The latest single of the rock'n'roll king was released in June 1959 and continued his string of success. On July 6th "A Big Hunk O' Love" entered Billboard's "Hot 100" at number 43, was listed for 14 weeks and made it up all the way to the number one. On the "Rhythm & Blues Chart" the track was listed for seven weeks and peaked at number 10. "My Wish Came True" could be found on the "Hot 100" for eleven weeks and reached number 12. It also appeared on the "Rhythm & Blues Chart", albeit just for three weeks. Nevertheless it peaked at number 15. The US sales were honored by the RIAA with a Gold Award, the Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences nominated "A Big Hunk O' Love" for a Grammy in the categories "Best Rhythm & Blues Performance" and "Best Performance By A Top40 Artist". In Great Britain, Norway, Belgium and The Netherlands the single became a top 10 hit, in Germany, where Elvis was serving the US Army, it didn't make it past number 23. Worldwide "A Big Hunk O' Love" / "My Wish Came True" sold three milion units, which translates to 450 million paid streams.

The single is not available on the streaming platforms, but both tracks can be found on the album "50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong - Elvis' Gold Records Volume 2" (1959). In 2016 the complete Presley catalogue was restored and remastered by Vic Anesini for a boxed set of 60 compact discs called "The Album Collection". Sony Music Entertainment provides the streaming platforms with the same versions of the individual tracks, albeit in 24 bit/90 khz flac. That means, if the platform of your choice supports high resolution audio, you can enjoy the songs in the same quality Sony used to scan and master them. On Spotify, which has a market share of approximately 30% and is the only platform that publishes streaming figures, "A Big Hunk O' Love" accumulates 1.5 million streams, "My Wish Came True" doesn't even hit the million mark. But while the original recording of "A Big Hunk O' Love" has gotten quite unpopular, the live rendition from 1973 was streamed 23 million times and the remake, which features The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, clocks in at more than 5 million streams. So maybe today's audience considers the original 1950s sound to be too sparse or too rough.

For the cover photo the king posed in front of the Burgtor in Bad Nauheim/Germany. The backside of the sleeve was used to promote the extended player "Elvis Sails" and the long player "A Date With Elvis".

The rock'n'roll song was written by Aaron Schroeder and Sid Wyche and was recorded on June 10, 1958 in Nashville/Tennessee. Because no satisfactory take could be archived, the master was a splice of the attempts number four and three. RCA Victor released the track on the album "50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong - Elvis' Gold Records Volume 2" (1959) and the boxed set "Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits - Volume 1" (1970). A live performance can be found on the double-album "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" (1973). I like "A Big Hunk O' Love" very much. It's an agressive rock'n'roll song performed by Elvis at his very best.

This one is a different matter altogether. The composition by Ivory Joe Hunter is nothing but a mediocre ballad, the arrangement oft the harmony voices is quite kitschy. But Elvis obviously liked the song a lot, because on September 6, 1957 he recorded 28 takes of it. Because he still wasn't convinced of the result, he tryed again on January 23 and on February 1st, 1958. Once again no satisfactory master could be archived, so he finally chose the final take of the September session. RCA Victor also released it on "50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong - Elvis' Gold Records Volume 2" (1959), but on the second boxed set "The Other Sides - Worldwide Gold Award Hits Volume 2" (1971).