{"id":229078,"date":"2025-09-15T15:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T15:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/229078\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T15:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T15:54:12","slug":"on-this-day-in-1965-elvis-presley-began-a-historic-chart-run-with-his-biggest-selling-single-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/229078\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1965, Elvis Presley Began a Historic Chart Run With His Biggest-Selling Single Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ironically, given how much of the Elvis Presley legacy ties itself to this single\u2019s B-side, the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll made chart history with the release of this signature track\u2019s A-side, which would become the biggest-selling single of his career. The song was a staple in his three-performance run on The Ed Sullivan Show<\/a>. (Complete with random shrieks and squeals from the women in the studio audience.)<\/p>\n

The recording process for the single was especially fascinating, marking a paradoxical turning point that would see Presley take creative control in the studio while \u201cprotesters\u201d picketed outside of the studio, accusing the King of losing touch with his true self.<\/p>\n

Elvis Presley Makes History With Biggest-Selling Single in 1965<\/strong><\/p>\n

One can easily trace Elvis Presley\u2019s crowning as the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll to his historic rise to the top of the charts in 1965. In July of that year, Presley released \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel\u201d<\/a> as an A-side single with \u201cHound Dog\u201d serving as the B-side. On September 15, 1965, the singer was at the top of the Pop, Country, and R&B charts. \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel\u201d remained at No. 1 on the pop chart for a staggering 11 weeks. In just half a year, Presley\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel\u201d sold four million copies, making it his biggest-selling single yet. It\u2019s a record the song would maintain for the rest of Presley\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

Some might associate Presley\u2019s sound with the rowdier \u201cHound Dog\u201d. However, \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel\u201d captured the musician\u2019s rhythmic prowess and performative charm. But chart performance alone isn\u2019t what makes this track so extraordinary in Presley\u2019s career. \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel\u201d was the first single Hill & Range representative Freddy Bienstock offered to Presley. The song also marked the first time that Presley took control in the studio. Presley demanded that the band re-record the song until they performed it to his liking. In total, Presley cut \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel\u201d 28 times and \u201cHound Dog\u201d 31 times. Far past what producer Steve Sholes would have normally allowed.<\/p>\n

While Presley was in the studio, feeling sure of himself, critical fans camped outside of the building with signs demanding \u201cThe Real Elvis.\u201d The fans were angry about Presley\u2019s performance on The Steve Allen Show the night before, in which he performed a campy rendition of \u201cHound Dog\u201d<\/a> to a female basset hound. (To be fair, Presley didn\u2019t propose the idea. That was the television studio\u2019s way to keep the performance from being too suggestive or controversial.)<\/p>\n

The King of Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Thought This Singer Did It Even Better<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elvis Presley leaned into his biggest-selling single for the rest of his career, incorporating \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel\u201d in countless television and on-stage performances. But Presley believed all of these renditions paled in comparison to Jackie Wilson, an R&B singer whom Presley watched perform \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel\u201d while in Las Vegas. While visiting Sin City in November 1965, Presley attended four Billy Ward and His Dominoes shows just to watch Wilson perform his chart-topping song.<\/p>\n

That next month, Presley was jamming with the \u201cMillion Dollar Quartet\u201d<\/a> (Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Johnny Cash) in Memphis\u2019 Sun Studios when the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll began imitating Wilson\u2019s version of \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel\u201d. \u201cHe tried so hard,\u201d Presley said, per Pete Guralnick\u2019s Elvis Day By Day<\/a>. \u201cTill he got much better, boy, much better than that record of mine. Man, he was cutting out. I was under the table when he got through singing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo by Bettmann\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ironically, given how much of the Elvis Presley legacy ties itself to this single\u2019s B-side, the King of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":229079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[16920,171,975,4185,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-229078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-elvis-presley","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-rock-music","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115209126871006014","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}