| 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greatest hits album by Elvis Presley | ||||
| Released | November 13, 1959 | |||
| Recorded | September 1956 – June 1958 | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Steve Sholes | |||
| Elvis Presley chronology | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | link |
50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong: Elvis' Gold Records - Volume 2 is the ninth album by Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Victor Records (LPM 2075) in November 1959. It is a compilation of hit singles released in 1958 and 1959 by Presley, from two recording sessions in June 1958 at RCA Studios in Nashville and three at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. The album 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. It was certified Gold on 11/1/1966 and Platinum on 3/27/1992 by the R.I.A.A.
Contents |
Gold Records Vol. 2 comprises every single, both A-sides and b-sides, released by Presley during 1958 and 1959, with the exception of "Hard Headed Woman" backed with "Don't Ask Me Why," both of which having been previously issued on King Creole. The singles all made the Top Five on the Billboard Hot 100, and 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The original 1984 compact disc issue in reprocessed (fake) stereo sound was quickly withdrawn and reissued in original monophonic. 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. The remaining bonus tracks derive from albums and EP singles released in the decade, with "Peace in the Valley" released on both EP and the Christmas LP. The bonus tracks are interspersed within the original tracks, with the running order to the album substantially altered. The album was reissued again with the bonus tracks removed and the original running order restored.
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.
The famous cover photo, of multiple images of Elvis wearing the gold lamé suit designed by Nudie's of Hollywood,[1] has been copied many times. Album covers so inspired include:
The meme has also been adopted to other media, such as:
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 singles 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.
Chart positions for LPs and EPs from Billboard Top Pop Albums chart; positions for singles from Billboard Pop Singles chart
| 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 |
| 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 | Doncha' Think It's Time | Luther Dixon and Clyde Otis | 1:54 |
| 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 |