Mariah Closing In On Record For No. 1 Hits

March 28, 2008, 10:30 AM ET
Fred Bronson, L.A.

Mariah Carey is on track to collect her 18th No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart next week.

"Touch My Body," the first single from her upcoming album, dipped one place to No. 15 on the latest survey. But the fresh availability of a digital download should send the song hurtling to the top next week.

That will push Carey to second place among artists with the most No. 1s in the rock era. The record is held by the Beatles with 20; Carey is currently tied with Elvis Presley.

Carey's album, "E=MC2," the follow-up to her 2005 Grammy-winning smash "The Emancipation of Mimi," arrives April 15 via Island Def Jam.

Asked recently by Billboard if she ever thinks about surpassing the Beatles' record, Carey admitted with a laugh, "I do, because people bring it up. But it's not like I sit around thinking about that type of stuff while I'm creating something. I did write this record in terms of wanting it to be a lot of songs that could potentially be singles, because people like that."

"I think it would be phenomenal," Island Def Jam Music Group chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid says of the prospect. "But the real goal is to create music the whole world can sing. And if we break records and set some milestones while doing that, that would be beautiful."

Source: Billboard