The next Presley single was released on April 4, 1972 and coupled "An American Trilogy" with "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". The single entered Billboard's "Hot 100" on May 6th at number 97, had a run of six weeks and peaked at number 66. On the "Easy Listening Chart" the 45 was listed for four weeks and made it to number 31. The British fans liked the record better, on the UK Charts the king scored a top10 hit with "An American Trilogy" hitting number 8. But of course this couldn't safe the single. Globally it sold no more than 500,000 copies and therefore just 50% of "Until It's Time For You To Go", which already had been deemed a commercial failture. According to the RIAA half a million physical sales can be translated to 75 million paid streams. Over the decades "An American Trilogy" certainly has gained popularity amongst the fans and accumulates around 17 million streams on Spotify. The remake, which features the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, was requested over 7 million times.

For the sleeve RCA Victor used a photo from November 1970. The label also promoted the current gospel album "He Touched Me" as well as a planned long player called "Standing Room Only". In the end this album was scrapped and "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" was released instead.

On the streaming platforms this single is not available. However, Sony Music Entertainment released the songs as bonus tracks on the digital versions of "Elvis Now" (1972) and "Elvis" (1973).

In 1971 Mickey Newbury created and recorded a medley of "Dixie", "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" and "All My Trials". At Elvis' request Glen D. Hardin changed the style completely and blew the medley up to some kind of mini-opera. The version on this single was recorded during the midnight show on February 16, 1972 at the Las Vegas Hilton. It took RCA Victor until 1980 before they made this recording available on an album. In this case it was the boxed set "Elvis Aron Presley". However, other performances were released on "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" (1972), "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" (1973) and "Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis" (1974). Personally I like the Presley bombast as much as Newbury's original.

Elvis recorded the ballad on March 15, 1971 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee. He needed 12 takes to do so. The final one was a duet with Ginger Holladay. Three days later Ginger's part was removed and harmony voices were added. Because Elvis didn't like the result his voice and the overdubs were removed and the recording was used as music track. On May 21st Elvis added his voice and also tried another duet, this time with Temple Riser. Now the king ultimately decided that "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" should be a solo. On June 9th he recorded some vocal repairs, on June 21st strings and horns were added. While many of his live versions are great to hear, the studio recording is not my cup of tea. It's too slow and too hysterical.