Saturday Deluxe / 18 November 2023
The Beatles chart analysis
The Fab Four fail to hit number one on the UK albums chart
History has repeated itself as the remixed, rejigged and rebooted Beatles compilation 1967-1970 – more commonly referred to as ‘The Blue Album’ – has entered the UK album chart at number two, kept off number one by Taylor Swift whose ‘Taylor’s Version’ edition of 1989 spends a third week at the top. The reason I say history has repeated itself is because in 1973, when this compilation was first released (alongside 1962-1966), it never made it to number one then, either. David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane kept 1967-1970 pinned to number two for three consecutive weeks.
Back to 2023 and there’s quite a lot to unpack here. Swift staying at number one for three weeks in a row would have hardly been worthy of comment in the 1980s or 1990s but these days it’s a rare occurrence; in fact it hasn’t happened for almost TWO YEARS, when Adele enjoyed a five-week run at the top at the end of 2021, with her 30 album.
Music Week reported the exact sales figures and you can only conclude it was an unfortunate missed opportunity for Apple Corps and Universal. They’ll perhaps be ruing the decision to issue both vinyl and CD box set editions that brought together both the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums, because the Official Charts Company consider the box a separate release when compared to the individual ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums. Swift stayed at the summit with 16,773 sales and the ‘Blue’ album sold 14,954 which is a shortfall of 1,819 units. However, the box set edition sold 3,625 units and so it’s reasonable to conclude that if they hadn’t bothered with the box set then 1967-1970 would have sold the combined figures, giving a tally of 18,579 (14954 + 3,625)- enough to outscore Taylor Swift and secure the number one spot!
Extra salt in the wound comes when you consider that ‘The Red Album’ sold 13,432 to secure number three this week, but again, if those 3,625 box set sales were added to this, then 1962-1966 would also have outsold Taylor Swift with sales of 17,057. The Beatles would have been – really should have been – number one and two on this week’s album chart.
Of course, these product decisions are made well in advance and the album chart is such a lottery these days anyway (who remembers Tears For Fears not getting to number one with The Tipping Point on 29k sales?) but even so, you need a strategy that is going to maximise your chances and diluting the sales in this way, by having what the Official Charts Company regard as three distinct releases instead of two, in hindsight, has proved costly. Because it’s viewed as a separate ‘album’, the box set sits at number 33 in the album charts this week.
It will be no consolation to the parties involved that the new/last single, ‘Now and Then’, has remained high in the singles chart at number six, one place above Taylor Swift’s ‘Is It Over Now?’.
Rick sings Yes for Trevor
In other news, the next song from Trevor Horn’s forthcoming Echoes – Ancient and Modern album has been made available. It’s a re-recording of the Yes classic ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ with Mr Rick Astley on vocals. Have a listen below and let me know what you think, by leaving a comment. Don’t forget that SDE has an exclusive blu-ray audio version of this album available, and Trevor has created a fantastic, dedicated 5.1 mix, which is included in both vocal and instrumental versions. This is in addition to the Dolby Atmos Mix and a hi-res 96/24 stereo mix! Order your copy here.
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I like to consider myself a music fan rather than a collector , someone who enjoys listening to it rather than looking at a thing that contains it ! I’ve never wanted to own multiple versions of the same material just for the sake of owning them , to be honest I find that sort of thing a bit strange , but each to his own , if it makes folks happy . So though I was interested in hearing Giles Martin’s efforts , I already own half of disc 2 of 1962-66 and practically all of 1967-70 on the previously issued box sets , so I see no reason why I should buy it all over again . Some of this has already been remixed god knows how many times ( for instance Giles has now had three goes at Help and Eleanor Rigby – “Love” , 2015 “One” and this) so is there really much else to add ? Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby : 1966 stereo , 1966 mono , 1987 stereo, 1999 “Songtrack” , 2000 “1” , 2011 “1” remaster , 2015 “1” Giles Martin remix , 2015 “1” bluray 5.1 , and 2021 “Revolver” ! Cor blimey as we English say .
If getting to No. 2 in the album charts has generated more buzz than getting to No. 1 in the album charts (which it appears to have done), then I imagine Universal/Apple are more than satisfied. After all, in the end, it’s all about buzz. Er, sorry, it’s all about the music, I nearly forgot.
This is an illuminating thread. Not just about the importance/irrelevance or not of the charts but about how we come together collectively to understand and remember music.
