Personnel includes: Elvis Presley, J.D. Sumner & The Stamps, Kathy Westmoreland, Myrna Smith, Sherrill Nielson.

Producer: Joan Deary.

Compilation producers: Ernst Mikael Jorgensen, Roger Semon.

Includes liner notes by Colin Escott.

ELVIS' GOLD RECORDS VOL. 5 is a collection of hits recorded from 1968 to 1977.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Sixteen years after Elvis' Gold Records, Vol. 4 and seven years after his death came volume five in the series, courtesy of Joan Deary, the first RCA executive to take a sensible, intelligent approach to handling the Elvis Presley library. The original ten-song LP has been expanded to a 16-song CD. Later country chart hits like "Moody Blue" work well juxtaposed with numbers like "Suspicious Minds" and "Big Boss Man," and odd B-sides like "For the Heart" (which, as "Had a Dream," became the Judds' first hit in 1984) and Elvis' cover of "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" don't seem out of place. The only real loser here (mostly thanks to its ponderous chorus) is "Edge of Reality," a song that originally showed up in the movie Live a Little, Love a Little as a psychedelic number in a dream sequence in which Elvis dances with a man in a great-dane costume -- even stripped of that image, it doesn't work as a song, and comes off even less well since it precedes the superb "Memories" and "If I Can Dream." The decade represented by the 16 songs on volume five shows an Elvis Presley every bit as secure as an artist as the rebel represented on volumes one or two, searching for and generally finding a sound and an audience that could go together. ~ Bruce Eder

Periodically throughout Presley's lifetime, RCA Records would compile Elvis' most recent best-selling records and release them on a GOLDEN RECORDS greatest hits package. VOLUME 5 is the final record in the series, covering Elvis' career from 1967 until his death. During this period, the focus of Elvis' music shifted from youthful, innocent love songs to the more adult themes of loss, betrayal, regret, and loneliness.

VOLUME 5 includes numerous examples, including the classics "Suspicious Minds," "Kentucky Rain," and "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," which was originally a hit for Dusty Springfield. In response to the trend in pop music during the late '60s, Elvis also recorded a number of topical and message songs during this stage of his career, among them "In the Ghetto," "Clean Up Your Own Back Yard," and "If I Can Dream." This package goes a long way toward dispelling the myth that Elvis had little to offer during his final years: the best material here is easily the match of his best earlier work. RCA expanded the original ten-song album to sixteen tracks for its 1997 reissue.