Elvis Christmas-RIAA Award?

[jbnva]

A idea occurred to me the other day,and I was surprised I hadnt thought of it before.
In the mid-late 1990s,BMG special Products relaesed a budget cd titled Elvis Christmas,using the same tracks that appeared on the 1970 Camden Xmas LP.
This title was available in stores and supermarkets for years,selling at as I recall only 2 or 3 dollars.God knows how many it sold(hopefully BMG does).
Since the Elvis Christmas cd released last year contains at least 75% of the tracks from this release(RIAA rules stipulate that re-releases contain 75% of the original release),its sales could be counted in with the sales with the newly released version.(BMG did this several years ago,combining the sales of the 1966 Frankie And Johnny LP with those from the mid seventies Pic Wic version).
RIAA no longer looks at the price,but at the number of units shipped,minus returns.
As the 90s version of this CD has been out there for years,easily available to the public(Ive seen it at checkout lines at the supermarket),and since the new version has 8 of the 10 songs from the earlier release,dont be surprised if this CD gets an award in the near future.

[KPM]

If I recall Elvis's original Christmas album was at about 7-8 million units sold. If it goes to 10 million it would be his first Diamond award. Not sure how many 30#1s has sold till now in the US but last time I read it was about 4 to 5 million. In the near future for Elvis to be awarded a Diamond award it would probably be the Christmas album. I am not sure how RIAA decides on what applies to sales totals. It would seem by what you say that he should have got a lot more sales added to the Christmas total in the last 3-4 Christmas seasons because BMG has released several Christmas packages in that time. Last year I saw 3 different covers of Elvis Christmas music in Sam Goodys. All songs on each were already released songs so why do they not count? There must be some technical reason I would think.

[jbnva]

As long as those 3 cds you mentioned has the same title,and those same 8 songs as also mentioned from the '70 xmas release,it would count.The 1st 2
(the original from '57,and the '70 version) wouldnt count since they had different titles,and the content was different.
I know its confusing,but trust me,the "Elvis Christmas" title,again,as long as they have the same 8 songs,will have all their sales counted together.
In recap; Both versions of EC have those 8 songs,from 57,they will be considered the same,and if,say,the 90s version sold 3 mil.(or whatever) it will be counted with the latest version.
Hope that helps.

[KPM]

Nope they were called "White Christmas" "Its Christmas Time", "IF Everyday Was just like Christmas" and the newest was "Elvis Christmas Peace" So they probably sold well and they do not go toward the total for the 1957 nor 1970 release. It is another story of sales he has which do not go towards his totals but same music.

[Brian Quinn]

Yet again, another example of Sony BMG not caring about Elvis. If only Bob Sillerman could buy them out - 'If I Can Dream'!!!!!!!!!!!


Brian (n)