At the end of my last post, I claimed that ‘It’s Now or Never’ wasn’t particularly good. Which was a bit harsh, I suppose…
It’s Now or Never, by Elvis Presley (his 21st and final #1)
1 week, from 30th January – 6th February 2005
The problem I have with ‘It’s Now or Never’, both in its original eight-week 1960 run at number one and now, is that there are better Elvis songs which deserve to have been his biggest selling hit. ‘It’s Now or Never’ is catchy, eminently singable, and Elvis belts it out like no other; but it is essentially a novelty. It is an old Italian melody, ‘O Sole Mio’, tarted up as a pop song. It is better remembered nowadays as a Cornetto advert.
It also marked the launch of Elvis Mk II: the operatic, corny movie Elvis, who was being rinsed for every cent by Colonel Parker. Which in hindsight isn’t something to be celebrate. However, it also launched probably the most successful chart-topping run of any artist in British chart history. In just over two years (November 1960 to December 1962), Elvis scored nine chart-toppers, and racked up forty-one weeks in pole position. I’m sure I contended with all that in my original post on the song, published back in 2018.
I’m also a bit down on ‘It’s Now or Never’ because this rerelease ensured that it was my nineteenth birthday #1. Which means it stands out like a sore thumb in my ‘Birthday #1s’ playlist… It’s far from being my worst birthday #1 – and maybe one day I’ll do a post on them – but I’d rather have had ‘Jailhouse Rock’ or ‘One Night’. Or even better, ‘Goodies’: an actual contemporary piece of music from January 2005.
‘Goodies’ withstanding, Elvis came very close to replacing himself at number one three times, with four consecutive number ones. Which it goes without saying would have been a record. In any case he became only the third artist to replace themselves at #1, after the Beatles and a posthumous John Lennon. But as winter turned into spring, and singles sales slowly picked up, none of his subsequent thirteen re-releases troubled top spot.
In fact, I remember at the time it was quite an interesting way to judge the overall health of the singles market. Assuming the Elvis rereleases always sold just over the 20k mark, the more singles that finished above him meant a more robust chart. From memory, I think the lowest he charted that spring was #5.
Here then ends the ultimate chart-topping career. Twenty-one of the buggers. Yes, some will complain that he has been helped by remixes and releases, and that without them he’d have remained tied with the Beatles on seventeen. But we have to treat these releases as ‘new’ #1s, with new packaging and new catalogue numbers. As we did when ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘My Sweet Lord’ returned to the top. It’s been an interesting interlude, this Elvisenaissance, that’s for sure. But as much as I do love a bit of Elvis, I’m glad we’ll be returning to more contemporary #1s after this.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Elvis used to be my childhood idol, and I guess I can claim I’ve heard a good deal of his songs. I completely agree there are many other songs he performed that I prefer over “It’s Now or Never.” You named “Jailhouse Rock,” definitely one of my favorites. A few others that come to mind are “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “My Baby Left Me”, as well “Suspicious Minds” and “Burning Love”, to pick two later ones.
In general, my favorite period is ’50s rock & roll Elvis. He was an incredible performer, especially during his early years. He kept his great voice throughout the years but lost the moves.
“It’s Now or Never”, it’s a good song. Not one of my favourites, and I’m shocked it’s actually his best-selling single in terms of physical units (some asterisks there to qualify why), but it’s nice and catchy, and Elvis gives a great vocal performance on it (he rarely ever gives bad performances tbf). He’s doing his best Orbison impression. Barry White credited this song as his inspiration for changing his life and becoming a singer following his release from prison so the song is worth it just for that alone.
I just looked over the chart-toppers we got coming up in 2005 and some really interesting and ecletic mix: you got some hip hop, some indie rock, some traditional rock, some Britpop, some electropop, some R&B, some chipmunk soul (Kanye West not topping the charts yet but he is in spirit thanks to Akon), some techno novelty, soft rock balladry, some disco-funk/trip hop, girl group pop/R&B, a nu-disco/HI-NRG song from a pop legend, a conscious rap/gospel song pairing a deceased artist and a classic rock veteran, some pop rock/teen pop. Very excited.