On September 1, 1973 RCA released "Raised On Rock" / "For Ol' Times Sake". On the 22nd of the month Billboard listed "Raised On Rock" at number 81 on their "Hot 100" singles chart. The song had a run of nine weeks and peaked at number 41. "For Ol' Times Sake" entered the "Hot Country Singles Chart" on October 6th, stayed for ten weeks and made it up to number 42. Worldwide RCA sold 750,000 copies, which equals 112.5 million paid streams. Compared to the previous single the sales had collapsed by 62.5%. It was a commercial disaster.

The single isn't available on the streaming platforms, but both tracks can be found on the album "Raised On Rock / For Ol' Times Sake" (1973). 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, "For Ol' Times Sake" accumulates 1.4 million streams, the supposed a-side hasn't even passed the million mark.

The cover was designed with a great profile photo from the "Aloha" show. RCA didn't promote the current "Raised On Rock / For Ol' Times Sake" album, but the previously released compilation "Elvis". The reason was simple: The king had sold his rights to royalties to the label and with the exception of "Fool" the longplayer just featured songs, the company didn't have to pay Elvis for. So they were more interested in selling the older album.

 Elvis recorded "Raised On Rock" on July 23, 1973 within ten takes. Mark James, the writer of the song, tells us about his youth and about being raised on rock'n'roll music. It is strange to hear Elvis Presley sing these lyrics, because it's simply not believable, that he was raised on a music, he once had been the king of. And it's even stranger to hear him mentioning a song from the 1960s and a song, that was his own hit record. Besides that Elvis sounds quite tired, it's almost impossible to connect his vocals to the good ole' rock'n'roll. Musically I would regard "Raised On Rock" to be well written, uptempo radio-pop. I like the driving beat, which is provided by two drummers.

This one was written by Tony Joe White, who was also the first to record it. Elvis followed him on July 23, 1973 and delivered the ultimate version of the song with take number eight. The narrator is left by his wife and asks her to allow him to take her in his arms for one last time. The melody is sad, the arrangement is sparse and Elvis sounds honestly sad. Today "For Ol' Times Sake" often is overlooked, but for me this is one of the king's greatest ballads.