A new Elvis Presley documentary is heading to television screens this April, and an accompanying soundtrack album will arrive in a variety of formats that same month from Legacy Recordings and RCA Records.  Elvis Presley: The Searcher, directed by Emmy and Grammy winner Thom Zimny and written by author/journalist Alan Light, traces the artistic evolution of the artist from his R&B and country beginnings through his final Jungle Room recording sessions at Graceland.  The three-hour, two-part movie will premiere on April 14 on HBO, but before that, The Searcher (The Original Soundtrack) hits stores on April 6.

The Searcher will be available in various formats: an 18-track soundtrack CD, a 2-LP gatefold 12-inch vinyl edition, and a 3-CD collectible deluxe box set.  The standard CD offers familiar Presley hits in new context, along with rare and alternate versions.  The deluxe 3-CD set adds another 37 Elvis songs, plus a disc featuring selections from the original score composed by Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, the late Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ cover of “Wooden Heart,” and music that inspired Elvis (including his mother Gladys singing “Home Sweet Home”).  This edition includes a 40-page hardcover book with rare photos, liner notes by music historian and Petty biographer Warren Zanes, and a note from director Zimny.  Petty appears in the documentary, as does Bruce Springsteen, a frequent Zimny collaborator.

The director confirms in his notes that “the soundtrack was in my mind from the beginning. I wasn’t just making a film, I was thinking about the collection of recordings I would gather for a person who saw the film, who wanted to complete the experience, just as I always had. Thankfully, our friends at Sony gave me and the Searcher team the chance to create this collection. It’s been in my mind for years now. To me, this collection is part of the film.”  Warren Zanes offers, “So, in this collection, one gets not a Greatest Hits package but a song-by-song, curated portrait of an artist…who very consistently and courageously gave himself to his performances, as if in the giving he might find some missing part of himself. The truth in his voice, in the end, was the sound of a searcher. Along the way, he built a catalogue as deep as any found in the broad and beautiful vistas of American music.”

Priscilla Presley, Stax Records legend David Porter, director Zimny, producer Jon Landau, and moderator John Jackson (SVP A&R, Sony Music) will discuss the film and its remarkable subject at the 2018 SXSW Festival in March.  The Searcher (Original Soundtrack) is due on April 6 from RCA/Legacy in various formats at the links below, and the documentary airs a little over a week later, April 14, on HBO.  Check it out below!

Elvis Presley: The Searcher – The Original Soundtrack (RCA/Legacy, 2018)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD
3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD

* indicates track available on CD/2LP version

Disc 1

1. Trouble/Guitar Man *
2. My Baby Left Me *
3. Baby, What You Want Me to Do
4. Old Shep
5. That’s When Your Heartaches Begin
6. That’s All Right *
7. Blue Moon of Kentucky
8. Fool, Fool, Fool
9. Tweedlee Dee
10. Baby Let’s Play House *
11. Good Rockin’ Tonight
12. Trying to Get to You
13. Blue Moon
14. When It Rains It Pours
15. Blue Christmas
16. Heartbreak Hotel *
17. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy *
18. Money Honey
19. Hound Dog *
20. (There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)
21. Crawfish *
22. Trouble
23. Farther Along
24. Mona Lisa *
25. Hide Thou Me
26. Loving You (End Title Take 16)
27. Lonely Man (Solo Version)
28. Power of My Love

Disc 2

1. Milky White Way *
2. A Mess of Blues
3. Fame and Fortune
4. Love Me Tender/Witchcraft (Duet with Frank Sinatra)
5. Like a Baby *
6. Are You Lonesome Tonight? *
7. It’s Now or Never *
8. Wooden Heart
9. Swing Down Sweet Chariot
10. Reconsider Baby
11. Bossa Nova Baby
12. C’mon Everybody
13. Tomorrow is a Long Time *
14. Take My Hand, Precious Lord
15. Run On
16. Baby, What You Want Me to Do
17. Suspicious Minds (Take 6) *
18. Baby Let’s Play House (Rehearsal)
19. Words (Rehearsal)
20. That’s All Right
21. Never Been to Spain
22. An American Trilogy
23. You Gave Me a Mountain
24. Burning Love (Rehearsal Version)
25. Separate Ways (Rehearsal Version) *
26. Hurt (Take 5) *
27. If I Can Dream *

Disc 3

1. Dissolution 2 – Mike McCready
2. Satisfied – The Blackwood Brothers
3. That’s All Right – Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup
4. She May Be Yours But She Comes to See Me Sometimes – Joe Hill Louis
5. Mystery Train – Little Junior’s Blue Flames
6. Smokestack Lightning – Howlin’ Wolf
7. Rock-A-My Soul – The Blackwood Brothers
8. Just Walkin’ in the Rain – The Prisonaires
9. Rocket 88 – Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats
10. Write Me a Letter – The Ravens
11. Blue Moon of Kentucky – Bill Monroe
12. Ain’t That Right – Eddie Snow
13. Just Walkin’ in the Rain – Johnnie Ray
14. Lawdy Miss Clawdy – Lloyd Price
15. Home Sweet Home – Gladys Presley
16. Blowin’ in the Wind – Odetta
17. Tomorrow is a Long Time – Odetta
18. The Weight – The Staple Singers
19. Heartbreak Hotel – The Orlons
20. Wooden Heart – Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
21. Rebound – Mike McCready