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Elvis, Beatles, or Michael Jackson.
#1
Who is the biggest of them all? Who is the most famous, iconic, influential, popular? This isn't a thread about who you prefer the most-I'll create another thread for that.

I would argue Elvis isn't that popular of a singer today especially in comparison to other ones-I know way more Michael Jackson or Beatles fans than people who consider themselves Elvis fans (but he's definitely more popular than very outdated singers like Madonna-no question). That doesn't make him any less famous, iconic, or influential-and you could argue it doesn't make him any less big of an artist

There are a lot of people who think Elvis is more iconic and famous than Michael Jackson. I agree with that to an extent, because a lot of Jackson's iconic status and fame is because of his weirdness-plastic surgery, legal troubles, odd behavior, etc.

Elvis has many fans in Europe and Australia and even in places like Asia, but he didn't tour the world like The Beatles and Michael Jackson did, and I don't think he's as famous in other countries as the Beatles and Jackson. Many people view Michael Jackson as the biggest entertainer ever. But you could also argue the Beatles were bigger, since they had more top songs than Jackson, among other reasons.

http://www.thetoptens.com/beatles-be...elvis-presley/


The Beatles Are Orignal and Unique
Dancing is nothing new there are a lot of great dancers and with time anyone can be a good dancer but nobody can learn to be a genius songwriter. There are lots of people who dance great but how many wrote songs like Across the Universe, Blackbird, Hey Jude, In My Life. I could go on and on.
The Beatles Revolutionised Social Culture
The Beatles defined an entire era in social culture. Elvis was a rockstar but what more? His ideals were never expressed and shared with the world. Michael Jackson was removed from reality. Nobody really knew him, he lived an eccentric life and kept himself separate from society. How did MJ change society?
The Beatles Sold the Most Records
They are a little ahead of Elvis in total sales, but miles ahead of MJ.





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#2
The music of The Beatles is timeless! Unbelievable song writing, singing and playing!
 The ultimate connection is between a performer and its' audience!
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#3
SteveO Wrote:The music of The Beatles is timeless! Unbelievable song writing, singing and playing!

What about Michael Jackson compared to Elvis-not who you like better, but was a bigger artist?
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#4
MJ was a huge talent...no doubt but Elvis was no slouch so I really can't decide! Two very different eras of music, culture and circumstance. I really don't like to state bigger or best in music. Music is subjective...to each his own!
 The ultimate connection is between a performer and its' audience!
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#5
ELVIS is much better than Michael!!
I'm afraid to say what I think about the Beatles.
I will give a hint. After what John said, that separated me from them.
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#6
Elton John & Bernie Taupin wrote better songs than the three of them put together.
'The purpose of life is a life of purpose' - Athena Orchard.
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#7
so did The Finn Brothers and Brothers Gibb....the masters of "pop perfection"

if it wasn't for George Martin the Beatles probably wouldn't have been as big as they were...GM had foresight and encouraged them to step outside 'the box' and take risks,
no other producer at the time was doing that....
but with all respect to Lennon/McCartney they were willing to do it,
I wonder if the likes of Townshend,Marriott/Laine would have been open to those suggestions at that time????
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..."  -  Me 2014.


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#8
Lovely Linda Wrote:ELVIS is much better than Michael!!
I'm afraid to say what I think about the Beatles.
I will give a hint. After what John said, that separated me from them.

if youre refering to John's "the beatles are bigger than jesus" comment.....and I assume you are....
that was taken out of context by the American "bible belt" fanatics....

Lennon didn't mean they were bigger than Jesus, he meant "kids put more faith,love and trust in musicians(than the bible) and they mean more to teens than religion"
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..."  -  Me 2014.


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#9
SammyIbanez Wrote:
The Beatles Sold the Most Records
They are a little ahead of Elvis in total sales, but miles ahead of MJ.

