“Return to Sender”?
Not this album: U.S. Postal Service customers snapped up enough copies of the service’s exclusive new “Elvis Presley Forever” compilation, released last week in conjunction with the new Elvis Presley Forever postage stamp, to put it at No. 11 in its first week on Billboard’s 200 Albums chart.
The 18-track CD spans Presley’s career from his 1954 Sun Records recording “That’s All Right Mama,” through his early-1970s hits “Burning Love” and “The Wonder of You,” and includes previously unissued versions of “If I Can Dream” and “What Now My Love.”
It also includes such Presley signature hits as “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Hound Dog,” “Return to Sender,” “Viva Las Vegas” and “Suspicious Minds.”
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It’s the highest debut for a Presley album in a dozen years, since his “2nd to None” album debuted at No. 3 in 2003. “Elvis Presley Forever” is being sold at Postal Service locations and online for $9.99.
Presley’s ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, was joined by Postmaster General Megan Brennan to introduce the stamp, and the album, during this year’s Elvis Week activities at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn., surrounding commemoration of the 38th anniversary of his death on Aug. 16, 1977 at age 42.
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