Mariah Carey Passes Elvis In Number Of Number Ones

AP
Published: April 2, 2008

    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 40 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.
    Like that album, Carey said “EMC2” continues her sense of
freedom and rebirth: “It’s like emancipation of Mariah Carey to
the second power and beyond.“
    Carey, 38, said this is the most enjoyable point of her nearly
two-decade old career, and that’s her priority these days, not
trying to set sales records or even making pop history.
    “I’ve gone through enough of my life worrying about that kind
if thing,“ said Carey.
    “I want to encourage anyone else out there who feels like maybe
they can’t overcome an obstacle, I feel like I’m living proof ...
never lose your faith,“ she added. “I’m seriously a grateful
individual right now.“