50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong
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| 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong | |||||
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| Greatest hits by Elvis Presley | |||||
| Released | November 13, 1959 | ||||
| Recorded | September 1956-June 1958 | ||||
| Genre | Rock and roll | ||||
| Label | RCA LPM 2075 | ||||
| Producer | Steve Sholes | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Elvis Presley chronology | |||||
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50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong: Elvis' Gold Records Volume 2 is the ninth album by Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Records, LPM 2075, in November of 1959. From two recording sessions in June, 1958 at RCA Studios in Nashville, and three at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, it is a compilation of hit singles released in 1958 and 1959 by Presley. It peaked at #31 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, and is considered to be one of the most successful and influential compilation albums of all time.
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[edit] Content
Gold Records Vol. 2 comprises all ten tracks of five Top Five singles, both A-sides and b-sides; the b-sides all charted in the Top 40 independently of the hit sides. In the 1950s, a gold record awarded for a single referred to sales of one million units, different from the definition in use by the late 1970s for albums, where a gold record came to mean sales of 500,000 units. Exact sales figures from the RIAA for each record, however, are difficult to confirm.
The July 15, 1997 reissue doubles the number of tracks to 20, adding the b-side "Playing for Keeps" from a single issued on Elvis' first singles compilation, and the late fifties A-side "Mean Woman Blues." The remaining bonus tracks derive from albums released in the decade, with "Peace in the Valley" initially released on an EP but also appearing on the Christmas LP. For some reason, RCA selected tracks from that album and Elvis, two out of the only three non-compilation, non-soundtrack albums by Presley in the 1950s, the other being his debut, rather than stray items from EPs or the missing b-side, "Don't Ask Me Why." The bonus tracks are interspersed within the original tracks, with the running order to the album substantially altered.
Although RCA executive Steve Sholes was the in-house A&R man for Presley, and nominally in charge of his recording sessions at RCA, accounts by Presley historian Peter Guralnick and Presley discographer Ernst Mikael Jorgensen indicate that Presley himself acted as the producer for his RCA sessions in the 1950s.
The unified Billboard Hot 100 singles chart was not created until August, 1958. Chart positions for records prior to this date would be taken from the Best Sellers In Stores chart, although early measurement of rock and roll records also came from the Most Played In Jukeboxes chart. Chart position for bonus album tracks taken from Billboard Top Pop Albums.
[edit] Homage
The famous cover photo, of multiple images of Elvis wearing the gold lamé suit designed by Nudie's of Hollywood, has been copied many times. Albums inspired by the Presley hits LP include:
- Phil Ochs' Greatest Hits album of 1970; not a "greatest hits" album at all but consisting of new original material, ironically subtitled "50 Phil Ochs Fans Can't Be Wrong!"
- The Elvis Costello & The Attractions bootleg album of the same name from the 1980s.
- Blues Traveler's more modest 1,000,000 People Can't Be Wrong of 1994.
- Blumfeld's second studio album L'Etat Et Moi from 1995
- The Fall's 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong from 2004.
- 100 Million Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong, also from 2004.
- 50,000,000 Soulwax Fans Can't Be Wrong from 2005.
- Rod Stewart's 1983 album "Body Wishes".
The meme has also been adopted to other media, such as:
- The second album by the group Dread Zeppelin, which is fronted by an Elvis impersonator, from 1991 is titled 5,000,000 in reference to this album; the footnote says "Tortelvis Fans Can't Be Wrong." The cover more obviously spoofs Led Zeppelin's fourth album.
- The title used verbatim in the lyrics to "The Thanksgiving Song", by Adam Sandler in 1993.
- The 1997 documentary by Joe Franklin 50,000,000 Joe Franklin Fans Can't Be Wrong.
- Mindless Self Indulgence's song "You'll Rebel To Anything (As Long As It's Not Challenging)" from their 2005 album of the same name contains the lyrics, "you're telling me that 50,000,000 screaming fans are never wrong, I'm telling you that 50,000,000 screaming fans are fucking morons".
- Die! Die! Die!'s self-titled debut features a song named "Franz (17 Die! Die! Die! Fans Can't Be Wrong)" in 2006.
[edit] Title meanings
The title is itself a reference to the hit song of 1927, "Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong", by Willie Raskin, Billy Rose, and Fred Fisher, most notably performed by Sophie Tucker. It is also supposed to be an estimate of the number of records that Presley sold worldwide by late 1959.
Its evolution of the phrase into a snowclone - as expressed in the Simpsons pastiche "Fifty million smokers can't be wrong," for example - ironically ridicules argumentum ad populum, the misconception that popularity or consensus equals validity. This postmodern interpretation, however, has no bearing on how the title was received by Elvis fans in late 1959 and the early 1960s, or on the intent of the phrase as used by RCA to market the album.
