On April 15, 1969 RCA Victor shipped the latest 45 of the king. On May 3rd "In The Ghetto" entered Billboard's "Hot 100" at number 79. It had a run of 13 weeks and peaked at number 3. Fourteen days later the song was also listed on the "Easy Listening Chart", where it stayed for 11 weeks and reached number 8. Beginning on June 14th Billboard ranked "In The Ghetto" on the "Hot Country Singles Chart", too. But here it just had a run of seven weeks and stagnated at number 60. After just a few months the RIAA presented a Gold Award to the king, in 1992 the status was updated to Platinum. The Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences recognized Elvis artistically by nominating "In The Ghetto" in the category "Best Contemporary Song" for a Grammy. Outside the US the single was also a huge success and made it to the top of the charts in Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Norway, Spain and Germany. By the way: This was Elvis' only number one hit in Germany. In total "In The Ghetto" / "Any Day Now" sold 3.7 million copies, which translates to 555 million paid streams. Therefore the king had once again reached the commercial level of his heyday, for the first time since 1965.

The single is not available on the streaming platforms, but the tracks can be found on the album "From Elvis In Memphis" (1969). In 2016 the complete Presley catalogue was restored and remastered by Vic Anesini for a boxed set of 60 compact discs called "The Album Collection". Sony Music Entertainment provides the streaming platforms with the same versions of the individual tracks, albeit in 24 bit/90 khz flac. That means, if the platform of your choice supports high resolution audio, you can enjoy the songs 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, "In The Ghetto" accumulates 200 million streams (plus 7.5 million for the remake, which features The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), "Any Day Now" clocks in at 5.5 million. Today "In The Ghetto" belongs to the ten most requested Presley songs on Spotify.

The cover was designed with a promo shot for the tv special "SINGER presents Elvis". The forthcoming album "From Elvis In Memphis" was also promoted, even though there was no cover available yet.

Mac Davis describes the short life of a man in a city slum, that ends violently in consequence of a robbery. Because a baby is born at the same time and its fate will be similar, the song originally was sub-titled "The Vicious Circle". On January 20, 1969 Elvis recorded 22 takes of the ballad, but finally the track with his voice was silenced and just the music was used. Two days after the initial recording the king produced a new vocal track, on January 24th Chips Moman and Felton Jarvis added harmony voices. The production was finalized on March 18th with the overdub of horns and strings. The skilled arrangement and Elvis' emotional and believable performance turn this ordinary and simple consternation-tune into something very special. Just a few months after the release of "From Elvis In Memphis" RCA Victor issued a live recording of "In The Ghetto" on the double album "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis". The studio version was re-released on the boxed set "Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits - Volume 1" (1970) and the longplayer "Pure Gold" (1975).

The basic track of "Any Day Now" was recorded on February 20, 1969 within six takes. On February 22nd Elvis produced a vocal repair, horns and strings were added on March 18th, harmony voices followed on March 25th. The singer fears to be left by his loved one any time and begs her to stay. To me "Any Day Now" is a true highlight. Chuck Jackson was the first to record the tune in 1962 and his single peaked at number 23 of the "Hot 100". The writers of "Any Day Now" are Bob Hilliard and Burt Bacharach.