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Garth Brooks To Overtake Elvis?

February 10, 2006 | Book
Country singer Garth Brooks is close on the heels of legendary Elvis Presley as the artist with the highest total of RIAA awarded sales in history with his latest release The Limited Series box. The box set was released exclusively through Wal-Mart and the total album sales of Brooks totals to approximately 116 million. In the past Garth Brooks has admitted that Elvis has sold more than him.
Source:Elvis Insiders
Ulrich wrote on February 10, 2006
In my opinion this is Ok. I have seen Garth Brooks live in Hamburg, Germany. He is a great artist. And when he can break Elvis´ record and hold it as long as Elvis did, he is it be worth.
sttos wrote on February 10, 2006
RIAA awarded sales don't account for all of elvis' sales from 1954 to the preseent. Which is were we get the figure of 1 billion to 9 billion Elvis records sold worldwide since that year. Besides Garth Brooks is just a no talent country hick and Elvis is the greatest.
Mississippi-Flash wrote on February 10, 2006
Garth Brooks a no talent country hick...??? The man sold 116 million albums. Like Ulrich I saw him live in Europe (Rotterdam) and was amazed by his talent and energy. If you can sing and write songs like that (Elvis almost never wrote a song) he deserves a little more respect. A few weeks ago I saw the DVD Ireland And Back...man, what a performance. Of course, Elvis is The King but Garth is worth touching the crown.
Presleygirl wrote on February 10, 2006
Garth who? This is what they'll be asking in 50 years. But everyone will still know and be talking about Elvis! Elvis is timeless no matter how many people may break his records. No one can ever compare with Elvis' many talents.
tigerpawl wrote on February 10, 2006
Garth Brooks stole his whole concert act from Chris LeDoux.
everett001 wrote on February 10, 2006
I'll have to say that Garth Brooks is allready a "LEGEND IN HIS OWN MIND," but an equal to ELVIS PRESLEY he will never be.
CD King wrote on February 11, 2006
Garth who? I am asking now. Never heard of the guy! but then I'm from Asia. ELVIS Presley yes,yes,yes!!! The Elvis Presley Fan Club of Tokyo has 10,000 members. Garth who?? so sorry but really I've No idea.
John4126 wrote on February 11, 2006
Whether you have heard of Garth Brooks or not; whether you think he is a no talent performer that is not fit to lace the King's boots, the facts speak for themselves. His album sales are very impressive - His 2nd album sold 13 million copies, his 3rd 11 million. His dozen plus releases have all been multi-platinum. AS for Brooks being a legend in his own mind - thats grossly unfair - he has always acknowledged Elvis and his achievements. Brooks is a fan. Seeing as 50,000,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong then why should 116,000,000 Brooks fans be?
Robban wrote on February 11, 2006
Doesn´t G. Brooks have a own site, where all you Garth fans can write how much you love and adore him. How you can compare him to Elvis in anyway beats me. He´s totally unknown here in Sweden.
Shakingruud wrote on February 11, 2006
He´s not unknown in most parts of the worlds, but hasn´t had many hits worldwide, and mostly only in the US. Also, i never liked his voice, his looks, his music or anything about him, but sales speaks for itselfs. He sold millions of records but, again, mostly only in the US. Elvis Presley, well almost EVERYONE in the world knows his name. He had the looks, the moves, the music.....he just had it all.Thats what counts!
see see rider wrote on February 11, 2006
wether you like it or not it's gonna happen one day as far as someone beating elvis's record for this or any other record he has. but the one thing everybody on here fails to realise is..so what....elvis has already one the battle. the man has been gone 28 year now and is STILL as popular as ever..if not more, and his records still sale. now, how many people can you think of in all walks of life that's been deceased for 28 years or better..& can still pull a rabbit out of a hat?? that's what i thought.
ta2k wrote on February 11, 2006
We all know Elvis is gone,and we all appreciate how well he is still doing,that doesn`t mean we want to see his records broken. And anyway i thought Elvis had something like 150 gold records and next in line was Elton John or the liverpudlian boyband with 40-odd?! What exact record is it that is about to be broken? TCB.
byebye wrote on February 11, 2006
TOTAL ALBUM SALES FOR USA... So who cares?? He´s the undisputed king of the whole wide world in terms of sales and gold/platinum status achivements. However.. Garth knows that Elvis has sold twise than him in the US, regardless of RIAA awards. RIAA has a system where they BEGIN counting sales from a certain point. Now, Elvis has many many unacounted sales from movies,budget releases, gas stations, early years, etc that is not included in their report. Estimated sales in the US is about twice his status today -welll over 200.000.000 albums!
serpico wrote on February 11, 2006
I have written many times to Graceland complaining that Mr. Brooks record company continues to publicize inaccuracies on him selling more than Elvis. The last record promotion by his company said he was the biggest selling artist of all time. What a load of crap. The guy isn't even known outside of small hick towns in the U.S.A. Give me a break from this garbage please. There is only one Billion record seller in the world.
John4126 wrote on February 11, 2006
Flick through Ernst book - 'A life in music' or 'day by day' and see how surprisingly few copies such great lp's like Elvis is Back, Something For Everybody, Pot Luck etc actually sold. None of these fantastc albulms have actually even achieved Gold status. The only people deluding themselves are Elvis fans. Why is it that RCA actually have never pushed the sales figures? Maybe 'cos we'll all be actually rather shocked. Personally i really dont give a hoot if Brooks has sold more - El is still the King.
byebye wrote on February 11, 2006
Do your homework John4126!! "ELVIS IS BACK" is a certified platinum album that went to #2 on Bilboard. "SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY" a certified gold #1 album!! "POT LUCK" a certified gold album that went #4. Dont "flick" through a book John,-READ!!!