Past decades: the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, have a way of bringing diverse common threads together then and retrospectively through the charts; and things like the Now Yearbooks. Am not saying the charts were ever everything as that would be a very limited understanding of music and miss out so much wonderful music. But when the charts were incredibly diverse musically as in the late 1970s and much of the 1980s they were a gateway to a whole mosaic of different musical acts and styles.
On the Beatles and the red and blue albums missing the number one slot. This does not really matter but clearly the Beatles corporate entity and record label would have liked this and went out of their way to try to facilitate it. They miscalled with the so-called ‘big box’ and could have staggered all these releases one week after another to try to get the red and blue albums both to number one. The price points were a bit steep as so many have said: £24 for 2 CDs. I guess we are into an extractive model of the record industry and capitalism trying to draw as much money as possible from a mostly aging demographic (with exceptions).
Related to all this is the ridiculous state of the UK official chart website which is meant to have a comprehensive record of these things. The Beatles entry, to take just one example (which cannot be the only one) is in its album section filled with the most basic, embarrassing mistakes: some factual, some interpretation.
First, it even misses a Beatle album: ‘Reel Music’ from 1982. Second, the box set reissues which follow from ‘Sgt Pepper’ in 2017 are all over the place: ‘Sgt. Pepper’ is listed under the 1967 release; ‘The White Album’ under 1968; yet ‘Abbey Road’, ‘Let It Be’ and ‘Revolver’ under their 1987 CD reissues. None of this makes any logic.
Third, the official site cannot even tally the number of Beatle no. one albums: stating that the blue album failed to become their 16th number one album; when even on their figures they already have 16; which means blue would have been their 18th (counting the ‘Sgt Pepper’ reissue as a new one – which ‘Abbey Road’ 2019 is listed as but not put into the overall headcount of number ones). Talk about slapdash!
Some people will say does any of this matter? The Beatles are part of our national heritage and if the official chart folk cannot even tally their album discography properly that it a bit ridiculous as this will be one small way in which they will be understood and interpretated in future years. The charts used to matter and the UK official chart authority could at least get the basics right here!
Hi Paul, I left two comments of this thread this morning and they have not been published. Is there a reason why?
Because I’ve been busy. Having said that, I’m not publishing the one that tries to goad Beatles fans. What’s the point in that little dig?
Good analysis. Pitiful physical sales levels these days, for instance top selling UK 7″ singles routinely sold 1 million copies back in the 1960’s/1970’s.
Slave To The Rhythm: absolutely brilliant.
Owner of…: absolutely terrible. (I agree with comments regarding the failed arrangement: dull, not contributing anything new, but rather omitting certain brilliant twists of the original. Astley is irrelevant)
Steppin Out: not bad at all. Seal, get out of your multimillionaire mansion, cameras, dinners, skiing and cycling sessions, let your hair grow and go back to Britain to record a decent album (unlike “7”). Have a look at Rocky III and get the eye of the tiger back, for Heaven’ s sake.
Personal Jesus: absolutely terrible (again). What’ s the point of a repetition of what Johnny Cash has already done?
I’ ll have to have a rethink regarding the purchase of “Echoes”, I’ m afraid.
Yeah, but Taylor Swift won’t be back on the charts in 50 years. Guaranteed.
Taylor Swift has been releasing music for more than twice as long as the Beatles did.
And here’s a thing, she has held into her original fanbase whilst still gaining new older fans. People like myself who came on board with Folklore and Evermore.
After 17 years of releasing hugely successful albums Taylor still hasn’t peaked and is no 1 as we speak.
I agree. Taylor Swift has become a cross-generational star. She’s taken a page – no, a whole chapter – out of Disney’s book and realised that the big money lies in appealing to kids and parents alike. She’s become, for better or worse, ‘family listening’.
In fall 1968, I was in grade 8 and every Friday afternoon, my teacher let us bring an LP so everyone would have a chance to listen to a record that a student loved. So I brought The Beatles / the White one ;-) on the last Friday before the Christmas holiday. After listening to the first side, everybody in class was excited and had something to say. And here what the teacher said : “Please, be calm! Why all these excitements? Nobody will talk about The Beatles in the year 2000” !!!
I don’t think we have to tear down one artist to raise another we prefer…
There is room for all tastes of music, and who is to say who has staying power?
There’s certainly a few 80s artists successfully touring & releasing albums who I didn’t think would make it to 2023!
