Elvis Back In Nashville (4 cd Box Set)

[DearGeorgie]

I don’t know anyone that thinks the Beatles are “cool” . they weren’t cool in the documentary.

Um... you're wrong yet again about the Fab Four. For a group that hardly anyone thinks is "cool", they're sure doing quite well...52 years after officially breaking up.

[emjel]

the Only reason there is a bigger demand for beatle stuff is because they have starved their fans. They rarely do anything. The Elvis people have spoiled their fans. It’s not because they are cooler or anything. I don’t know anyone that thinks the Beatles are “cool” . they weren’t cool in the documentary. They are just having their big fanfare right now.

Oh dear…that old chestnut again…the starvation thing. So is that why Abbey Road has been on the Billboard 200 chart every week since it was re-issued back in Sept 2019….because Beatles fans have been starved. Beatles fans would have bought the deluxe set with all the outtakes within a few weeks of release just like Elvis fans do when Sony put out a new release….. Beatles fans wouldn’t wait 12, 18 or 24 months before buying it or any of the other re-issues that have been made available over the past 4 years - the album created sales of over half a million in 2021 alone in the US. Between the inception of SoundScan in the 1991 and 2001, it built up sales of around 5 million.

I guess that because according to you, Beatles fans are so starved, that more recently, this was the reason the original album, prior to the 50th re-issue, was on the chart for the previous 9 months in 2019. The fact that the album was the Top Selling vinyl album in the US in 2010 and 2017 also suggests others outside of the fanbase were buying it. And that was all before the recent documentary.

Their "1" album has been on Billboard 200 for 504 weeks since it was released in 2000 selling close to 14 million copies. Apple Records announced worldwide sales of 31 million back in 2009 and it has since shifted several more million since across the globe since then.

At the end of 2015 when The Beatles album catalogue was put onto Spotify, streams from the 28 albums, the majority of which have never been re-released with outtakes and are included, amount to over 12 billion streams. Compare that to Elvis who has been on Spotify a year or so longer, has nearly 100 albums and has generated 4.7 billion streams.

As I wrote, Beatles fans buy their new releases that contain unreleased stuff within a few weeks, just like Elvis fans do and Beatles fans would have done that very same thing with Let It Be. Yet three months after release, it continues to sell, so far accumulating over 217k sales in the US. In 2021, Sgt Pepper which was re-released four years ago has generated sales of just over 90k and the White Double album, already certified 24 x Platinum two years ago around another 50k. Those sales have not been generated by starving Beatles fans.

Now before you throw a hissy fit, I’m not for one moment suggesting that had FTD or Sony not put out the stuff they have over the years, that sales would not have been a little better on certain Elvis albums, but are you seriously trying to tell me that had FTD or Sony not done any of that, Elvis studio album re-issues would have matched those kind of numbers. I mean there are only a couple of studio albums from Elvis that reached 500k or more when they were originally released, let alone re-released 50 years later.

Of course the recent documentary has created further interest in the group and their albums but albums such as Revolver and 1967-70 which are appearing on some charts around the world, have been on catalogue since they were originally released many decades ago, so it can’t be hardcore Beatles fans who are buying those two releases….there is nothing extra on them to warrant Beatles fans from buying them now. And for comparison purposes, I didn’t notice any Elvis studio albums making chart appearances following the three hour screening of The Searcher on HBO back in 2018. In fact, the last time I recall seeing any original Elvis career albums on the Billboard 200 was a month or so after he died.

Regarding your comment about not knowing anyone who thinks The Beatles are "cool", , I believe the point being made was that their music is more popular than that of Elvis’. And that is backed up by some of the above data. You state that you do not know anyone who thinks they are "cool" as being some kind of definitive conclusion about non popularity of their music, but it is almost meaningless - I do not personally know anyone who thinks Ed Sheeran is "cool", but that’s not to suggest he isn’t popular, because quite clearly, he is.

Maybe the word "cool" was not the correct choice of wording by Z0S0, but their popularity 50 plus years after they broke up remains pretty high in my book.