The success of Rock a Little.

[James89]

I was just flicking through Stevie's chart facts and figures and found something quite interesting. People have said that Rock a Little never quite lived up to expectations sales wise but I found that it sold over a million copies in just 8 weeks and yet it never reached the top 10.

I don't really understand this. Its 8 week run goes as follows from its debut: 60-20-14-14-14-14-14-13. Yes it spent 35 weeks overall on the Billboard 200 and 13 of those were in the top 20 even though it only ever reached as high as #12 but a million copies from that run?

During the Christmas week of '85 the album was at #20. I don't know what sales were like back then and I know that sales rocket at Christmas time but I don't have a sales figure in mind but after that week surely the album didn't sell over 100,000 on average a week for another 6 weeks?

Hopefully someone can help me with this and maybe fill me in on how albums sold back in the mid 80's.

[BlueDenimLamp]

Back then couldn't a record company simply ship a large # of albums and have the # of units shipped count towards sales and chart numbers even though the albums were not actually sold yet?

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by BlueDenimLamp

Back then couldn't a record company simply ship a large # of albums and have the # of units shipped count towards sales and chart numbers even though the albums were not actually sold yet?

Yes. Street Angel is Gold based on shipments. Also, I think Rock A Little benefitted from Christmas. According to Soundscan. I think it has only sold about 100,000 since about 1990.Rock A Little sales have always felt murky to me.

[johnnystorms]

are you sure about Street Angel? I think by that time, Billboard was using Soundscan and not shipments.

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by johnnystorms

are you sure about Street Angel? I think by that time, Billboard was using Soundscan and not shipments.

It was certified gold for Shipments over 500,000. It went gold after The Dance.

[StevieNicksfann]

I've always wondered about this too. I remember I used to check my local paper for the latest charts each Monday morning but they only would list the Top 20 singles and albums. One morning, I saw that Rock A Little was at #20. I almost died because it had only been out a week or two and was already in the top 20. Later I looked at the actual Billboard magazine and saw that RAL debuted at #60. By contrast, Pat Benatar's album Seven The Hard Way had actually had a higher debut the very same week as RAL but then sort of stalled and RAL overtook it both in chart numbers and sales figures. Anyway, with having gone platinum in a month, I never understood how it never reached the top 10. OSOTM was a top 10 album and for years had only gone gold.

[James89]

Originally Posted by StevieNicksfann

Anyway, with having gone platinum in a month, I never understood how it never reached the top 10. OSOTM was a top 10 album and for years had only gone gold.

Yes, but Rock a Little spent 13 weeks in the top 20, 11 of those in the top 15 whereas TOSOTM spent only 6 weeks in the top 20.

[Macfan4life]

I never heard anyone say that Rock A Little was not a commercial success. But it did fail to chart where Bella Donna did #1 and Wild Heart #5. The funny part about Wild Heart is it hung tight at #5 for many weeks and guess what was above it? Thriller was#1 and Flashdance soundtrack was in the top 5 too. Lionel Richie was in the top 5 too (I think). Long story short, Wild Heart was hanging tough with some of the biggest albums of 1983.
But back to RAL: Yes, the album did go platinum in the first 10 weeks but once Talk To Me fell from the charts, the album fell equally fast. It did not have the longevity of singles. The big albums that sell millions have multiple singles like Bella Donna that chart. RAL had a huge pop hit #4 and popular videos. But the second single barely cracked the top 20 and the third single HAWAFY never made it to the top 40 and I think peaked at #60.
So the success of the album was extremely short lived, partly because of the lack of (good) singles from the album. If it was not for I Cant Wait and a huge video, RAL could have been a one hit wonder.
In addition, Stevie was marketed as a full rock solo artist. Her first two albums did much better on the rock charts than billboard and she achieved huge airplay on rock stations. Rock stations shunned RAL. They barely played Talk To Me and the album was not a good fit for mainstream rock stations with little guitar and funky beats.
This is the time Tom Petty called Stevie Nicks a pop star and Stevie got mad at him...it was all joking of course.
This is from memory but should be mostly correct:
Wild Heart was released in May 1983 its last single Nightbird fell from the top 40 in Feb 1984. = 8 months peak airplay
RAL was released in November 1985 and its last single (to make the top 40) fell from the top 40 in April 1986 = 5 months peak of airplay
Of course Bella Donna did much better and stayed on the charts much longer than both

[Macfanforever]

I was going to respond to this thread last night but my mouse died.LOL.

