MARIAH CAREY - MARIAH CAREY SCORES 18TH US NUMBER SINGLE OVERTAKING ELVIS

Singer Mariah Carey has scored her 18th US number one single, beating Elvis Presley's record.

Touch My Body, the first single to be taken from Carey's new album E=MC2, currently tops the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the download chart.

As a result, the US singer has surpassed Elvis' total of 17 number one singles. She remains two short of the Beatles though, who hold the record with 20 chart topping singles.

Carey however dismissed comparisons with Elvis and the Beatles.

"I'm just feeling really happy and grateful," she said.

"I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionised music but also changed the world, that's a completely different era and time.

"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'."

Earlier this week, another of Elvis' records was broken by Madonna when her current single 4 minutes, featuring Justin Timberlake, became her 37th US top ten hit, overtaking Presley's total.