Saturday, March 28, 2015

Prelude to The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*: Elvis Presley, with "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You"

We are giving the best songs outside of The Top 500* their due.  While they cannot be included in that elite group, we want to feature them nonetheless.  Plus, if you're following along, you should be able to accurate predict the songs in The Top 500*!

Billboard magazine had a case of amnesia a few years ago when they said that Mariah Carey had passed Elvis Presley in #1 songs and Madonna had passed the King in Top 10 songs.  Neither is true, and the source is none other than Billboard themselves.  These days, people don't know what "double-sided hits" are, because there aren't any.  But back when some of the best artists (the Beatles, Elvis, CCR, etc.) did it, Billboard counted a double sided hit as two hits--if the double-sided hit reached #1, both songs reached #1.  They later had a change of heart, but that doesn't rewrite history.  Each side of the 45 was a legitimate hit, and "Don't Be Cruel"/"Hound Dog" is the biggest double-sided hit of all-time--both songs were monster #1 songs.  Inside The Rock Era recently did a feature on double-sided hits.

Presley had 18 #1's, and he is thus tied with Carey in that department.

Did Elvis put his feelings in order with "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You", or did he add the last one to get the reaction he wanted from his woman?  Here is Elvis with one of those 18 #1's...

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