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.