Despite suspicious minds, Elvis tops U.K. charts

The U.K.'s 1,000th No. 1 single is a track first released in January 1959. Elvis Presley's "One Night," which was also the 80th British chart-topper, returned to the summit of the weekly singles sales chart Sunday.

But alongside coverage of the historic singles chart landmark, the U.K. media are also focusing on the all-time low sales figures for a British No. 1 generated by Presley's two consecutive bestsellers.

Last week, "Jailhouse Rock" topped the chart with 21,262 copies sold, then the lowest weekly tally for a No. 1 single. The bar was lowered further by "One Night," which recorded over-the-counter sales of 20,463. "Jailhouse Rock" plummeted to No. 10 on the new chart.

RCA Records' reissue campaign featuring all of the King's original British No. 1s is proving highly effective in terms of chart domination, but is attracting controversy for taking advantage of the depressed market.

Each of the Presley singles is a limited edition of 30,000 copies, many of which never get into stores as they are pre-ordered by Elvis collectors, and with singles sales so low at this time of year, the company has practically been able to guarantee No. 1 placement even though copies of the reissues are almost all snapped up in their first few days at retail and are widely unavailable by the end of the week of release.

Nonetheless, the sales figure for "One Night" was way ahead of the 12,753 achieved by the new entry at No. 2, Manic Street Preachers' "Empty Souls," prompting supporters of the Presley campaign to point out that without the impetus of RCA's reissue program, the situation could have been worse.

(News, Source: Variety)