Gospel music and Elvis: Inspiration and consolation

Elvis' album "How Great Thou Art" went double platinum and earned him a Grammy.

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (CNN) -- He went from a humble birth in a shotgun shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, to rhinestone-studded super stardom, but during his roller coaster-like ascension and eventual fall, Elvis Presley never stopped humming gospel songs.

"He loved to sing spirituals because they told a story," said Ray Walker, a singer with The Jordanaires, the legendary spiritual quartet that sang with Elvis for many years.

"It was his roots. He was a deeply spiritual man, more spiritual than anyone around him," Walker said in an interview in a restaurant in Memphis.

Indeed, before Elvis ever swiveled a hip or sneered a smile, he was listening to gospel music in the First Assembly of God Church on McLemore Avenue in Memphis.

"My mother and dad both loved to sing," Elvis said in a taped interview now available on the audio tour of Graceland.

"They tell me that when I was about 3 or 4 years old I got away from them in church and walked up in front of the choir and started beating time," he said.

The Blackwood Brothers gospel quartet shared the same church with Presley, and the group's soothing harmonies and rousing lyrics transfixed the young boy.

"By age 17 or 18, Elvis was sneaking around some of the blues and country clubs on Beale Street, but his dream was to be in a gospel quartet," said Jason Freeman, 29, a tour guide at the Legendary Sun Studio in Memphis where Presley first recorded.

According to RCA's Elvis music expert, Ernest Mikael Jorgensen, the young singer was discouraged from pursuing gospel music professionally when he was told he was not particularly good at harmony. Instead, Elvis took the sounds he'd learned from the diverse Memphis music scene and turned to rock'n'roll.

In 1956 Elvis belted out "Heartbreak Hotel," a song that would linger eight weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard's pop singles chart. But the vocals behind the King's bluesy performance were the harmonious sound of The Jordanaires.

'He had a career that had just taken him captive'

Elvis attended the First Assembly of God church in Memphis. The building is now home to the Alpha Church congregation.

Throughout his career, Elvis crooned ballads like "Love Me Tender" and growled his way through thumping rock like "Hound Dog," but he always took the gospel sound with him. In fact, many of his rock'n'roll hits resemble gospel and spiritual songs in terms of their musical construction and cadence.

Often, the King turned to gospel music after the lights were lowered and the fans had dispersed.

"After the shows he would routinely sing with the gospel quartets that were used as his backgrounders," said Gospel Music Association President Frank Breeden.

"It was the gospel music that he turned to for inspiration and consolation. He was a person who appeared to be in conflict; he was not doing what he loved for a living ... he had a career that had just taken him captive," said Breeden.

In 1966 Elvis began recording his first gospel album, "How Great Thou Art." For this very personal album the King assembled steel guitars, saxophones and a host of background choral singers.

Despite his grand ideas about musical arrangement, Walker recalls Elvis had only one or two gospel songs in mind when he came to the recording session.

Walker suggested Elvis should record the great gospel song, "How Great Thou Art," but the King balked at the idea saying he didn't know the song. Soon Elvis changed his mind and quickly learned the lyrics.

"He (Elvis) played the song for three hours and then made the song in one recording," Walker said.

Music reflected 'ups and downs'

The Jordanaires perform at the Elvis Presley's Memphis restaurant during "Elvis Week."

The record "How Great Thou Art" won Elvis his first Grammy Award, and many fans who hadn't heard gospel music before were baptized by the sound.

"That recording was ahead of its time," said Jorgensen. "It was a musical adventure that Elvis went into to really try to add something to gospel music. He changed its instrumentation, and for the first time he got a Grammy Award. He was very proud of that," he said.

The King would earn two more Grammy Awards in his lifetime, both of them for his gospel efforts.

But Elvis began stumbling professionally in the early 1970s. He gained weight and became addicted to prescription drugs.

"You could trace the ups and downs in Elvis' life with his recordings," said Walker, and by 1977 the backup singer who knew Elvis so well heard trouble in the King's voice.

Walker was at home watching Elvis sing "How Great Thou Art" in his 1977 television special when the emotional star hit an unusual high note on the word "God."

"He never went up on that note, and it came over me like a chill. I just put my hands down between my knees and rocked. I knew he was in a lot of trouble," said Walker.

Last year Elvis was inducted posthumously into the Gospel Music Association's Hall of Fame and his gospel music remains a much-loved part of his musical legacy. Many of his friends and fans say his sincerity is what sets him apart from other stars.

"He wasn't faking it, and people can tell that," said Sun Studio's Freeman. "He was very spiritual, and that attracted a lot of people to him."