The single "Heartbreak Hotel" is back at Number One fifty years after it's debut. Elvis Presley returned the top of the Billboard singles chart with "Heartbreak Hotel" today, fifty years after its debut in 1956. The single sold 4,200 copies for the week ended Sunday.
The King recorded the tune -- his first-ever Number One -- two days after his twenty-first birthday during the now infamous first RCA Studios session. The genre-crossing "Heartbreak Hotel" originally spent eight weeks at Number One on the pop chart, topped the country charts for seventeen weeks and reached Number Three on the R&B charts.
The single is included in the deluxe box set Elvis #1 Singles, due January 24th. The collection features all of Presley's twenty-one Number One hits packaged together on individual discs, including a double A side containing "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel."
Here is the press release from BMG:
ELVIS PRESLEY’S “HEARTBREAK HOTEL”
BACK AT #1 IN BILLBOARD
50 YEARS LATER
SINGLE INCLUDED IN DELUXE BOXED SET
‘ELVIS # 1 SINGLES’ JAN 24
This week, Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” returns to the #1 spot on a Billboard chart 50 years after its initial debut. Presley's famous first RCA Studios session in 1956, two days after his 21st birthday, produced “Heartbreak Hotel” and the song became his first #1 hit.
Recorded on January 10th, and released on January 27th 1956, “Heartbreak Hotel” spent 8 weeks on the Billboard Top 100 chart at #1. The single crossed genres, topping the country charts for 17 weeks and reaching #3 on the R&B charts. This week, the single debuts at #1 on the Billboard “Hot Singles Sales” Chart.
SONY BMG Strategic Marketing Group commemorates this milestone with the January 24 release of a deluxe boxed set "Elvis #1 Singles.” The set features all 21 #1 US hits on 20 individual CD singles together in a limited edition, numbered collectors box set. (One of the 20 CD singles is a double A-side containing two #1 hits, "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel"). Each single is individually packaged in a dynamic mini sleeve reflective of the original single artwork. Preserving the look of the original 45's, each CD will be pressed on black plastic with grooves to mimic vinyl.
Elvis Lives On The Singles Chart, US #1
January 18, 2006 | Music
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MarkE wrote on
January 19, 2006
Although this is great news to us fans, it will not add on to the 18#1s' Elvis has already got, why isnt the single getting into the main chart 'hot 100'? we will not ever manage to beat the beatles record of 20 in this other chart!
James69 wrote on
January 19, 2006
MarkE, it is not in the Top 100 for a simple reason, the Top 100 in the USA is a combination of sales and radio airplay, and we all know that the single will get zero radio airplay.
Sylvain wrote on
January 19, 2006
No airplay ! Elvis will never get the recognition he deserves. But He will always be The King NO MATTER WHAT.
ta2k wrote on
January 19, 2006
I`m obviously missing something! The posting says Heartbreak Hotel is No.1, why are people saying it isn`t? I thought Billboard was the main chart?! TCB
emjel wrote on
January 20, 2006
Whether it's number 1 or not, the sales figure of 4,200 (unless it's a misprint) is pretty pathetic for the US considering the average UK sale of last years singles was around 33,000. This is the type of info the media latches onto - "Elvis only sells 4,200 copies of record". Let's hope they mean 420,000.
Greg Nolan wrote on
January 20, 2006
Please remember, folks, that the single is effectively dead in the U.S., so this is pretty much a P.R. / symbolic release. Today's number ones are (pathetically) not based on actual sales of a physical single record or CD but on airplay (which is basically purchased by record companies) and also downloads on the internet, which is also dubious. I think it's a nice PR gambit as it's garned some nice feature articles as any serach of GOOGLE news will show.
JerryNodak wrote on
January 20, 2006
My friend, Greg, has hit the nail on the head. Having a number one single on the sales chart has very little meaning these days. It's a nice symbolic thing and it's likely too garner Elvis some positive writeups, but that's all it means. It's not the same as being number one in '56(sadly).
Viva wrote on
January 29, 2006
I am absolutely staggered by the pathetic sales figures of this single. Does Elvis have ANY true fans in America? Christ, we in the UK have a tiny fraction of the population you guys have and even we can sell 20,000+ singles every week for 18 weeks! As for the Billboard charts, what a complete load of contrived b/s they are, the only way to see which song is most popular is by how many people buy it, but that's too easy and might give the music moguls the wrong answers so they throw in a little insurance in the highly questionable form of "Airplay". Anything that corruptable can never be taken seriously. And while I'm on, why do they have a chart for every conceivable form and format of music? It's ridiculous, with the amount of charts Billboard have, it is physically impossible NOT to get to number 1. I believe "Elvis by the Presleys" got to No1 on the "Compilation albums with white covers featuring a piano and the name Elvis chart".
It says a lot about the people in charge of Elvis' recorded works that the one song which changed the entire world can only sell a few copies, whether it be downloads or CD singles. The state of the singles market is wholly irrelevent, if you're an Elvis fan then you would have bought this single on the strength of this important anniversary alone. What these sales figure demonstrate so clearly is not only the state of the singles market but, more worryingly, that state of the US fan base. Shame on the lot of you.