Soundscan Surprises, Week Ending 9/1

Back-catalog sales numbers of note from Nielsen SoundScan.

Photo: Deirdre Woolard

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.”

Back to school edition! My Morning Jacket sold a crazy number of copies of their 2005 record Z. This is presumably due more to their recent appearance at Lockn’ (previously known as Interlocken, I’m sorry to say), a music festival for jam bands like Phil Lesh & Friends, Tedeschi Trucks Band (actually good), and other post-Phish variants. The band also released a cool-looking special edition clear vinyl of Z, and reissued It Still Moves earlier this year. Still, that is a hell of a lot of records.

Juan Gabriel, the most famous Mexican singer-songwriter of all time, died last week at the age of 66. He celebrated a big 40-year anniversary in 2014, releasing several compilation albums of his number one hits and a live performance at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. He also released a duets album in 2015 that features Juanes and…Fifty Harmony?

The Willy Wonka Sountrack sold a few copies on the news of Gene Wilder’s death 🙁 What is The Dixie Chicks’ Wide Open Spaces doing on here? Trick question—why isn’t it higher? Anyone who doesn’t own this album should buy it.

  1. MY MORNING JACKET Z 17,294 copies

2. GABRIEL*JUAN MIS NUMERO 1… 40 ANIVERSARIO 8,950 copies

4. GABRIEL*JUAN LOS DUO 6,231 copies

42. WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY SOUNDTRACK 1,897 copies

133. GABRIEL*JUAN MIS 40 EN BELLAS ARTES PARTE 1 1,168 copies

152. DIXIE CHICKS WIDE OPEN SPACES 1,087 copies

167. GABRIEL*JUAN MIS 40 EN BELLAS ARTES 1,040 copies

(Previously.)