Elvis Presley earns his 53rd top 40 album on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Sept. 5) as the new compilation Elvis Forever debuts at No. 11. The set, sold exclusively through the U.S. Postal Service, is Presley’s highest-charting album since 2003, when Elvis: 3nd to None peaked at No. 3. The debuting album was released in conjunction with the promotion of Presley’s new commemorative stamp.
The new Presley set is sold only as a CD through the Postal Service’s website and brick-and-mortar locations, and bows with 27,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 20, according to Nielsen Music. The entirety of that sum is generated by pure album sales.
Among all acts with the most top 40-charting albums, Presley remains in second place behind Frank Sinatra, with 57. The latter collected his most recent visit to the region with this year’s Ultimate Sinatra compilation, which debuted and peaked at No. 32 in May. (Presley died in 1977; Sinatra, in 1998.)
With Elvis Forever, the King of Rock & Roll also fittingly debuts at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Rock Albums chart. It’s his first No. 1 on the list (which originated in 2006).
Elvis Forever also makes a strong debut on the Top Country Albums chart at No. 2, marking Presley’s highest-charting set since 2002’s Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits, which spent three weeks atop the list. Presley has visited the top two rungs of Top Country Albums 11 times; seven of those sets hit No. 1.
