Red Velvet Car is projected to fall from number 10 to number 34 o the Billboard 200 with sales of 10.500. This is the pre-sale effect fading out. (I expect it to level out soon, due to the effect of landing in the top 10)
Sales of the Goo Goo Dolls, Lyfe Jennings and Disturbed (other top 10 debuts) have dropped with a higher percentage than Heart.
Final result: number 36! (with total sales of 37,322)
HEART AND SOLD (from billboard.com)
Dear Gary,
Last week, veteran rock band Heart (an absolute favorite of mine), debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 with “Red Velvet Car,” logging its first top 10 entry in more than 20 years. Until last week, the group had managed to chart on the Billboard 200 with the following sets during the SoundScan era:
“Rock the House! Live,” No. 107 (1991)
“Desire Walks On,” No. 48 (1993)
“The Road Home,” No. 87 (1995)
“These Dreams: Heart’s Greatest Hits,” No. 131 (1997)
“Jupiter’s Darling,” No. 94 (2004)
Getting to my question, “Red Velvet Car” sold 27,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, in its debut week. I’m interested in knowing the sales figures for the band’s other chart entries in their peak weeks, in order to compare how sales then contrast to sales now.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Alex D. Falcone
Delaware
Hi Alex,
It’s true that albums can chart in the top 10 now with sales totals that years earlier would’ve ranked them much lower.
Here is an analysis of the sales of Heart’s charted albums since 1991 in the weeks in which they peaked on the Billboard 200:
9,000, “Rock the House! Live”
27,000, “Desire Walks On”
11,000, “The Road Home”
9,000, “These Dreams – Heart’s Greatest Hits”
12,000, “Jupiter’s Darling”
Thus, Heart’s latest album debuted at No. 10 with sales of 27,000; the same rounded-off sum resulted in a No. 48 peak 17 years earlier (although the new set’s actual total was slightly higher).
As Billboard 200 chart manager Keith Caulfield pointed out, overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Sept. 12) totaled 4.83 million units – the lowest weekly sales figure since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.