Soundscan Surprises, Hanukkah Edition

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.”

As we discussed last week, the War on Christmas is a made-up thing that does not show up anywhere on the Billboard Back Catalog. You know what there is a war on, though? Hanukkah. And it’s been going on forever. There is basically never not a war on the Jews going on, particularly during holiday shopping season. In honor of of their neverending plight, I have picked out a few notable Jews on the back catalog this week. Some of these may be surprises to you, like Elvis for example, is a Halakhic Jew—in heritage if not in practice. Same with Lars Ulrich, believe it or not, but Metallica doesn’t need the attention so I left them off. Idina Menzel says she celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah, and embodies the classic “I just wanted to sing those great songs too” in her 2014 holiday album, Holiday Wishes. Miles Davis is an honorary member of the tribe, among other reasons because without fail, every nice young Jewish man I ever met at college had this album in his iTunes library.

58. WINEHOUSE*AMY BACK TO BLACK 3,810 copies

69. PRESLEY*ELVIS HE TOUCHED ME 3,501 copies

75. MENZEL*IDINA HOLIDAY WISHES 3,175 copies

77. DIAMOND*NEIL ALL TIME GREATEST HITS 3,147 copies

96. DAVIS*MILES KIND OF BLUE 2,873 copies

108. COHEN*LEONARD ESSENTIAL LEONARD COHEN 2,639 copies

132. SIMON & GARFUNKEL GREATEST HITS 2,316 copies

(Previously.)