Do you follow the charts?
No, me neither. But I couldn’t help noticing that Elvis is having something of a resurgence.
Currently there are three singles in the Top 40:
Blue Suede Shoes is a “new” entry at no. 13.
My Baby Left Me is a “new” entry at no. 19.
Suspicious Minds is at no. 26 having slipped from last week’s no. 2.
What’s going on?
Well a couple of things. First of all, Elvis’s label, RCA, is releasing 18 Elvis singles over the coming 18 weeks to build an “Elvis the King” collection. Avid collectors dash out to buy these limited edition re-issues which can be stored in a box. The collection “commemorates” the 30th anniversary of Elvis’s death.
But hang on. Didn’t something like this happen a couple of years ago? Why, yes it did. On that occasion it was “celebrating” the 30th anniversary of Elvis’s birth.
They seem to be a different 18 singles this time around, but there is obviously plenty of bonus material bulking it out. Suspicious Minds and Blue Suede Shoes are the most recent releases.
But what about My Baby Left Me? That’s not part of either singles collection. Instead it’s the first major Elvis release now his material is out of copyright in the UK. As Music Week reports on its front page this week, it has been reissued by Memphis Recording Service and sold exclusively through HMV. In this instance, the recordings have not been sourced from early vinyl, but from masters and safety masters that the record company has got its hands on.
As ever, it should be pointed out that the songwriters of My Baby Left Me, do get paid. It’s just the performers (and producers) that don’t.
It should be noted that aside from these singles, there are also a considerable amount of other Elvis material proliferating at the moment with a partwork having just launched, and collections of Elvis’s films readily available. And if that collection of Elvis Number Ones from a couple of years ago is not enough, you could pick up Elvis The King instead (which does have a further 21 tracks including some biggies like Blue Suede Shoes and Always On My Mind which the previous collection didn’t).
But you might want to wait for “Elvis Presley: The New York RCA Studio One Complete Series” coming before Christmas. It’s another unofficial release taking advantage of the UK’s copyright laws. I rather suspect that Elvis completists – those who’re putting these re-issued singles so high in the charts – will be getting this CD too.