How Great Thou Art is the ninth studio album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released by RCA Victor in February 1967. How Great Thou Art is a gospel album with slow numbers on one side, and fast-paced numbers on the flipside. The album earned Presley a Grammy Award for Best Sacred Performance, while it became a Billboard top 20 pop hit and it appeared on the Top Country Albums chart on the top 10. After the initial success of his films and their respective soundtracks, Presley's movie career began to decline by the mid-1960s. Due to the continued success of his previous gospel recording, His Hand in Mine (1960), and the fact that his 1965 single of "Crying in the Chapel" -- a leftover from the 1960 album sessions -- became an unexpected major hit, RCA accepted Presley's proposal of a follow-up release. The tracks were recorded in May 1966, and produced by Felton Jarvis with the accompaniment of the Imperials and the Jordanaires. Following its February 1967 release, How Great Thou Art was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The recording was promoted with a radio special on Palm Sunday that featured its tracks. Subsequent reviews praised Presley's album while its certification was updated to multiple platinum by 2010. Background In March, 1960, at the end of his career in the United States Army, Elvis Presley returned to recording music. That year, his release Elvis is Back! reached number 2 on the Billboard Top Albums chart, while it topped the UK Albums Chart. Meanwhile, the release of the soundtrack of his film G.I. Blues (1960) topped both Billboard's Top Albums and the UK Albums Chart. Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, shifted the focus of the singer's career to acting. Presley preferred dramatic roles, but after the flop of Flaming Star (1960) and Wild in the Country (1961) the use of his music in films increased. Presley's next film, Blue Hawaii (1961), became a box-office success, while its soundtrack topped Billboard's Top Albums Chart for 20 weeks. Parker decided to shift the business model to produce films that would sell soundtracks, while the soundtracks would in turn promote the films. Consequentially, Presley stopped recording non-album soundtracks. Presley grew increasingly unhappy with the quality of the songs, as well as the plots of the films in which he starred. By 1965, Presley's box-office earnings started