Elvis @ 88

[erik]

Had he still been alive, Elvis would have turned 88 years old today. To mark this, here is a minor two-sided hit of his from 1969:

"Memories" (from the 1968 NBC-TV special):


"Charro" (title song from Elvis' last Western movie):


Both songs were written by Mac Davis and Billy Strange; and although the two-sided pair ("Memories" being the A-side) only got up as high as #35 on the Hot 100 in April 1969, they still were great examples of Elvis as arguably the most influential figure of American pop music in the 20th century.

[sliderocker]

Billboard has long insisted they never had a bias against Elvis in any shape or form, but Billboard in 1969 began a policy in which the listing of Elvis's 45s that featured both sides of the 45 being played, the A side got the chart number while the B side received an F for the flip side being played on the radio, but seemingly not counting for sales.

The problem was, they didn't hold other artists, especially the Beatles to this policy. Thus, the Beatles's double sided 45 hit "Something" and "Come Together" charted separately. "Something" charted at number three while "Come Together" made it to number one. Billboard amended their policy for that 45 so that both sides were a number one, but a British book on rock records indicated the highest Billboard chart position for "Something" was indeed number three.

Ostensibly, Billboard's policy was to keep any Elvis 45 from reaching number one. There was nothing Billboard could do about "Suspicious Minds." It just had number one written all over it. Would it have stayed at number one longer if the song had run longer than 4:22?

Here's a version that was extended by two minutes. And I think I read RCA was nervous about extending the song to seven minutes, since they feared it would've looked like Elvis was following the Beatles on their seven minute "Hey Jude" and Richard Harris on his seven minute plus opus, the Jimmy Webb song "MacArthur's Park." The person who made this video actually makes the case with his video that a six to seven minute version of "Suspicious Minds" would've been a hit no matter what it's length. And it might have stayed longer at number one had it been longer. It was said the DJs didn't care for the double fade on the original as it threw them off. That should've only been a one time occurrence however. No one should've been that dumb.



But, despite Billboard's claims to the contrary, it did and does look suspicious Elvis was the only artist affected by this policy. In all honesty, by the 70s, Elvis was almost the only artist still charting with double sided 45s.

And of the artists who still managed to snag a double sided 45 hit single, Terry Jacks, as a member of the Poppy Family with his late wife Susan, indicated having a double sided charting single hurt both sides of the 45, resulting in both songs charting lower than what they would have if the songs had been released separately. Their double sided 45 of "I Was Wondering" and "Where Evil Grows" both missed the top forty.

Similarly, the Monkees charted in 1969 with two double sided 45s, "Someday Man" and "Listen to the Band," and "Good Clean Fun" and "Mommy and Daddy." All four songs charted poorly in the Billboard charts, not even breaking the top fifty. Would the songs have done better if they had been released separately? In each instance, the DJs flipped the 45s when the A-sides was being played and discovered they liked the B-sides better. This stopped the A-side from charting any higher with the B-side starting from scratch.

Billboard's policy, if it had been equally applied, would've helped the B-sides when they took over from where the A-sides left off. But, the policy hampered Elvis's songs that were in the Top 40 or higher from charting any higher, possibly even making number one. And it could've and should've helped the artists who had double sided 45s where the DJsswitched from the A-side to the B-side. As Billboard claimed in their revisionist history, "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" were the same record, so they shouldn't each have been a number one record. Funny how they didn't and don't apply that policy to the Beatles.

Disclaimer: I am an Elvis fan and I am a Beatles fan. What I am not is a fan of Billboard's blatant hypocrisy.