Taylor has already been around since 2006, that’s 17 years of chart success with no sign of faltering as yet…
See you all in 50yrs to find out I guess?
Reading the comments below about do the charts matter …. Well not to me, never have done…I would watch TOTP and be quiet pleased when a band I liked was on mucking about. I work with some late teens and I asked them …. No interest whatsoever from any of them, in fact one had no idea what I was talking about. They all love music and stream it, have no idea why I might want to own it, when I explained about extra-sound quality when just sitting down listening, they said they never do that, it sounds boring with nothing to look at, “do you just stare at the wall” ??? Difficult to answer that one…… I guess they come from a multi media age and are always doing things while listening to music, gaming or texting or watching something different on YouTube .. God I feel OLD.
It’s not just younger generations either; a lot of adults of all ages I know are the same. Many don’t ‘Just Listen’, a lot of them treat music like cheap, disposable background noise. I’m almost 50 and since I was 25 have had a dedicated media room with a comfortable armchair or a big sofa to choose from and I do just stare at the walls – or the ceiling or just get comfortable and close my eyes; because I don’t need my eyes while I’m listening to and enjoying music. I don’t allow phones or other distractions in our media room, it’s specifically set up for music, films or just reading books.
I never paid attention to the charts when I was a teen and decades later they still have no relevance to me. My musical tastes are rarely reflected in what the masses listen to and that’s fine. My friends and I would read reviews in the magazines of the times, sometimes getting a chance to hear it first before we bought; but more often buying was based on whether thought we were going to potentially like it (favorite band, collaboration with artists we were already familiar with, similar genre/styles, etc). We also experimented in the cut-out bins (I miss them so much now) and unearthed a few rare gems there. What was playing on top 40 radio was usually not on our mix tapes. While in university and post-graduate school, college radio greatly expanded my horizons – again having nothing to do with what was on the charts at the time.
These days, the internet has literally opened the floodgates of available music – so again the charts don’t matter. I can usually find an artist, song, album, etc. with a simple web search and be able to sample it to decide whether I want to fork out cash for any physical product. Whether it’s popular or not or where it ranks in the charts doesn’t influence my purchasing decisions.
On the other topic: For the Beatles Red/Blue (already owning the 1993 CD sets), I got the 96/24 FLAC downloads mostly for the new mixes and if needed, I can create CD-Rs from those files providing much more flexibility and functionality for me; I went the same route with the Revolver Super Deluxe since once again, there was no physical surround mix offered. Most CDs I buy (and rarely listen to) these days are part of a set where I’m only after the surround sound DVD-A/V or blu-ray that it’s bundled with. When/if high resolution surround sound FLACs that I can download become more prevalent, my appetite for physical multichannel SACDs, DVD-A/Vs and blu-rays will also diminish.
Re: The Beatles not being ranked No.1 in the album charts. It’s just a technically. They sold the same quantity, regardless of chart position. I’m sure Universal aren’t going into meltdown over a chart statistic. It’s not as if The Beatles need to nurture and maintain a high profile in the same way as contemporary artists in order to shift more units in future. Chart placement has never been any indication of anything other than expensive and aggressive promotion rather than any music being any better than any other music. It’s like giving awards to best film or best album, meaningless and narrowly subjective.
Well said!
Well! Well! I think it would have been more reasonable that the industry calculate the box set in half : let’s say 1,812 units for the «red» and 1,813 units for the «blue», and Taylor Swift would have been at the first place anyway… So, No.2 and No.3 for The Beatles in the albums charts in 2023, it is simply unbelievable! People have good musical taste these weeks
I bought the box set from the Beatles website. It’s a nice box, and in the end it was cheaper than buying them separately. Would I have bought differently had I known the impact it would have made on sales? Not really. As a lover of physical product (as in the SDE remit, I guess) I’ve gone for the one I want to keep most. I also bought the Taylor Swift the week before.
Is it only me here that wouldn’t know a Taylor Swift song if I was battered around the ears with it? I’m not even sure I know what she looks like. Sadly (or happily?) out of touch!
I am not a fan of Taylor Swift’s music, but she has become a very poitive icon for young women (and men) in the US. Early on, when she was doing mostly country, many right-wingers liked her, and because of her looks considered her their Ayran princess (no joke). But when after a few years is was clear she was a ”librul”, these same right-wing men now do everything they can to make up vile lies about her and other terrible stuff. Mond you she has never come out and endorsed any candidates, nor will she ever.
