How popular was Blow by Blow?
 

According to Wikipedia, the only single in the Time album was I Do. I was checking this album in the iTunes store. It always shows popularity bars per song, based on a relative measure of how popular a song is compared to other songs on the same release.

I Do got the full bars. But I thought all Christine's songs would get at least some bars, but they didn't. Hollywood got the full bars but NIE and SOL are empty. But what struck me is that Blow by Blow, a Mason song, has all the bars. No Bekka or Bill song has any bars.

I know it is not an official chart but it shows that in this store, BBB definitely had more significative sales than Nights in Estoril and other songs. That surprised me.

I mean, the album only sold 36,000 copies the first year.

It’s probably Dave Mason fans learning he was in Fleetwood Mac and checking the song out. It could also maybe be that some soccer fans remember the earlier version from Soccer Rocks the Globe, but that seems to be a stretch.

Nights should have been the lead single off Time
Everybody Finds Out should have been the lead single off SYW
Isn't It Midnight should have been the lead single off Tango

At least Nights would have had some serious play on rock stations. Instead no one played a song from an album no one knew about. There were D list bands that could sell more than 36,000 copies in 1995.
Music changed and the record company still was thinking it was the groovy 70s in the mindset what would be a single with Fleetwood Mac.

Yes, Dave Mason has fans. Way more fans that Bekka or Billy. They’d at least be interested. Not sure they’d be all that pleased with what they found out. It’s S&!t

The 1994 Guided by Voices album “Bee Thousand” sold 50,000, and that was recorded in basements and garages on 4-track cassette.

Fleetwood Mac did play Blow By Blow on their 1994-1995 Tour as well.

Looking at the Spotify plays, "I Do" is easily the most popular with over ten million streams. "Nights in Estoril" and "Blow By Blow" each have a little over 500,000 streams.

Probably because it was included on the Don’t Stop compilation.

I don't remember much about the Time songs they did, other than Dreaming The Dream made me a Bekka fan, BUT when I got the CD, her vocals at the end of BbB made her the most powerful vocalist FM ever had. Amazeballs.
That lineup should've got more of a chance...

At the “Time” in 1995 I thought the same, thinking this was the actual new lineup. Blow by Blow was the worst song on the album. If the album didn’t include Dave it could have been a little easier to “sell” the new lineup.

Dave *I'm an @$$hole* Mason.

According to Mason the record company refused to promote the album which hurt it no doubt. It hurt the band because their offer was to make sure Chris was on the album and then promote it. Chris was part of the album, would not tour, and the record company did not promote the album as promised.
Those are some pretty heavy currents to go against. The only people that bought the album were hardcore Mac fans who bought every other album. I remember walking into a record store in 1995 and seeing "new releases" and Time. I was in shock because I was not aware they were still together making music especially with Chris. I bought the cassette.

I bought the CD. I wasn't expecting a great album but despite the Chris songs, it didn't make me feel like I was listening to a Fleetwood Mac album.

BTM did it, although it was obviously disappointing compared to the previous albums. But since there were 2 of the 3 Rumours lineup singers, plus I had already seen Billy and Rick in the Tango video, I felt like it was a Fleetwood Mac album.