This album marks the third official posthumous album by Elvis Presley created from scratch, whereas previous albums were compilations of previously released or unreleased studio material recorded well before his death. The two prior albums were the urban country-influenced 1981 Guitar Man record and the 2008 Christmas Duets CD. Similar to Cirque du Soleil's soundtrack to the Beatles-themed Love, "Viva Elvis" contains samples from throughout the entire span of Elvis Presley's career, including interview clips, home recordings, studio outtakes and snippets of dialogue from Elvis's feature films.
