy the tracks in the same quality Sony used to scan and master them. On Spotify, which has a market share of approximately 30% and is the only platform that publishes streaming figures, "Elvis Back In Nashville" accumulates 12 million streams. So the king's recordings from 1971 are even less popular today than the ones from the previous year.

Back in 1971 RCA wanted to repeat the success of the previous year's marathon sessions and organized a second one. The results were released on "Elvis Sings The Wonderful World Of Christmas" (1971), "He Touched Me" (1972) as well as "Elvis Now" (1972) and "Elvis" (1973). Some tracks were also issued on separate singles.

The packaging mirrors the one of "From Elvis In Nashville" and includes a booklet with liner notes, photos, etc. Regarding the music the approach also hasn't changed. Everything was remixed by Matt Ross-Spang, who put the focus on Elvis and his band. On some tracks Matt tried to eliminate the harmony singers, but their voices are bleeding into the king's microphone. It obviously would have been better to leave them where they belong. The tracks were remastered by Vic Anesini at Battery Studios in New York City. Mr. Ross-Spang worked at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis. In contrast to the previous boxed set the recordings are not presented in chronological order. This time they are amalgamated according to their theme. So we have country/folk, the piano songs, gospels and Xmas songs. Of course there are also many outtakes.

Personally I prefer "From Elvis In Nashville" to this one. In 1971 the material wasn't as good and the man himself also had lost some of his splendour. His voice sounded weaker, he lacked motivation and often approved mediocre performances. Nevertheless there are still some highlights and most of the tracks sound better than ever before. The mix and the mastering are very good and especially the Xmas tunes benefit from being presented without the overdubs. The gospel songs (this time the harmony singers were left where they belong) sound very good, too. But it has to be mentioned, that Elvis would not have approved this relase. He wanted the orchestra and everything else on the recordings. The stripped down versions presented here may appeal to me and to many others, but certainly it wouldn't have been in accordance with the king's taste. The same applies to the outtakes. We love to hear them, but to Elvis they simply were trash.

For reviews of the individual compact discs tap here:

CD 1 (master takes)    CD 2 (master takes)    CD 3 (outtakes)    CD 4 (outtakes)