The Number Five … not song exactly, but Number Five record … in The OzHitztory Blog’s Top 20 Best Hit Songs Of 1956 is…
“Don’t Be Cruel” by Elvis Presley, with “Hound Dog” on the B-side!
That’s two of Elvis’ biggest classics on the one piece of wax! What a bargain!
First, here’s “Don’t Be Cruel”
Elvis had had girls screaming at him for a couple of years by now, and obviously he knows what they like and how to make them scream. Elvis goes “mmmmm” and they scream. Elvis stands frozen still for a second, and they scream. There’s a bit there where Elvis is doing nothing identifiably special, but still they scream then too.
Behind the scenes it appears that they’d figured out exactly how to create the perfect Elvis record to make girls scream as well. Not only is it full of the kind of “thankyouverymuch” styled low notes that made the women go wide, but it features the best looking man alive down on his feet and groveling. How could a girl resist?
“Hound Dog” on the other hand, is a completely different matter. It is the biggest full-frontal sexual assault of his career, so much so that even sans pelvic gyrations, it’s difficult to believe that it is actually just about a useless dog. Surely there must be some smutty innuendo. Perhaps, in Big Mama Thornton’s version she was singing about a good-for-nothing boyfriend, but dudes don’t sing songs like that. Elvis is truly just singing about a useless dog.
Quite why he felt the need to dry hump a microphone whilst singing about such a dog, I’m not entirely sure, but who am I to question the King?
No.9!
No.8!
No.7!
No.6!
No.4!
No.3!
No.2!
NUMBER ONE!
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