Long Runs at #1

In two recent 70's countdowns, Casey's mentioned that Elvis was the first artist to have three #1's in a row on the charts...."Don't Be Cruel," "Hound Dog," and "Love Me Tender" were on top for 16 straight weeks.  At the time of the countdown, the number of back-to-back #1s had only been tied by the Beatles and the number of weeks in a row at the top had only been matched Les Brown and the Band of Renown.

In the decades to follow, having three #1's in a row by the same artist is still the record, but the weeks in a row at #1 had been smashed:

In 2009 the Black Eyed Peas hit #1 first with the 12-week champ "Boom Boom Pow" and then immediately another 14 with "I Gotta Feeling."

For three in a row, two artists got super close -- Usher replaced "Yeah!" at #1 with "Burn" which was interrupted at #1 by Fantasia (hot off an American Idol win) for 1 week, before "Burn" hit #1 again, to be replaced by his "Confessions (Part 2)" -- 22 out of 23 weeks.

Drake had a similar phenomenon in 2009 as "In My Feelings" replaced "Nice for What" which replaced "God's Plan" for a total of 29 weeks at #1... but "Nice for What" was interrupted a then-record three times by four different songs!

Next closest was Mariah Carey, who had 24 out of 25 weeks with "Fantasy" and "One Sweet Day", interrupted only by Whitney Houston's "Exhale" for a single week between the two.  Her partners on "One Sweet Day," Boyz II Men did earlier have back-to-back songs at #1 for 16 weeks, but the 2nd "On Bended Knee" was also interrupted, giving them 20 out of 22 weeks, starting with 14 weeks with "I'll Make Love to You."

But back to Elvis, he gets an * for three in a row anyway... the first two were flip sides of the same 45 rpm record, and it was before the Hot 100 began.  The Beatles three in a row were all independent records in the Hot 100 era of combining sales and airplay.