Soldier on the Wall is the final album recorded by Alex Harvey.[4] The album was released shortly after Harvey's death.[5]
In 2003, the album was given a compact disc release, with only the first four tracks being remastered from their original master tapes. The project was almost abandoned because the second master tape for the other five tracks (the B side of the vinyl album) couldn't be traced. Production staff managed to obtain a good quality copy of the original 1982 vinyl on loan. They digitised and "cleaned up" (as best they could with the technology available at the time) the remaining five tracks, and released them. Consequently, this led to slight surface noise appearing on those tracks; it is most noticeable with some light crackle on the quiet piano introduction to track 5, "The Poet and I".