Business Week On-line reports: Elvis Is Alive -- in Britain JANUARY 25, 2005    By Beth Carney The King has been riding high on the singles charts in recent weeks. Canny marketing helped, but so did the Top 40's shrinking relevance The top pop singer in Britain these days is an unlikely sensation. After all, he hasn't made a record in 27 years. Elvis Presley, however, has always been exceptional. Now, the king of rock and roll is making a surprise comeback on the British pop charts, thanks to a well-packaged rerelease of 18 of his hits by Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Elvis has been at the top of the charts for the past several weeks. His 1958 hit Jailhouse Rock, came in at No. 1 two weeks ago, one day after what would have been his 70th birthday. His 1959 song One Night won the top slot last Sunday, earning extra attention for being the British singles chart's 1,000th hit since the rankings began in 1952. Last week's single, A Fool Such as I, was shut out of the top slot by 18-year-old American singer Ciara Harris' hot new R&B track Goodies, but the 45-year-old love song still managed to place second. "COOL, ICONIC" ELVIS.  Considering that the chart-topping songs have been available in various forms for years, the success of the singles is a marketing triumph for Sony BMG. It's releasing each of Presley's 18 No. 1 British hits in chronological order over 18 consecutive weeks to honor the star's 70th birthday. As part of the campaign, Sony BMG has packaged each single in a case bearing the same artwork found on the original release. Along with the CDs, which sell for the equivalent of $7.50, fans can also buy a special collector's box for about $20 and a limited number of vinyl 45s for about $9. In contrast, the 2002 compilation album, Elv1s, which contains all but one of the songs included in the current promotion, sells for about $15. Key to the promotion's appeal is highlighting the "cool, iconic" Elvis image from the '50s and '60s, rather than the overweight, Vegas-era Elvis, said Darren Henderson, vice-president of marketing for Sony BMG, who's in charge of the campaign. SADDER STORY.  "It has been done very, very well," said Gennaro Castaldo, head of public relations for HMV stores, Britain's biggest music retailer, where some outlets have a waiting list for the singles. Castaldo notes that hard-core Presley fans, mainstream listeners, and collectors with an eye on resale value have all been drawn to the set. Already, the singles are being offered for $20 to $100 on eBay (EBAY ). "There's a lot of people out there that have kind of bought into it," he said. When One Night became the British charts' 1,000th hit, it attracted another burst of attention that has fueled interest. In response to demand, Sony BMG this week expanded the limited-edition run from about 25,000 units to about 35,000 units. But behind the flattering attention for Presley and Sony BMG is a less upbeat story about the decline of the singles chart's relevance. Jailhouse Rock hit the top position after selling only 21,272 copies -- the lowest figure for a No. 1 hit since the beginning of the listings. CHANGING MUSIC.  Although January is historically a weak month for record sales, the numbers also point to a broader drop-off in the singles market. According to the British Phonographic Industry's figures on trade deliveries to retail stores, 80.1 million singles were sold in Britain in 1999, but by 2003 the number had fallen to 36.1 million. The pop charts hold a special place in the culture of Britain, a nation of serious music fans. According to the BPI, British music buyers purchase an average of 7.3 CDs a year -- more than anywhere else in the world. The recent decline of British singles is partly due to musical trends, according to HMV's Castaldo. The mid-1990s were a heyday for pop singles in Britain, thanks to the rise of boy bands, popular Britpop groups such as Oasis and Blur, and the massive phenomenon of the Spice Girls. The dance music and guitar bands that followed were less oriented to singles. DOWNLOADS GO UP.  But more importantly, the economic incentive of buying a CD single has decreased in the past few years. The growth of discount supermarket chains has pushed down the average price of a full CD, so that 60% cost $18 or less. "When you're comparing that to a single that costs [$7.50], it's not a difficult decision to make," said BPI spokesperson Matt Phillips. Although industry groups also blame the sales decline of singles on the rise of illegal downloading, it's now the legal download market that's poised to reinvigorate the charts. Last year, a number of legal download services, including Apple's (AAPL ) iTunes, Sony (SNE ) Connect, and Napster, launched in Britain. The number of legal downloads grew from about 14,000 songs a week at the beginning of the year to 312,000 in the last week of December. That same week, the sale of legal downloads, which cost about $1.50 each, eclipsed the sale of physical singles in Britain for the first time. The Official UK Charts Company, which compiles the charts from sales data gleaned from retailers, started a download listing in September and later this year plans to incorporate download sales into the singles charts. STREET CRED.  Exactly how the introduction of download sales will affect the charts is up for debate. According to Forrester Research analyst Paul Jackson, the typical download buyer is relatively young compared to the average music buyer. Yet music downloaders must be old enough to have a credit card and are generally affluent or tech-savvy enough to have a portable listening device and a broadband connection. The singles charts, meanwhile, are now driven by under-16s, said Simon Dornan, a spokesman for retailer Virgin Megastores. With the exception of the Elvis phenomenon, the British singles charts tend to feature more recent releases, with lots of turnover, while the download charts include slightly older songs that are still being played on the radio. By eliminating the constant turnover and broadening the base, Dornan said, "downloading could give some credibility to the chart that it's lost." Whether Presley would make it into a singles chart that includes downloads is a question. His singles have been notably absent from the current download best-sellers, which is dominated by the likes of Gwen Stefani, Eminem, and Jennifer Lopez. But Presley did have a 2002 hit in Britain with a dance version of his relatively unknown vintage B-side A Little Less Conversation after it was remixed by Dutch deejay JXL (also known as Tom Holkenborg). A Little Less Conversation, due out in April, will be the final release in the series of 18 hits coming out this year. "Elvis is one of the biggest artists of all time. Even before the reissues, he's been on the charts for more weeks than anyone else,'' said Darren Haynes, brand manager for Official UK Charts. In other words: Don't count out the King. home | new | the man | lisa marie | priscilla & others | fun | clothes | photos | records | movies | concerts | gifts | web | guide | e-cards | today | facts Click here for more info on the book The Girls' Guide to Elvis Click here to check out sister book The Girls' Guide to Country Click here to check out the latest sister book The Ultimate Guide to Chick Flicks