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There’s a reason why Elvis Presley was called the King. It’s more than a boss, more than a prince, more than anything else. The King has a kind of divine element to them, as if they’re chosen from something above, something bigger. That’s how Elvis felt – a force that seemed to emerge from above and shake everything up with the shake of his hips. From his first breakout single, nothing was ever the same. 

It sounds like an overstatement, but it’s not. Sure, Elvis’ entire brand is basically just appropriating what came before, taking bits and pieces of blues or country, especially taking bits and pieces from the work of black American artists, and repackaging them into something new and more sellable at a more ignorant time. But it wasn’t that he was simply just whitewashing it and making it vanilla. 

There was always an appreciation there as Elvis certainly played a part in desegregating the radio with the success of his music, in spite of the initial outrage over his seductive style and somewhat countercultural look. 

But really, what made an impact was just the sheer scale of his success. Pretty immediately after his first singles, he was charting. Pretty quickly, his crowd sizes were swelling and swelling as his influence spread overseas until it was total mania. Before Beatlemania, it was Elvis who introduced that kind of manic fan culture as audiences at his shows screamed until they fainted, and every move he made was swiftly mobbed. When he was enlisted in the army, countless fans desperately wrote to the actual government of the United States begging them to keep him safe or at least begging them not to make him shave his head. 

However, as we know well, success and sales aren’t always one and the same. Time and time again, the separation between those two things is shown, making it surprising that even in Elvis’ decades-long career, and in a career that is historically powerful, the number of number ones he had isn’t as high as might be expected.

All in all, Presley had 18 number ones. Currently, the record holder for the artist with the most number ones is The Beatles, who earned 20 chart-topping hits throughout their career. So Elvis only hung two behind, but has now been overtaken by modern acts like Mariah Carey, and will likely be overtaken by artists like Rihanna and Taylor Swift. 

18 is certainly a triumph, but given the scale of fame Elvis hit, existing on an almost mythical level in musical history and public knowledge, and given how extensive his discography is, it feels like no number would be high enough.

What was Elvis Presley’s first number one?

Elvis’ first number one in the country charts came first. In 1955, he earned a number one slot with ‘I Forgot To Remember To Forget’. But quickly after that, he’d dominate the mainstream charts and set himself on a course to overwhelming stardom. 

A few months after that country success, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ came out in January 1956 and soared straight to the top of the charts. He followed that up with a golden run as his next two singles, ‘I Want You, I Need You, I Love You’ and ‘Don’t Be Cruel’, also bagged the top spot. 

Overall, his number one singles spent a total of 80 weeks at number one as he truly dominated the charts.

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