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The singles game has always been baffling. Record labels often try to predict which songs may be radio hits, often to mixed results at best. And as you say, some songs just emerge - in this case for the genre at hand here - by the help AOR stations. "Stairway To Heaven" for instance was never released as a single, but clearly word got out without record labels forcing it.
Zeppelin was a special case, as they only released singles because of record company wishes. They prioritized albums and catered to FM stations that played album tracks. Fortunately there were a lot of stations receptive to it at the time -- US rock radio didn't start becoming more formulaic until the late '70s.
There are few bands that come near Sabbath in terms of song intros - one is just better than the next.
This album was supposedly recorded in a single day. Twelve hours total.
I think they did the paranoid album in two or three days. The song paranoid they wrote on the spot because they needed another song. It was basically album filler.
I'm surprised the Journey and Loverboy albums didn't have songs that charted higher given all the air play.
Neither band was really a singles band per se at the time of these albums. Plus, it was hard for "Working For The Weekend" to move up much higher when you had to deal with the mighty "Pac-Man Fever" five spots higher, among others.
If you're gonna put the Monkees and Elvis on here, then you should be criminally charged for not including Stevie Wonder. Your thread your rules, but damn.......
Checks list. Checks notes. Checks comments from the peanut gallery.
It's not. It's a double.
Reading is fundamental. I saw Side 3 and mistook it for Disc 3.
I remember how badass it was to change it to “My Scrotum”.
No question on the bolded - this was probably way off the radar at the time, and even probably after The Wall. Once fans starting exploring their early stuff, I'm sure that's when this took off. Will be interesting to see how many other pre-DSOTM albums are still to come.
Shows how deep of an album this is when the notable songs mentioned don't even include their self-titled "Bad Company" as well as "Seagull" (which I think is their best song).
I thought I had included the title track in the song listing, but I do agree that it is a solid album from start to finish.
I fall in this category. I got into Floyd after Animals came out, bought The Wall right away, and also had DSOTM and WYWH. Then I started going backwards. At the time (in my teens), I didn't love their earlier albums, but since they weren't getting played on the radio, you pretty much didn't know what you were buying. Many years later, I like their early stuff a lot more than I did, but it's still hard to sit through entire albums from the 60's. A few songs mixed in with the rest of their catalog works for me. Imagine my disappointment waiting in line for the record store to open to grab a copy of The Final Cut on its release day. It was just so . . . meh.
I still think The Final Cut is meh, but I think we discussed that ad nauseum in your Floyd thread awhile back. Some love it and that's cool.
I think there are similarities between The Wall and Abbey Road. It ended up being the last rodeo and a masterpiece . . . with another album of leftover material that came out a little while later when no one was really into it anymore. Let It Be was light years better than the Final Cut, but both seem like the last albums weren’t quite the same.
I think "meh" is too high a compliment for The Final Cut. But I made my feelings known in that thread.
The difference is that Let It Be was recorded before Abbey Road, not during or after. Also Let It Be is good and Final Cut ... is not.
People tend to flex that they know the full title of the song rather than actually listen to it.
How much detail are you able to see about the sales & downloads of these albums? From Wikipedia, we can see that Atlantic Crossing charted very high in practically all of Europe. It even went gold in Hong Kong (only 10,000 units, but still).
The #15 video on MTV's first day, shot around that exotic locale of New York Harbor. Rod's outfit may have inspired one of The Village People a few years later.
I haven't found a thorough country sales breakdown for that album. Some albums have that info available, but I haven't seen anything for that one.
I'd also be interested in seeing a physical sales vs digital downloads breakdown, as well.
The two primary websites I used were BestSellingAlbums and Chartmasters. As expected, the numbers don' really match. The second one has more of a breakdown of physical vs. digital. But as discussed in the last few posts and when I started the thread, until someone applies for and files the information within the reporting agency, totals might not be updated for years. Similarly, who ever is reporting the sales totals may not disburse that information to the same places. I also think there may be an element of shoddy record keeping, some countries that don't care and may or may not forward their totals consistently, or record labels that folded and who knows what documentation is still available for albums from 50 years ago. I also don't have much knowledge and understanding whether the reported numbers are audited and signed off on.
It's probably a Herculean effort to find out the "true" sales figures. I'm just enjoying the albums listed whether the numbers make sense or not.
The Chartmasters list might be a little behind. I'll use a post-1981 album as an example -- Michael Jackson's Bad (1987).
One thing that I've noticed and found odd in stores that sell music these days is the in-stock CD selection is close to invisible (or is mostly used) . . . but vinyl albums take up the majority of the shelf / floor space. I haven't played a vinyl album in this millennium (has to be closer to 30 years). When did vinyl make a comeback, and more importantly . . . why?
It's been several years now that vinyl has made a comeback - I don't recall what precipitated it, but they're everywhere now. The trend has been aided by many new record players being connected via wireless or USB connection, so they're much more easily accessible (even if you lose a lot of the true sound). With CDs, it's not surprising that record stores don't carry much in stock - not easy to find a CD player any more.
I was surprised as well and ended up getting my lady friend a new record player I lucked into for xmas. She has a few milk crates of albums from her youth that she's had a hard time parting with so these last few months have given her, and I, a chance to relive the past. Picked up a new vinyl of Rumors to go with it and boy howdy did that make her day!
I admit to being in the dark about audio equipment these days, but it's easier to find a turntable than a CD player nowadays? I haven't looked for either, but who has space for albums and a turntable?
The vinyl comeback started in the early '00s. It had some to do with audiophiles wanting an alternative to the comparatively terrible sound of CDs and digital downloads, and some to do with music-scene-cred signifying. Today it's the thing for hipsters with money. LP prices are ridiculous.
Yes. And audiophiles and hipsters.
For sure - can't believe how much these things go for these days. Dumpster diving at vintage stores for old dirt cheap albums is one of my favorite hobbies.
Yeah. One thing that seems apparent is that even for the kids that are into buying vinyl ... they're not building large record collections buying new albums. They're either buying a handful of newly-pressed albums, buying/collecting vintage, or both.
Jack White has really pushed vinyl over the last two decades.
I've never listened to the newly manufactured albums - how does the sound compare to the old ones?
I haven't listened to any, either. I have no idea.
Yes, his record stores actually double as a vinyl pressing facility.
I was never a Squier fan. So when that video came out I was telling a lot of my friends "I told you so..."