I don't know about the accuracy of the webpage where you got your info but I visited Graceland in 2011 and
the RIAA honoured Presley with a plaque in 2004 for "worldwide album sales in excess of one billion"....on the plaque it also states
Presley "is the first recording artist to achieve one billion sales"....!

The Bealtes achieved one billion sales around 2012 so Presley is almost a decade up on Beatles sales figures.

on a side by side comparison of #1 hits I have checked my music books and the Wiki results and this is how it stands between Elvis and Beatles....

Elvis Presley.....................16 US...10 US Country...24 CAN...20 UK...13 AU
Beatles............................22 US..........................22 CAN...17 UK...27 AU

if you are talking actual record sales.....Presley wins hands down,
if your talking career duration..............Beatles win hands down...

if you talk movies(movie career), Presley wins hands down....31 movies ALL if which made money at the box office, Presley was also the first Hollywood actor to earn a one million dollar fee to appear in a movie....his movie success rate was 100%, he never appeared in a 'box office flop'.

again, to look on the other side of the coin, Presley never wrote songs, he was a singer/vocalist...he received writing credits for "love me tender" which he adapted from an old folk song entitled "aura lee", he also received credit for "all shook up", but I doubt he ever had any input in the music or the lyrics other than he used the phrase "im all shook up" in his everyday life....

in the mid 1970s when he recorded his "aloha from Hawaii" concert the show was beamed live via satellite to all corners of the globe, it had an estimated viewing audience of one billion people....not bad considering the world population was around the two billion mark at that time....

we could go on making comparisons forever and a day but lets just agree that both Presley and The Beatles were hugely influential in their respective eras of music...
the fact is Beatles made some amazing pop records and took music to places it had never been before and Presley could sing every style/genre and still sound authentic.


that's my take on it, end of rant.....over and out!
"BTO....Bachman,Turner,Overweight
They were big in the 70s....for five minutes,on a Saturday,after lunch..."  -  Me 2014.


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#10
CRAZY-HORSE Wrote:I don't know about the accuracy of the webpage where you got your info but I visited Graceland in 2011 and
the RIAA honoured Presley with a plaque in 2004 for "worldwide album sales in excess of one billion"....on the plaque it also states
Presley "is the first recording artist to achieve one billion sales"....!

The Bealtes achieved one billion sales around 2012 so Presley is almost a decade up on Beatles sales figures.

on a side by side comparison of #1 hits I have checked my music books and the Wiki results and this is how it stands between Elvis and Beatles....

Elvis Presley.....................16 US...10 US Country...24 CAN...20 UK...13 AU
Beatles............................22 US..........................22 CAN...17 UK...27 AU

if you are talking actual record sales.....Presley wins hands down,
if your talking career duration..............Beatles win hands down...

if you talk movies(movie career), Presley wins hands down....31 movies ALL if which made money at the box office, Presley was also the first Hollywood actor to earn a one million dollar fee to appear in a movie....his movie success rate was 100%, he never appeared in a 'box office flop'.

again, to look on the other side of the coin, Presley never wrote songs, he was a singer/vocalist...he received writing credits for "love me tender" which he adapted from an old folk song entitled "aura lee", he also received credit for "all shook up", but I doubt he ever had any input in the music or the lyrics other than he used the phrase "im all shook up" in his everyday life....

in the mid 1970s when he recorded his "aloha from Hawaii" concert the show was beamed live via satellite to all corners of the globe, it had an estimated viewing audience of one billion people....not bad considering the world population was around the two billion mark at that time....

we could go on making comparisons forever and a day but lets just agree that both Presley and The Beatles were hugely influential in their respective eras of music...
the fact is Beatles made some amazing pop records and took music to places it had never been before and Presley could sing every style/genre and still sound authentic.


that's my take on it, end of rant.....over and out!

Isn't it fair to say Elvis Presley is much less popular than the Beatles nowadays? The average American doesn't know the name of an Elvis album, you almost never hear his music on the radio, and unlike other popular entertainers, I don't know that many people who listen to Elvis
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