It turns out that she is just an exceedingly nice person and that is somethung the Trumpists cannot stand.
Last spring one of her albums was in Record Store Day. I got to my local at 7 AM (store opening at 10) only to find I was NOT in my usual spot for 1st in line, but 14th!. Mind you all the others were just waiting for the TS album. I ended up talking to number 15, who was hoping to somehow get 2 copies -one for a friend – even as their was a limit of one.
So eventually I was in the store and all of the 14 women before me all got copies of the album, and a few got one or two other things. Seeing there were a limited number left, I bought a copy along with the things I wanted, and as such I sold it to number 15, who then had the two copies she wanted. We wlaked out of the store and at that moment the friend called her frok out-of-town and said she had not gotten one, but then 15 told he the great news. I felt that I had done good deed in honour of Taylor Swift’s fight against the evil of the Trumpists. I still see 15 as she is involved wit a lecture series I am going to.
No. I told a co-worker I wouldn’t know one of her songs if he played one. He didn’t believe me. He was wrong. Until recently I wouldn’t have recognized her if she was sitting next to me and asked me the time of day.
I couldn’t either but that is personal choice, the only time I ever listen to these kind of artists is when it’s forced upon me whilst watching a movie or TV show (Billie Eilish springs to mind or god forbid Sam Smith).
I don’t think it’s a case of being out of touch, more a case of you know what you like and the chances are any new(ish) mainstream artists are just going to be rehashes of what’s been done before and better. The trite argument we all had with our own parents about “you don’t get it” doesn’t even wash as there are only so many chords, instruments and even if you push it to the extremes with electronics or experimental “music” there are very few new sounds that could possibly be generated.
Personally what I find lacking in modern music is a sense of dissent or vitriol, it’s as if the “youth” are so jacked up on happy pills and apathy they are incapable of making a statement or rebellion of any kind.
And considering the sad world we live in there is quite a lot to be angry about with no soundtrack to chronicle it.
I think l once heard her when l was out buying pants. But it could have been anybody.
Ooh, I like the Rick Astley cover. Turned it into a real pop song. I’m sure most Yes fans probably thought the original was poppy enough, but that’s very smooth, I like it a lot. Glad I have the Blu Ray coming.
First of the releases I’ve listened to. Call me old fashioned but when I get a new album I prefer not to have heard half the tracks on it beforehand.
While I recognize sales matter, do the charts really matter anymore?
My opinion is, who would actually want a reissue of the Red & Blue albums that isnt historically accurate? I actually really like “Now and Then” and I think they were right to finish it off. It was actually a shock it somehow made it to No.1. I expected a Top 20 placing, but they put out a Cd version, which I bought. But it doesnt belong on a compilation titled 1967-70. Plus, why not also add “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love”. these three songs form a post-Beatles trilogy in themselves, but they’re not fully part of the Beatles catalogue, more post-scripts to an amazing story. The brutal fact is, aside a select band of A-list artists, with quite a few Brits in them (Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Dave, Becky Hill, Sam Fender even) very few current artists can hope for many album sales beyond their established fanbases. The casual buyer of albums is much harder to come by. Hence, the glut of heritage catalogue sellers still clogging up the album charts, with steady 2000 sales a week figures (Rumours, Gold, Diamonds etc) New acts that would have had consistent album sales in decades past are now having to settle for week one sales followed by swiftly descending chart placings. Even Kylie’s latest release, “Tension”, with a huge marketing effort and a genuine hit single “Padam” hasnt made it to ten weeks on the top 100 albums chart. I think albums are important to all artists, young or old, but streaming favours a more amorphous consumption of the music. Taylor Swift’s new ‘1989’ version is on multiple formats, with alternative covers for the mad collector fanbase. It’s a mad top heavy market for physical music, and so current artists are much more likely to point to their monthly Spotify listeners than their chart placings.
16,700 or so is a very far cry from the days when that amount would of been sold worldwide in the first album or so of release.
Also note that the Swift album I believe is cheaper than the Red or Blue albums. However, maybe not quite the same fan base.
I’m not sure what to make of charts nowadays. They depress me. I don’t look at them regularly anymore and I’m not sure that many outside of record labels do.
I grew up in the 70s when the charts were important. You would go into your local record shop and every record shop would have a chart board on display. If you got onto the chart board it was a launch pad for further sales.
