April 2008 : Billboard Reduce Elvis' No. 1 Hits From 18 to 17

The number of No. 1 hits Elvis Presley had in the US became a topic of discussion in April 2008 in several news articles when it was announced by Billboard magazine in that month that Mariah Carey and Madonna had surpassed Elvis Presley in the number of 'Number 1' and 'Top Ten' hits, with 18 and 37 hits respectively.

Elvis fans were angry and much was said ...

 You can read our article from 2008 here

This was Disputed by EPE

Both of these claims were disputed by music historian Joel Whitburn and Elvis Presley Enterprises and many Elvis Presley Fan Clubs. Whitburn lists Elvis as having 18 number 1 hits (placing him in a tie with Mariah Carey at that time) and 38 top ten hits (one more than Madonna at that time). EPE claimed Elvis had 40 top ten hits. The differences depend on whether a double-sided hit single is counted as one hit single, or two hit songs. Billboards Geoff Mayfield : 'Billboard's charts department and the magazine's trivia expert, Fred Bronson, consider those two songs comprise but one single, and thus a singular No. 1 shared by the two songs'.

Until 2008 the Double Sided Single Hound Dog / Don't Be Cruel was counted as two No. 1 Hits

Before the age of Compact Discs and digital music downloads, singles were released on vinyl 45 RPM records, with one song on each side (an A-side and a B-side or flip side). Both songs of many Elvis singles became hits and were listed on the charts. Hound Dog / Don't Be Cruel was a double sided hit single that topped the Billboard Sales chart for 11 weeks in 1956. At the time, Hound Dog was listed as the number 1 A-side for the first 5 weeks, and Don't Be Cruel was listed as the number 1 A-side for the last 6 weeks.

November 2011 : Billboard Remove another 10 No. 1 Hits from Elvis Tally : or Do They?

On November 04, 2011, Billboard themselves published a story with the headline, 'Could Rihanna Be Bigger Than the Beatles on the Billboard Hot 100?' which announced that 'With the ascension of Love, Rihanna becomes just the seventh artist to notch at least 11 Hot 100 No. 1s, joining the Beatles (20), Mariah Carey (18), Michael Jackson (13), Madonna (12), the Supremes (12) and Whitney Houston (11).

 *** No longer any mention of Elvis Presley ***

And the news went out ... but was this old news?

Did Billboard in fact remove these number one hits in July 2008?

And we have only just found out via the above mentioned announcement?

It seems they may have going by their article published in July 2008

When Billboard celebrated the 50th anniversary Hot 100 Chart on their website [Image and text below] they included text explaining that Elvis was not on the chart and explained why.

Most No. 1s By Artist (All-Time) [See image below]

'The all-time list from the chart's first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008, plus decade-by-decade recaps of the artists with the most Hot 100 No. 1 hits'.

Note: Elvis Presley isn't on this list because most of his hits predate the Hot 100 (read more .. below).

[You may notice that Elvis Presley isn't on this all-time list of Most No 1s By Artist.

That isn't an oversight. Many of Presley's biggest hit singles came out before the Hot 100 started in August of 1958. While he's had seven No. 1s on the Hot 100, a number of his most notable smashes like Don't Be Cruel, Love Me Tender and All Shook Up were all released before the Hot 100 existed.

Indeed, they were all still No. 1 pop hits - they just weren't No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100.]

And displayed the following chart ...

So it seems they removed Elvis three years ago.

Billboard Hot 100 Chart 50th Anniversary : July 2008.

From our original article : Billboard Change Rules and Cheats Elvis of Ten [10] more No. 1 Hits

We originally added this image and text so as to be balanced in our reporting showing Billboard had somewhere acknowledged Elvis not being on the chart, however in our proof reading we noticed it was July 2008 and put two and two together as they say, or we think we have.

Billboard Hot 100 Chart 50th Anniversary

Acknowledgment :

We want to be fair and open in our assessment and invite your feedback, and as such we include the following published to mark the 50th anniversary of the Hot 100 Chart, however although they do make clear mention and acknowledge Elvis did have many number one hits before 1958 this is still not acceptable as it pales into insignificance compared to their announcements of Mariah Carey and Rihanna creating new records.