Dixieland Rock wrote on February 12, 2006
What's amazing about Elvis's many many achievements is he did it without the aid of all of our modern gadgets & technology. Singers today have it so much easier with instant access to the world through satelite, cable TV, 500 plus TV Channels, Instant replay on Cable, the internet, video tape, dvd, Ipods, emails, websites, instant downloads, advanced breakthroughs in sound quality. Even alot of the music now is aided by keyboards & synthesizers. Elvis pulled off his accomplishments WITHOUT any of the above. Imagine if Elvis had ALL of the above gadgets in 1956. But proved he didn't need it to conquer the world of music. Elvis & the Blue Moon Boys did it the old fashioned way which is alot of hard work. Strip away all of the above modern gadgets & I just wonder how far alot of today's singers would go.
benny scott wrote on February 12, 2006
Hi Dixieland Rock, You're so right, I completely agree with you ! Always El !
byebye wrote on February 12, 2006
Believe it or not Dixieland, but it was easier to make it big before(!) Actually no artist benefits from "the overload media storm today. With a few radio channels + 1 TV channel in the 50´s, RCA and other companies knew teenagers couldn´t miss a broadcast. You simply cant get peoples attention today like before, since theres too much distraction in terms of "media flow".
Dixieland Rock wrote on February 12, 2006
Jesper, I see your point & I can agree with you there. I was just saying I think it's an achievement that Elvis reached the world without the Internet or modern gadgets. The advantages Elvis had in 1956 was that there were 3 major networks which limited the viewer's choices down on what to watch. But the thing was people then had only one chance to catch an Elvis performance on TV then. They either watched it live or missed it completely. Today if a person misses a performance, they have the options of recording it or catching a rebroadcast or buying it on DVD. I like all the options we have today. But I agree with you too that the attention span of teenagers today isn't like it was back then.
RacingRocks wrote on February 13, 2006
My understanding is that Capital Records purchased many of Garth's CD's to keep his sales figures artificially high. The rumor around Nashville is that you can't go to any landfill without finding Garth's CDs.
cathyreno wrote on February 13, 2006
personally I think Garth Brooks is a very good artist and I think I read somewhere he held elvis in very high esteem. But all artists from pop/rock/country have one advantage over elvis they can still record ... (please dont take offend) T C B
John4126 wrote on February 14, 2006
I'm obliged to Jesper for his advice, and humbly accept that some 40 years after their releases they have finaly been awarded gold albums, which is half a million sales. Pot luck as yet, is to recieve that award, but maybe that will happen in our life times. We sure hope so. The point i was making was that in reality these albums have not been the blockbusting sellers that we think they were. Whilst we are talking about keeping record sales artifically high - remember 'Stuck on you'? 1.4 million copies shipped out - over half a million returned - unsold. Oh and Jesper, i read that!
see see rider wrote on February 16, 2006
I never said I wanted to see Elvis's records broke either ta2K..All I was saying is just what some else on here basiclly said and that is..These people are obviously still able to record new material and break new grounds and as sad as it is, Elvis can not. I do like Jesper's post on Feb 11th....Great point, as well as Dixiland Rock's post on Feb 12th.
LMP wrote on February 17, 2006
The operative word here for Garth is the fact he only has enough material for just the one box. Elvis on the other hand when BMG decide to get their act together and produce a Limited Series will find they have more than enough material to produce more than Six editions with some still left over for the future.
lvisfan wrote on February 18, 2006
This has been a topic that's been a thorn in my side for a few years now. We all know there are a lot of unaccounted for sales for Elvis. And if you'll notice, whenever they start talking about Garth breaking Elvis' record it is for ALBUM sales in the U.S. From the 50's through the 70's there was more imphasis put on SINGLE sales. It's a totallly different world today, especially when singles are hard to find anymore. Company's don't care much about them so as to make you buy the album. They make more money that way. But getting back to the record sales issue, I know Elvis has sold more than 116 million albums in the U.S. and many of you know it too. RIAA is continually recertifying and re-awarding at least twice a year now. Record keeping was poor and now at least an effort is being made to justify it. I remember back in 1977 reading that Elvis had to that point sold 250 million records (probably ablums and singles combined). The week after his death it was reported that another 250 million records were sold. Now since then you know several more millions of records have been sold. This is probably a worldwide figure which nobody can touch, not even Garth. We all have heard the 1 billion worldwide figure, and that's a number from the 80's. It just get's me so mad everytime a story like this comes out and it is stated in a fashion to make you believe that Garth has outsold Elvis outright! I wish they would make it more clear and get their figures right. Very frustrating. But we know who's king here, don't we.
Devon wrote on February 21, 2006
Its very simple,Elvis was,is,and always will be the KING!!!!!. Garth who?
Robban wrote on February 25, 2006
It´s always interesting too see how many "real" Elvis fans, that totally agree with every poll that comes along. How they always manage too explain how true it is that Elvis should be taken a backseat too every other artist that comes along and that we should just be happy that he is on the list even if Donald Duck or who ever is topping the list. If you´re not with him, you´re against him! Go join the Donald Duck fanclub instead!