I look at the sales figures nowadays and it saddens me compared to the sales figures of the 70s.
Yes, I know the landscape has changed massively, but still….
I used to listen to the Radio 1 chart rundown, watch Top of the Pops and later The Chart Show so yes the charts really did matter especially if you were hovering over the record button on a VCR or Tape Recorder hoping your favourite would be played. It was also a chance to hear what else was new, both good and bad and maybe go and get a new 7″ or Cassette Single next day. I’m curious to see how music I like fares in the charts now, quite fun to see OMD beat the Stones to no 2 for instance but I can’t muster any enthusiasm for current chart music…which is fine, I’m not the right demographic.
What I don’t know is whether todays pop kids (I don’t have my own) have any interest in the Charts and who is no.1 , particularly the albums chart and whether the Red and Blue albums duking it out with Taylor Swift would even register?
My 21 year old son thinks the charts are meaningless (then again according to him having a physical item is absurd when you can just stream it)-I just sadly bow my head and despair
My kids don’t have any interest in the charts.
They love music and if TOTP was on would watch it religiously. But all we get on TV is Jools Holland.
My physical collection consists of big names in the business in various genres/styles (From Erasure to King Crimson, via Bob Marley and Underworld), and yet I haven’t ever had the slightest interest in the charts.
There are certainly two good reasons for that.
1/I was born and raised in France, and what came in the charts over there was certainly not my cup of tea, to say the least… From my teens until my mid-twenties, I spent time in those nice Parisian music shops in which I could discover and buy imports from the UK, the US and Germany.
2/Then I moved to the Netherlands where I am living for 30 years now. And guess what? What’s on the local charts over here is even more dreadful than the French charts of my youth!…
So, I’ll stick to what I like, independently from any charts ;-)
I think there are a couple of things we need to bear in mind. Firstly, we’re not really comparing like with like. The Beatles ceased to exist as a functioning band by the end of 1969. Of course, they’ve had and continued to have an enormous impact on music since then, but however many archive recordings are re-released, and even if Paul and Ringo contribute additional elements to old demos, they can’t be described as a current band, 50% of whose members died 22 and 43 years ago.
Taylor Swift, on the other hand, is very much an artist of the moment. She’s from a generation born 20 years after the Beatles’ last recordings. If we’re making comparisons with her, we have to remember that she has held onto the No. 1 slot for 3 weeks, whereas it appears the only hope the Beatles have had of getting to No. 1 was in their first week. Moreover, Ms Swift has several other albums in the Top 50 at the moment. And that’s how it should be, really. She’s a current artist making music for the current young generation, and that’s essentially what the charts reflect.
This brings me to my second point, namely that our expectations are too high and therefore unrealistic for a band that hasn’t existed for more than half a century. The Beatles’ huge legacy isn’t affected by failing to top the album charts with a compilation of previously-released recordings almost everyone already has in their collections – in fact, a rejigged re-release of two compilation albums that failed to reach No. 1 when originally released 50 years ago. It’s the very success of the Beatles over 60 years – the fact that most people already own this music several times over – which holds it back the sale of the music. There is a limit to how many people want to keep buying it again and again.
I’d have loved to see the Beatles topping the charts again, and from what Paul has written, it seems that the sales of the Red and Blue album combined were sufficient to do so. However, whilst that may appear with hindsight to have been an error, it’s still a remarkable achievement. What other band that broke up more than 50 years ago could achieve that? If we fast forward to the album charts of November 2073, will the likes of Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran be able to do that? I suspect not, but I shan’t around to witness it!
One of the most famous guitar riffs in rock history,backed up by a fabulous pounding Bass has been oddly omitted by Trevor Horn.Just a rather dumb decision as without this iconic stuff this Yes song just falls flat.However,as usual, Mr Rick Astley puts in his usual distinctive and fabulous singing.Anybody seeing/ hearing him sing the Smiths will recall he is an ace singer/ performer.So he saves this version from being trully turgid.The world is always a better place when super Mr Rick-Roller sings!
I would have enjoyed the song more if Mr Horn had assembled a decent Orchestra and tried to replicate the iconic guitar riff and bass (without using any actual guitars), rather than just entirely ignore one of the most memorable riffs rock history.
Lets get brutaly honest here . No one cared except ebay resellers and zealots . Not one person I know who isnt making money off these records has had a good thing to say about the new single . As far as the albums go , we already had them . The public has spoken .
