Madonna will match Elvis Presley's record of 11 UK Number One albums this weekend with her new greatest hits, according to reports. "Celebration" is on target to overhaul Muse's "Resistance", which took the top spot last Sunday.
Midweek sales suggest the pop icon is a few thousand copies ahead of Matt Bellamy and co's fifth studio effort. Madonna claimed her first chart-topper in 1984 with "Like A Virgin", but remains some way behind The Beatles in the all-time list.
A little word of advise to today's artists, you have it easy today with the internet and all the media, if they went back to 50 years ago when Elvis first started and the whole industry was totally 100% different and much much harder to crack and sell records, they would not accomplish NOTHING!
What Elvis did is far more than remarkable and todays artists don't have a clue of what it would be like not to have the media and the internet. You want to compare todays artists to Elvis, take away all the media in todays world and take away all the internet sales and go back to strictly record sales and you would see that todays artists would not even be in the same air space as Elvis.
Brilliantly said Musicwizard
I'd like to remind people that Elvis holds the record for most worldwide #1 at 92. I believe the Beatles are second with 38. Also a lot of the of today's artist have certification that are blown way out of proportion just so that their records will sell more, so if the public see's that he or her new artist has a lot of sales, it will trick the public in buying more records even though it stinks. There is also movement now for BMG/RCA/Sony to go back from year 55 to 57 to certify the records that were not counted for Elvis, once this is all accounted for it will definitely put Elvis WAY in front of the Beatles and everyone else.
I prefer seeing Madonna surpassing Elvis than Jay-Z...you go girl !
she did not surpass Elvis ....just match.. big deal .. and my compliments to MusicWizard excellent opinion
Musicwizard's explanation : cristalclear and absolutely correct ! And personally : I don't give a damn who breaks any Elvis record-sales .To me our man will always be what he was : The Greatest ! Always El.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Musicwizard is right! I've post similar statements on similar topics of record sales, chart hits etc. I've worked in the radio business for 30 years now and it is totally different than even 20 years ago. It used to be sales oriented for chart hits...now it's all about how much air play a record gets (and that is so political). For albums it is more sales than play, but if BMG/RCA/Sony would re-certify those early albums and singles we would not even be talking about anyone coming close to his sales figures. The chart thing like I said is unavoidable because of the way singles are listed as I mentioned above. Media coverage today is light years ahead of 1977. Just a different world now.
Does it matter? Elvis is the King and his achievements given the time and media available are outstanding but we will never be able to compare an artist like Madonna to Elvis using an equal system because there isn't one. For example each time a singles is released it can be downloaded, bought often on vinyl as well as at least one CD version. Artists like Madonna will have fans who will buy it every format particularly if each format contains different (and new) songs.
Having said that, I go back to my first point - Does it matter? Records are there to be broken. Madonna is a fantastic artist, she has moved with the times and grown old with her fans. The best of luck to her.
Why is everyone worrying about Madonna and Jay Z, it is much easier to get No 1's these days and that is not a criticism of either of the above two. It is irritating the way Billboard and NME play it up without putting things into perspective. So better than us complaining some E-Mails to Billboard and the NME pointing this out may be worthwhile. The No 1’s may go but even if we ignore the relevancy of these artists compared to Elvis, what is very, very unlikely to go is, that Elvis has more hit (charting) albums and singles than any other artist, more gold and platinum certifications than any other artist and his sales are in a different league from those like Madonna, Jay Z, Mariah Carey and Jacko (despite all the hype
I recently tried to put a post on Elvis.com regarding the New Sony-BMG Legacy Album, From Elvis In Memphis, Back In Memphis.
Elvis.com is selling this fairly good package for $ 24.99 US, plus shipping. I was able to get the very same for less than $14.00 US at Walmart.
I bring this up because CD prices are a major factor in sales. All Elvis fans, deserve to be treated with respect. We are a rare breed and should not be subject to the greed and sheer disrespect of Elvis.com
Yes and the greed and disrespect from FTD. $34.99 for classic album reissues of which we have 75% of the content already. I remember when CDs came out in the 80's , the industry said it was cheaper to make a CD than a vinyl record and that soon CD prices would drop and be equal to or lower than an LP once they take over the market. Well they took over but the prices never dropped. Its no wonder CDs stopped selling in favor of downlaods. The reason I dont think Elvis will hit # 1 again is because he is not a download type of artist which is where sales seem to be these days. Back in 2002, CDs were still selling and there were still stores to go to. Also the Disney movie helped promote Elvis to younger fans and it was the 25th anniversary year. A lot was different to help make 30 #1 Hits a number one CD.
Today's charts & polls don't mean much to me. If today's recording artists had to go by the same standards as Elvis & all the rest did 30, 40 & 50+ years ago, I doubt many of these artists would even get the chart ratings they get today. I believe what's kept Elvis from getting higher numbers in all of the charts over the years is due to poor, sloppy record keeping. I believe had Elvis, the Colonel & RCA at the time had run a tighter ship in regards to record keeping & keeping accurate information pertaining to all sales of his music, the real figures would be staggering. As a result of being sloppy, Elvis' true sales figures over the years will never be accurately counted. As for "davidtcb's" comments, I totally agree. The prices the Official Elvis site charges for Elvis' music is way too much. I think with them, money FROM the fans comes before respect OF the fans.
One must also remember what the music industry was in the mid 50's to early 60's. Not very sophisticated and quite unsure how to market the stars of rock and roll--imagine putiing Hound Dog and Dont Be Cruel on the same record today for example, or those extended 45's. Also, think about the populaton then and now--what percentage of the pop market did(or does Elvis) have then and compare that to the share of the rock stars today. Elivs has a huge margin, which probably will never be duplicated.
Lord Have Mercy, here we go again. Really, I suppose I shouldn't have an opinion since I am not UK but comparing ol split tooth next to Elvi, I don't think so! And it's not really about looks, it has to do with talent. What you say is that? A foreign term.