Mariah: Bigger Than Elvis

She may not be the King of Rock and Roll, but Mariah Carey is definitely the queen of the charts. Mariah’s 18th number-one hit “Touch My Body” — the first single off her upcoming album, EMC2 — moved her ahead of Elvis Presley for the most number-one singles on the Billboard singles charts. She’s now second only to the Beatles — who have 20 chart toppers.

Carey remained humble despite her achievement. “I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionized music but also changed the world,'' she said upon learning the news. ''That's a completely different era and time... I'm just feeling really happy and grateful.''

Her success, said Carey, meant even more because of her status as a woman of color. ''For me, in my mind the accomplishment is just that much sweeter,'' she said. ''In terms of my ethnicity, always feeling like an outsider, always feeling different... for me it's about saying, 'Thank you Lord, for giving me the faith to believe in myself when other people had written me off.' ”

However, the songbird is even trumping the famously eccentric legend in rock star demands! UK newspapers reported that while promoting her new disc in London the week of March 30, she demanded only olives and nuts during her stay and requested that a $20,000 gym be built next to her suite at Claridge's hotel.

And a source claimed that the pop star "sat on a throne worth $2,000 and surrounded herself with cream roses and butterflies" during a signing at Selfridges department store. Mariah, who also has a personal towel holder, bailed on a Capital FM radio interview on April 3 because she's "not a morning person," despite compiling a list of demands beforehand ‹ which the station met. "We even got a load of straws in because she only drinks fruit juice through a straw," an insider says. Is Mariah demanding? "They're just fun and games," the diva has said.