The public scare the beJesus out of me Bobwd.
Taylor’s 1989 actually had 4851 physical sales (and 246 paid-for downloads) – the rest of the total is calculated from individual track streams (which count for both the singles chart AND the album chart). The two Beatles albums each had around 10000 physical sales so top the actual “sales” charts with ease.
That may be the case regarding sales being split. However many Beatles completists may well have bought the box sets as well as the separate editions. Bizarre, but some will do that. Have seen some photos of people with about 4 different versions of Now and Then plus red and blue albums on vinyl and CDs. Of course Taylor fans also do this.
Yes, Taylor fans do that, and in my only real gripe against her was some years ago when her record company relased 8 differently coloured vinyl LPs AND 8 different versions of the CD with 8 different covers.
Note that it was fairly soon after that that here in the US every band/singer/melodica player on major labels started releasing multiple coloured vinyl LPs.
THIS essentialy led to pressing plants being unable to keep up with the coloured vinyl to indie labels, something that is still going on here in the US.
Mind you the absolute criminals are the major labels.
I think the music industry has always been quite ingenious when it comes down to extracting money from die-hard fans. I am old enough to remember the original release of the Beatles’ album ‘Let it Be’, which was released as a standard vinyl 12 inch and also as a ‘deluxe’ boxed edition. The boxed edition was basically the album itself housed in a box with the original album artwork printed on it. The box edition was considerably more expensive than the standard album. I remember one of my Beatle fanatic friends buying the standard album plus three of the boxed editions, one of which went on his bedroom wall, another was on display next to his turntable and the other stored away in a cupboard. He also had two versions of ‘Magical mystery Tour’, one being the standard 12 inch vinyl, the other a double 7 inch EP set containing the same songs. I personally viewed such purchases as pretty stupid at the time, however they turned out to be quite profitable investments when he resold these (often un-played) albums to other Beatles fanatics decades later for eye-watering sums of money. I doubt however, that the multi-coloured Taylor swift albums will sell as well 40 or 50 years from now.
It’s a shame the Blue album didn’t get the number one spot but I’m still happy they both went top 3 (again!)
I think price was a factor; £25 in my local Morrisons. Casual CD buyers won’t pay that, not even I did!
Now & Then going to number one was the biggest thrill though. Great news.
Not that I was particularly intending to buy them anyway, but my local Morrisons didn’t even display the price.
I remember back in the early-mid 90s, the Red and Blue fat boxes being £25 each back then. The white album (again fat box) back then was £32 iirc. I joined Britannia Music to be able to afford it.
By contrast I picked up the 2010 Red and Blue for a tenner each in 2017.
Times have changed. The average punter is going to think twice or even thrice, before forking out £25 for a 2 CD set, even if it is The Beatles.
As for the charts it’s probably 30 years since I followed them closely though I keep an eye out for favourite artists in the album chart. Only on week of release though.
I’ve heard of Taylor Swift, but I’ve never actually knowingly heard a single song by her.
What I do observe these days though is that current music trends change with all the speed of a tortoise on Mogadon. The same old hoary stuff that hogged the charts 10 years ago is still doing it, eg Adele, Sheeran, Swift.
That’s before you look down the album chart and it’s clogged full of vintage greatest hits albums. It doesn’t make for very interesting viewing.
I’m confused (no change there I grant you) because BBC Radio 2 and various websites have, along with me, been celebrating Now And Then as being at NUMBER 1 in the singles chart!
Yes, it was number one for a week. That changed on Friday went it went down to #6 in week 2.
For simply fans of physical product, this project was a misfire, it should have been a greatest hits set that covered everything and called Now And Then. It would not confuse by appearing to be a reissue, it would be new, there would be one set and priced to sell. This was a bloated rush job that at it’s core, release new mixes of old hits and one new song was a great idea, but just done wrong. After the hype and the new song settles in, then they could have done the reissued red and blue collections. But doing a expensive reissue over 6 LP’s and 4 CD’s is just overkill and a hard sell, even for the biggest band of all time. For the charts the momentum stalled, for good reason, people don’t have infinite money and do judge a book by it’s cover and generally want to feel like they are buying something new, like, ahem, the new (old) Taylor Swift.
Not sure if it was a misfire but it would have been a bigger seller I reckon if it was a new compilation.
