Elvis Is Back: Presley Heads For Chart Record
First of all thanks to Mark Beech for this article.
Elvis Presley, we are still stuck on you. The late star is returning to the top as Albums King and is heading for a chart record.
Fans are still proclaiming “The wonder of Elvis” nearly 40 years after his death. The second collection of re-workings of his hits with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (titled, naturally, The Wonder Of You) is likely to leave the charts all shook up yet again. Its No. 1 rank would also give a record-breaking 60 years since his first British chart-topper in 1956. If it holds on, it will also give Presley the most British No. 1 albums of any solo artist ever, ahead of Madonna with 12. The Beatles hold the record for the most chart-topping albums on the Official Chart, with 15.
Presley already made headlines with the album’s predecessor, If I Can Dream, which has sold 1.6 million copies globally.
The Wonder of You takes the original vocals and fuses them with new orchestral performances in London’s Abbey Road studios. There are hits such as “A Big Hunk o’Love,” the lead-off track and single, “Suspicious Minds” and “I Just Can’t Help Believing” – as well as a new duet with Helene Fischer titled “Just Pretend.”
The British No. 1 is considered even more remarkable when the star never visited the country, aside from a brief airport stop on Mar. 3, 1960, when he was returning from military service in Germany.
Presley came in fourth place in the FORBES list of top-earning dead celebrities in 2016 with earnings of $27 million. This is down from second place at $55 million in 2016, because of a different way of accounting for Graceland ticket sales, but he is making more than most living stars and shifted more than one million albums during the year, most of them physical, not digital. (Michael Jackson remains in top slot with $825 million.)
Still, the No. 1 place may not be achieved in all countries. In the U.K., the new Elvis album, on Legacy RCA, leads the way by just 3,500 combined sales at the “mid-week” stage just announced.
The King has to beat Michael Bublé, whose ninth studio album Nobody But Me (on Reprise) is close behind at Number 2. Ironically, the last Elvis album included “Fever,” a newly created duet with Bublé. Lady Gaga’s new album Joanne (Interscope) currently sits at 3. You Want It Darker (Columbia), the 14th studio album by Leonard Cohen, 82, is one place behind at No. 4. The U.K. chart remains volatile, with a lot of new releases shooting to the top briefly before falling back: the Kings of Leon album Walls drops from the top to fifth position. The cast recording of the new David Bowie musical Lazarus is among other rising stars.