Why Are You Still Buying Metallica Records?
Soundscan Surprises, Week Ending 10/6
Back-catalog sales numbers of note from Nielsen SoundScan.
The definition of “back catalog” is: “at least 18 months old, have fallen below №100 on the Billboard 200 and do not have an active single on our radio.”
Happy Wednesday! Temple of the Dog is up at the top of the charts right after Juan Gabriel, que descanse en paz, at number two. They’re about to go on tour to promote a deluxe reissue. Rolling Stone has an oral history of the supergroup if you’re so inclined. Some lesser music sites are saying the group is open to recording new material, but why do you need anything better than “Hunger Strike”?
Did you know about Universal Music’s “20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection”? Like a million of them came out last week and they’re all over the charts. According to discogs.com, it’s:
A series that looks directly at “iconic” artists & bands of the 20th Century; providing their best hits on CD, launched in 1999. Run by Universal Music, 20th Century Masters boasts sales of over 9 million, more than 600 titles in a range of musical styles and being the “most successful and greatest hits series in Canada”. Alternations to the series include releases focusing on Christmas themed music (20th Century Masters The Christmas Collection), summaries of decades / styles of music and DVD video packs (20th Century Masters The DVD Collection).
On the chart this week alone we have: The Four Tops, Abba, Boyz II Men, Conway Twitty, Rob Zombie, Three Dog Night, Aerosmith, Buddy Holly, Joe Cocker, Whitesnake, Barry White, Chuck Berry, Gap Band, B.B. King, Oak Ridge Boys, Kiss, Jackson 5, Commodores, Marvin Gaye. (Ed note: I’m not positive whether the penultimate takes the article and Google is inconclusive but I’m gonna trust Billboard.)
Have you heard of Sam Hunt? He’s from Georgia, he was a football player, and now he’s a country singer, wedged on the back catalog between Ed Sheeran and Simon & Garfunkel! Obviously many if not most of the records on the back catalog are greatest hits or best of collections, so it’s always fun to see which individual albums make consistently sell so many copies every week, like all the Panics at the Disco and Adeles and Eds Sheeran along with the Eagleses and the Beatleses. Even Lars Ulrich doesn’t know why you’re still buying his music:
Bob Marley is right there behind him basically every week! I threw Van Halen in there because I think about “5150” a lot especially after the most recent episodes of “Transparent.” It’s a phrase (I know it’s a numeric code but like morphologically speaking I hear it as a phrase) that I have to think extra hard about each time to remember what it means. “Oh, right, the involuntary psychiatric hold thing.” It’s a code and I always wonder whether it works, or don’t people to know to listen for that and say “no, no, please don’t take me away.”
Sorry about that dark turn! Bon Iver’s getting some extra love on the back catalog from his new release, and last but not least, Halloween Party keeps climbing. I wonder where it will peak! Happy pumpkin decorating to you and yours.
2. TEMPLE OF THE DOG TEMPLE OF THE DOG 5,993 copies
5. MARLEY*BOB & THE WAILERS LEGEND 4,025 copies
20. HUNT*SAM MONTEVALLO 2,152 copies
41. VAN HALEN 5150 1,735 copies
55. TWITTY*CONWAY BEST OF CONWAY TWITTY: THE MILLENNIUM COLLECTION 1,630 copies
96. BON IVER FOR EMMA FOREVER AGO 1,247 copies
111. V/A HALLOWEEN PARTY 1,210 copies
(Previously.)