I’d like to say charts/awards don’t matter to me anymore, but at the same time I still get a little buzz when an artist I like has a good run. For example, I don’t bother watching the ARIAs (Australian music awards) but I’m happy that Kylie won for ‘Padam Padam’ last week.
Out of curiosity, I just had a quick look at the ARIA Top 50 album charts and Beatles ‘re-entered’ at #8 (Blue) and #15 (Red). There is no mention of a box set, may not have even been released here in Oz. No sign of Beatles on the Top 50 singles chart.
I’m a recent convert to Taylor Swift so I’m pleased to see her album at #1 (and 4, 5, 9, 12, 20, 24, 26 and 28…phew!) – originals and Taylor’s versions.
I don’t have the data/figures, so I can’t compare physical sales vs streaming numbers.
And that’s part of the reason I don’t really follow the charts anymore – once downloading and streaming came into the equations, I found it hard to take them seriously.
Another reason I stopped following the charts – especially the singles – is simply a matter of taste. The music that I liked and was popular in my teens is not liked and not popular with today’s teens. And most of the music that is popular and they like sounds absolutely DREADFUL to me. I tried to watch the #1 single here in Oz – I gave up after 20 seconds, LOL.
And finally, it’s a time thing. I love music and I still like to discover new artists/music – when I was a teenager, the only way was watching music shows every Friday night/Saturday morning. But now thanks to the internet and Spotify etc., we are bombarded with new music 24 hours a day. I just can’t keep up like I used to.
It is like you read my mind!
The charts reflect the nations favourite songs that week – I believe that’s how the Official Chart Company peddles it now. It’s a mess because someone finds a loophole somewhere and they then have to adjust.
It’s a shame as most decent acts now hope for a one week stint in the spotlight before disappearing. OMD and Duran Duran were top 5 two weeks ago and now gone. I listened to these constantly but apparently that doesn’t count!
Now And Then was number 6 on the ARIA charts the previous week, which is pretty good since many retailers don’t seem to have a physical single to sell. I bought it on iTunes myself.
Well, that’s it then. The people have spoken, looks like The Beatles are finished. Din’t she Beat Macca to #1 a couple of years ago too.
With such small numbers needed to boost the chart position of both the Red and Blue albums to take the 1 and 2 slots, surely the SDE exclusive Atmos Blu-ray for each would have done the trick? Having already issued the Concert for George, it’s not as if SDE is below the radar for the ‘record company’ or whatever they are called these days.
It seems like they behave like amateurs in an age where data provides enough information to understand and influence what drives change and chart positions.
How about Calderstone/Apple/whomever give SDE a shout on Monday and Paul opens the release window at a suitable time soon to beat the Christmas rush and still catch the wave of consumers to push the Fabs to the toppermost of the poppermost one more time?
I think it’s worth mentioning that the Taylor’s Versions are literally re-recordings. Re-recordings for a good purpose, yes (to allow Swift to own the masters of the albums since she can’t own the originals), but still topping the album charts with a re-record is quite something.
Meanwhile her entries on the singles chart are all outtakes appended to the re-record apart from Cruel Summer which is a four-year-old non-re-recorded (she already owns the original master) album track that wasn’t even a single until this summer, only being released as a single because it trended on TikTok!
Now and Then, meanwhile, is not available for use on TikTok which is a real mistake because the yoof will probably never hear it know…
(Also note that 1989 Taylor’s Version is in 4 vinyl editions, 4 CD editions, 2 digital editions and possibly more to come!)
1989 ( Taylor’s version) apparently sold over 180,000 copies in the UK in its first week, over 60,000 on vinyl. She sold over 500,000 copies of the vinyl album in the USA.
Nothing wrong with Rick Astley’s vocals on “Owner of a Lonely Heart”. Rather, it’s the generic-sounding production and arrangement that lets it down. It would have been better to make a completely stripped-down version, or explore it through a jazz arrangement. Otherwise, to remake a record that had such a distinctive sound is pointless.
