The Three No. 1 Hits of 1960
Stuck On You
Presley’s first single release after his time in the Army was very much a rushed project.
Presley was released on March 5, 1960. Two days later, Billboard magazine reported his label was preparing to release a single. The story admitted that RCA executives hadn‘t yet chosen what that single would be.
That was because it hadn’t yet been recorded. Presley recorded “Stuck on You” on March 20 and RCA released it three days later. The turnaround was so tight that RCA had to print the single sleeves without knowing the title of the song.
On April 25, “Stuck on You” replaced Percy Faith’s “Theme from a Summer Place” at No. 1 atop the Billboard Hot 100. It would stay there for four weeks before it was knocked out of the top spot by the Everly Brothers’ “Cathy’s Clown.”
It's Now Or Never
Elvis Presley “has no training at all,” Frank Sinatra told a reporter in June 1957. “When he goes into something serious, a bigger kind of singing, we’ll find out if he is a singer.”
Presley showed Sinatra — and the world — with “It’s Now or Never.”
Presley’s mother had owned a 78 rpm single of Enrico Caruso’s “O Sole Mio.” Presley loved the song so much he had taped himself singing it while he was in the Army. He asked his record company to have lyricists write an English translation for him. One of those lyricists was Aaron Schroeder, who would go on to write the “Scooby-Doo” theme song.
The result would become Elvis’ biggest-selling hit, replaced “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polkadot Bikini” at No. 1 on Aug. 15, 1960. It would be knocked out of the top spot five weeks later by Chubby Checker’s “The Twist.”
Presley had proven to Sinatra, to the music world and his fans and to himself that he could be just as successful by exploring different musical styles from his standard rock ’n’ roll fare.
Are You Lonesome Tonight?
After a long day recording in RCA’s Nashville studios, an exhausted Elvis tried twice to record the vocals for “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” He asked his producer, legendary guitar master Chet Atkins, to turn out the studio lights to set the right mood for the spoken-word part in the middle of the song.
His third try did the trick. But RCA executives were nervous about the song, so they held off releasing it for months. When they did, the single sold 900,000 copies its first week in stores.
“Are You Lonesome Tonight?” would be nominated for two Grammy Awards but it would lose in both categories to Ray Charles‘ “Georgia On My Mind.”
A live version recorded in 1969 in which Elvis messes with the lyrics and then cracks up laughing throughout the spoken-word section would be a minor hit in England in the 1980s.
At one point in that recording, Elvis becomes even more amused at one of his backup singers, who continues her part despite his laughter. That singer was Cissy Houston — Whitney Houston’s mother.