Mariah Carey surpasses Elvis in No. 1s
LOS
ANGELES (AP) — With her 18th chart-topper, “Touch My
Body,” Mariah Carey has passed Elvis Presley for the most No. 1 singles on the
Billboard Hot 100, and is now second only to the Beatles.
But
while the diva was in full celebration mode after learning of her latest
milestone, she was also quick to put her accomplishment in perspective.
“I
really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only
revolutionized music but also changed the world,” Carey told The Associated
Press on Tuesday via phone from London. “That’s a completely different era and
time ... I’m just feeling really happy and grateful.”
Carey’s
single is the new No. 1 single on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart: The song
also is No. 1 on the trade magazine’s digital download chart thanks to a
precedent-setting 286,000 downloads in its debut week. She had been tied with
Presley with 17 No. 1 singles; the Beatles are the all-time leaders with 20.
(Madonna also beat a Presley record this week, surpassing the King for the most
top 10 hits with her 37th for her hit “4 Minutes.”)
Carey
said being in such company was gratifying not only because of her personal
success, but what it meant for women and minorities.
“For
me, in my mind the accomplishment is just that much sweeter,” she said. “In
terms of my ethnicity, always feeling like an outsider, always feeling
different ... for me it’s about saying, ‘Thank you Lord, for giving me the
faith to believe in myself when other people had written me off.’”
“Touch My Body” is the first single off of Carey’s
upcoming album “EMC2,” due out April 16. It is the follow-up to her
Grammy-winning disc “The Emancipation of Mimi,” released in 2005, that year’s
best-selling album with five million copies sold; it marked a huge comeback for
the multiplatinum superstar after personal and professional setbacks.