Fully agree with your judgement. Rick Astley’s vocals are really good, but the basic oomph/oomph/oomph arrangement is a bit of a letdown; the instrumental version of that track isn’t going to be very interesting…
IMHO, the best re-arrangement of Owner Of A Lonely Heart to date is on ABWH’s live album “An Evening Of Yes Music Plus”, where it is stripped down and part of a medley including Yes’ Time And A Word and ABWH’s Teakbois – and where Jon Anderson remains on vocals. I have listened to this medley countless times; the OOALH section is rather short, but it is highly recommended!
https://www.discogs.com/master/287958-Anderson-Bruford-Wakeman-Howe-An-Evening-Of-Yes-Music-Plus
Great summary there! Like many have mentioned, the steep price was a bit of a turnoff. I snagged the vinyl version but kinda wish I’d waited – its price is already dropping, no surprise there. Also, the bonus LPs felt a bit light on tracks. I mean, why only nine songs on the “new” Blue album compared to 14 on the other two? Makes you wonder about the sound quality consistency across the set.
And yeah, totally with everyone on “Rain” – it should’ve made the cut. Not to mention the glaring omission of those two Anthology tracks. Although I’m a tad disappointed it didn’t hit the very top, part of me gets it. It seems like the focus was more on cashing in than spreading the love, which kind of explains, or better yet justifies, its spot on the charts.
I presume their are more tracks on the ”Red” album because they were mostly shorter, and the songs are longer on the ”Blue” Album
I feel like the whole project came across as a little “rushed” or something. I don’t want to say shoddy but I’m happy to wait for the next project.
If Apple Corps and Universal wanted to top the charts, clearly what they should have done is not sold the albums as a “box set,” but rather offered those who purchased both albums a free slip case, which is all the box sets add anyway. Personally I would have liked to see more content in the box sets (a book or other extras), but that’s a separate issue.
Love the Rick Astley track. Prefer the arrangement and vocal to the Yes version. Since first hearing him on Scott Muni’s Things from England shows on NY’s WNEW-FM,, I’ve been a fan. Happy that his career continues to do well.
I’d have bought these if the excellent Dolby Atmos mixes were available to buy instead of being stuck on streaming services.
It should also be said that because only 3 physical formats of singles are permitted there were 5000 sales of the single that didn’t count for chart purposes this week. 15000 last week. Maybe they should have spaced the different formats out across the first 3 or 4 weeks
The record company has to specify which three physical formats they want to count before the first week’s chart – they can’t then change this for subsequent weeks just to ‘game’ better chart positions. They got the number one single last week anyway, and probably don’t care much about the chart after that.
True, but do most people really care about the charts these days?
I’m not interested in ‘most people’, I’m interested in SDE readers and I think they do care how their favourite artists fare in the charts.
I grew up in the 70s and 80s when chart positions to people with a keen interest in popular music were an important thing.
For a while i walked to a record shop every monday after school who used to display the current poster with the German top 100 singles and album chart in its shop window and wrote all 200 titles down in a notebook.
Today when i think of music charts i tend to get nostalgic and think of them as something that mattered in the good old days. Today not so much anymore…
Weren’t it for Paul’s article here i wouldn’t know how ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ just charted in the UK. I’ve absolutely no idea how they did in Germany and i don’t think that i’ll actively try to find out.
Btw: Back in 2010 both collections with their original track list were also released as stand alone albums AND as a box set put together in a cardboard box. Anyone here knows out of their head how they charted back then?
Back in 2010 the CD reissues of Red and Blue peaked in their first week at #6 (17677 sales) and #4 (18402 sales) respectively, with the combined box set at #59 (somewhere between 3000-3500 sales).
Thanks Kevin.
I doubt it. Even avid record buyers don’t appear to be that interested, else one would expect to see copies of the charts on record shop walls, as was once common. Or records displayed in order of chart position. I don’t doubt retailers would still do so, if they thought it would drive any sales.
I have to agree, granted most of my favourite artists (with a few exceptions) wouldn’t make the top 100 so it’s all irrelevant. To me it’s the music that matters, finding something you love agrees with the masses is hardly a concern. It’s like politics, so someone shares my views, big whoop.
I have to agree, couldn’t care less about the charts these days. I honestly doubt i could name a number 1 song/album in the last 12 months.
The price didn’t help. I paid £23 for a 4CD set by New Order which included a previously unreleased live album. The Beatles wanted £25 for 2CDs. That’s a very high price for the contents. Had they been a bit more reasonable (I paid £12 for Baby Queen’s double CD edition of ‘Quarter Life Crisis’, for example – she’s at #5 this week), they may have picked up more sales. But the bottom line was the bottom line here and it’ll be all the healthier for the decision to charge such a premium price.
I agree, it’s the cost which has put me off too, I will end up with these CDs in my collection, but it’ll be an SDE deal alert that’ll do it for me