Why John Lennon Owned 10 Copies of Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’
TL;DR:
- John Lennon said he owned 10 copies of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.”
- He said he wasn’t the only one of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s fans in that situation.
- John didn’t want Fab Four fans to have to buy the same songs repeatedly.
John Lennon said he owned 10 copies of Elvis Presley‘s “Heartbreak Hotel.” He didn’t seem to be happy about it. Subsequently, he explained The Beatles wanted to avoid putting their fans in the same situation.
John Lennon didn’t like ‘paying overhead prices’ for Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ again and again
The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon includes an interview from 1972. In it, John discusses how many of Elvis’ tracks appeared on several of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll‘s albums. “See, when we were kids, we’d end up buying Elvis records 10 times in England, and all of them would have the same tracks on them,” he said.
“I know it happened with Beatles in the end as things got out of our control,” he added. “But in the early days, we were really set on giving people their money’s worth off the record, ’cause we’d been up in the sticks there in Liverpool paying overhead prices where we’d get the same ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ and the same album 10 times and all that jazz.”
John Lennon didn’t want The Beatles’ fans to buy songs over and over like Elvis Presley’s fans
Subsequently, John discussed the way The Beatles put together songs on their albums. “And that was our policy at first, just to put 14 tracks a side that were brand-new and never put singles on the albums, which everybody did, was have a hit single and make an album of it,” he said.
“And that continued for a bit, but then they had to do it different over here because they would only allow us 10 tracks a side in America for some reason or other,” he added.
‘Heartbreak Hotel’ became a hit once in the United States and multiple times in the United Kingdom
According to The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits, “Heartbreak Hotel” topped the Billboard Top 100 for eight weeks. The tune appeared on the compilation album Elvis: 30 #1 Hits, which was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for three weeks. Elvis: 30 #1 Hits stayed on the chart for 139 weeks.
According to The Official Charts Company, “Heartbreak Hotel” charted at No. 2 in 1956, No. 10 in 1971, and No. 45 in 1996. Meanwhile, Elvis: 30 #1 Hits reached No. 1 for two weeks, remaining on the chart for 161 weeks.
John owned several copies of “Heartbreak Hotel” as did the British public.