[edit] Track listing
Chart positions for LPs and EPs from Billboard Top Pop Albums chart; positions for singles from Billboard Pop Singles chart
[edit] Side One
| Track | Recorded | Catalogue | Release Date | Chart Peak | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 6/10/58 | 47-7506b | 3/10/59 | #4 | I Need Your Love Tonight | Bix Reichner and Sid Wayne | 2:04 |
| 2. | 9/6/57 | 47-7150 | 1/7/58 | #1 | Don't | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | 2:48 |
| 3. | 2/1/58 | 47-7240 | 4/1/58 | #2 | Wear My Ring Around Your Neck | Bert Carroll and Moody Russell | 2:13 |
| 4. | 9/6/57 | 47-7600b | 6/23/59 | #12 | My Wish Came True | Ivory Joe Hunter | 2:33 |
| 5. | 6/11/58 | 47-7410b | 10/21/58 | #8 | I Got Stung | David Hill and Aaron Schroeder | 1:49 |
[edit] Side Two
| Track | Recorded | Catalogue | Release Date | Chart Peak | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 2/23/57 | 47-7410 | 10/21/58 | #4 | One Night | Dave Bartholomew, Pearl King, Anita Steiman | 2:29 |
| 2. | 6/10/58 | 47-7600 | 6/23/59 | #1 | A Big Hunk O' Love | Aaron Schroeder and Sidney Wyche | 2:12 |
| 3. | 2/23/57 | 47-7150b | 1/7/58 | #8 | I Beg of You | Rose Marie McCoy and Cliff Owens | 1:50 |
| 4. | 6/10/58 | 47-7506 | 3/10/59 | #2 | (Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I | Bill Trader | 2:36 |
| 5. | 2/1/58 | 47-7240b | 4/1/58 | #15 | Don'cha Think It's Time | Luther Dixon and Clyde Otis | 1:54 |
[edit] 1997 Reissue with Bonus Tracks
| Track | Recorded | Original LP/EP Issue | Catalogue | Release Date | Chart Peak | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 6/10/58 | 47-7600 | 6/23/59 | #1 | A Big Hunk O' Love | Aaron Schroeder and Sidney Wyche | 2:12 | |
| 2. | 9/6/57 | 47-7600b | 6/23/59 | #12 | My Wish Came True | Ivory Joe Hunter | 2:33 | |
| 3. | 6/10/58 | 47-7506 | 3/10/59 | #2 | (Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I | Bill Trader | 2:36 | |
| 4. | 6/10/58 | 47-7506b | 3/10/59 | #4 | I Need Your Love Tonight | Bix Reichner and Sid Wayne | 2:04 | |
| 5. | 9/6/57 | 47-7150 | 1/7/58 | #1 | Don't | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | 2:48 | |
| 6. | 2/23/57 | 47-7150b | 1/7/58 | #8 | I Beg Of You | Rose Marie McCoy and Cliff Owens | 1:50 | |
| 7. | 9/7/57 | Elvis' Christmas Album | LOC 1035 | 10/15/57 | #1 | Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me) | Aaron Schroeder and Claude DeMetruis | 1:54 |
| 8. | 9/7/57 | Elvis' Christmas Album | LOC 1035 | 10/15/57 | #1 | Santa Claus Is Back In Town | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | 2:22 |
| 9. | 1/57 | Loving You | LPM 1515 | 7/1/57 | #1 | Party | Jessie Mae Robinson | 1:26 |
| 10. | 9/2/56 | Elvis | LPM 1382 | 10/19/56 | #1 | Paralyzed | Otis Blackwell and Elvis Presley | 2:23 |
| 11. | 2/23/57 | 47-7410 | 10/21/58 | #4 | One Night | Dave Bartholomew, Pearl King, Anita Steiman | 2:29 | |
| 12. | 6/11/58 | 47-7410b | 10/21/58 | #8 | I Got Stung | David Hill and Aaron Schroeder | 1:49 | |
| 13. | 1/23/58 | King Creole | LPM 1884 | 9/19/58 | #2 | King Creole | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | 2:08 |
| 14. | 2/1/58 | 47-7240 | 4/1/58 | #2 | Wear My Ring Around Your Neck | Bert Carroll and Moody Russell | 2:13 | |
| 15. | 2/1/58 | 47-7240b | 4/1/58 | #15 | Don'cha Think It's Time | Luther Dixon and Clyde Otis | 1:54 | |
| 16. | 1/13/57 | Loving You | LPM 1515 | 7/1/57 | #1 | Mean Woman Blues | Claude DeMetruis | 2:15 |
| 17. | 9/1/56 | 47-6800b | 1/4/57 | #21 | Playing for Keeps | Stan Kesler | 2:50 | |
| 18. | 1/15/58 | 47-7280 | 6/10/58 | #1 | Hard Headed Woman | Claude DeMetruis | 1:53 | |
| 19. | 1/12/57 | Loving You | LPM 1515 | 7/1/57 | #1 | Got A Lot O' Livin' to Do | Aaron Schroeder and Ben Weisman | 2:31 |
| 20. | 1/13/57 | Peace in the Valley | EPA 4054 | 4/57 | #3 | (There'll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me) | Thomas A. Dorsey | 3:22 |
