Songs earned Elvis top two pop chart slots simultaneously
This week in 1956: U.S. installed the first long-distance Nike missiles in West Germany; Virginia sanctioned state funding of private schools, thus enabling segregation; The FBI identified the men involved in the January 1950 Brinks robbery in Boston and a singer from Tupelo, Mississippi, was about to claim the top slot of the music charts with not one – but three songs.
Elvis’ RCA Victor single “Love Me Tender” had been in the No. 1 slot, having knocked “Don’t Be Cruel”/”hound Dog” down to No. 2.
The week of October 20th, 1956, “Love Me Tender” had been in the No. 2 position while “Don’t Be Cruel”/“hound Dog” were No. 1 and the following week they reversed positions on the charts – which marked the first time the same artist had held the top two positions on the pop music charts.
Elvis had done a screen test for Hal Wallis at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood even before his first RCA Victor release- “Heartbreak Hotel.”
They had scheduled his film debut with Burt Lancaster and Katherine Hepburn in “The Rainmaker” and if he had, his film career might have taken a quite different path. But his manager, Col. Tom Parker, did not want Elvis to go in that direction, so instead Presley’s film career of 33 movies consisted of simple plots with beautiful female co-stars with some songs thrown in for good measure.
His first film was originally titled “The Reno Brothers,” but by the time production began had been retitled “Love Me Tender.”
The title track was actually based on an 1861 folk song titled “Aura Lee.”
Although the official songwriters credit list Elvis Presley and Vera Watson, the song was actually written by Vera’s husband Ken Darby, who was also the film’s musical director.
Darby didn’t think that Presley’s band – Scotty Moore, Bill Black and D.J. Fontana, would do justice to the music so the musicians heard on the soundtrack were members of The Ken Darby Trio.
The movie opened in New York City on November 16th. RCA Victor had been forced to release the single the first week of October due to the demand for the record following Presley’s performance of the song on his first Ed Sullivan Show TV appearance on September 9th.
“Love Me Tender” was at the top of the pop charts for five weeks. It peaked at No. 3 three on the country charts and was on the charts for 18 weeks.
Elvis Presley placed 87 songs on the country music charts between 1955 and 2 008, including 11 No. 1s.
Sixty-eight of his country chart songs also placed on the pop music charts.
Elvis died in 1977 at age 42.
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