From one of the most forgotten male chart-toppers in Steve Brookstein, to the ultimate male chart-topper… Elvis Aaron Presley.
Jailhouse Rock, by Elvis Presley (his 19th of twenty-one #1s)
1 week, from 9th – 16th January 2005
For what would have been Elvis’s seventieth birthday, on January 8th 2005, an ambitious (and money-spinning) project was announced by the holders of his back-catalogue, BMG Records. They would re-release each of the King’s eighteen UK number ones, week by week, for what would ultimately set collectors back around eighty quid. ‘All Shook Up’, his first chart-topper in 1957, came first, but was chart ineligible due to costing a tenner and coming with a commemorative, limited edition box in which to store all the other singles.
So it fell to ‘Jailhouse Rock’, Elvis’s second number one back in January 1958 (the first single to ever enter the UK charts at #1) to chart first… with the lowest sales ever recorded for a number one single to date: 21,262 copies.
Needless to say, this record was lucky to make number one. And lucky with the fortuitous fact that Elvis’s birthday fell in January, when sales are historically at their lowest anyway. Yet, can you imagine any other artist managing this? Re-releasing eighteen ancient singles and having them all chart in the Top 5, three of them returning to number one? After dominating the charts like nobody ever has, before or after, in the late fifties and early sixties; The King was back to dominate them again.
What of the actual music? Well, of course, ‘Jailhouse Rock’ is a classic. But there seems to be no point analysing it musically in the context of 2005. It was a forty-five year old rock and roll record re-emerging in an age of reality TV pop, tacky dance, and US hip-hop&B. I’ll refer you instead to my original post. I’m sure I was complimentary, but can’t really remember as I wrote it in 2018 (!) How time flies…
Next up, I’m going to bring the usual recap forward by one. And after that’s done, we can properly start the 1000 Number Ones festivities. Watch this space!
The UK Number Ones Blog 
All, there’s no doubt as to the original record’s place in the history of rock’n’roll. Or indeed this reissue’s place in the history of physical music marketing. Commemorative, limited edition box? I wonder how many fans with deep copies actually bought one. Not to mention the smart move of releasing it, like Iron Maiden’s ‘Bring your daughter…’ so many Januaries before in what was always the week of lowest vinyl sales!
I think quite a few collectors did shell out. The thing I found most interesting about the Elvis reissues is that each one sold roughly the same number of copies – around 20-22k – and so you could judge the overall health of the singles chart each week by how the Elvis single did. Some weeks they made number one with pitiful sales, and others they dipped as low as #5.
I’ve never understood why this counted as a “new” number 1 for Elvis, it’s a re-entry surely?
I struggled with this too. But the Elvis rereleases were intentional, with new packaging and serial numbers. So like when My Sweet Lord and Bohemian Rhapsody got to number one a second time, they count as new. Whenever Last Christmas returns there, though, it just counts as a re entry. If that makes sense.
It was fun seeing Elvis on top again, and in terms of is it a new number one, the Guiness Book Of Hit Records set the tradition that a re-entry had the same catalogue number and had never been been deleted from availablity, while a new entry for reissues was a new hit – not just a different catalogue number but they had different B sides or bonus tracks included which added to sales in the same way EP’s did even if the lead track was the highlight. I often used to buy CD singles and vinyl singles for the other tracks, or CD where I had worn-out vinyl and so on, so I still agree that it’s a new number one – where I don’t agree is with the double-counting of Jailhouse Rock as one extra to Elvis’ total of number ones. Nah! Same song on the A side so he’s still only had 18 number ones, same as The Beatles. 🙂
Congrats on 999 posts (and more!) thats a huge number!
Thanks! I’ll be posting your guest posts next week : )
Have to say though, if this counts as a new number one for the charts, then it has to count as a new number one for Elvis!