Just like the supermarkets racked up the Xmast articles in September, RCA Victor issued their easter singles on February 15, 1966. "Joshua Fit The Battle" / "Known Only To Him" and "Milky White Way" / "Swing Down Sweed Chariot" sold just 40,000 copies each and didn't chart anywhere. Translated to the present this amount equals 8 million paid streams. Obviously these releases were triggered by the success of "Crying In The Chapel" and "Santa Claus Is Back In Town", but they became the biggest commercial failtures of the king's career. Nowadays the tracks accumulate around 3 million streams each on Spotify.

The cover was designed with a promo photo for "Viva Las Vegas", which by now was three years old. However, I like the artwork. The backside advertised the album "His Hand In Mine" (1960) and the extended player "Peace In The Valley" (1957). A banner also made sure, that everyone knew that the songs on the 45 came from the "His Hand In Mine" album and also advertised the single "Crying In The Chapel".

The single is not available on the streaming platforms, because the tracks can be heared on the album "His Hand In Mine" (1960).

One of the album's highlights is "Milky White Way". It's not known, who wrote the song, but Elvis' version definitely was inspired by the version of The Trumpeteers, which was released in 1947. The king's performance has such a great, relaxed groove and the singer couldn't have sounded any better. He needed eight takes to archive this performance.

This song also originated from the repertoire of The Golden Gate Quartet. Four attempts were enough to record a perfect version of the traditional. In 1968 Elvis recorded the song again for the movie "The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It)".