RAL had good radio airplay at its time.I thought she had good success with it and top it off with Red Rocks live.Thats news to me and the first time myself hearing about being not successful for her.

[tabruns]

OSOTM had something similar to RAL. While "Rooms On Fire" was climbing, it peaked at #10. But "Rooms On Fire" was the only hit off the album, so that probably explains why it went Gold quickly but then took years to make the slow crawl to Platinum status.

TISL is something of an anomaly, I think. It went Gold in 5 weeks but seems to have just completely stalled at around 700,000 copies. I'm hopeful that Crystal Visions will eventually cross the Gold line.

I have no hope of IYD or 24KG ever going Gold, although both are amazing albums.

[James89]

TOSOTM probably sold just over 900,000 copies after it fell off the charts in '89 as after SoundScan in '91 it has only sold 79,000 copies so it was very close to Platinum in '89 but needed those 8 years of slow sales to get to the magic million.

TISL did not sell 500,000 copies in 5 weeks. Fact. It was certified Gold but it couldn't have sold that many copies in that time. Its 5 week run went as follows: 5,9,20,30,37. It sold 178,000 copies in the first two weeks. At #20 it probably sold about 35,000, #30 about 25,000 and #37 about 20,000 which leaves a grand total of approximately 258,000. That's nowhere near half a million. It was obviously certified due to shipments, just like Street Angel.

As for Crystal Visions, it has already crossed the 'Gold line'. It has sold 505,000 copies and that was as of June 2014 so it's probably at about 530,000 by now.

[StevieNicksfann]

Originally Posted by James89

TOSOTM probably sold just over 900,000 copies after it fell off the charts in '89 as after SoundScan in '91 it has only sold 79,000 copies so it was very close to Platinum in '89 but needed those 8 years of slow sales to get to the magic million.

TISL did not sell 500,000 copies in 5 weeks. Fact. It was certified Gold but it couldn't have sold that many copies in that time. Its 5 week run went as follows: 5,9,20,30,37. It sold 178,000 copies in the first two weeks. At #20 it probably sold about 35,000, #30 about 25,000 and #37 about 20,000 which leaves a grand total of approximately 258,000. That's nowhere near half a million. It was obviously certified due to shipments, just like Street Angel.

As for Crystal Visions, it has already crossed the 'Gold line'. It has sold 505,000 copies and that was as of June 2014 so it's probably at about 530,000 by now.

Well not that Wikipedia is not the end all be all but it says TISL was certified gold in 6 weeks for the the shipment of units not the sales of them. But it does add "As of February 2011, the album has sold over 663,000 copies in the US" so it has definitely earned the gold certification unlike Street Angel which is also gold but I believe has sold less than 500,000 copies to date.

[StevieNicksfann]

Originally Posted by tabruns

OSOTM had something similar to RAL. While "Rooms On Fire" was climbing, it peaked at #10. But "Rooms On Fire" was the only hit off the album, so that probably explains why it went Gold quickly but then took years to make the slow crawl to Platinum status.

TISL is something of an anomaly, I think. It went Gold in 5 weeks but seems to have just completely stalled at around 700,000 copies. I'm hopeful that Crystal Visions will eventually cross the Gold line.

I have no hope of IYD or 24KG ever going Gold, although both are amazing albums.

Yes but the puzzling thing is that OSOTM went top 10 without having a top 10 single and only one top 20 single over all. RAL had a top 10 (top 5 for that matter) and another top 20 single and yet the album never cracked the top 10. It was at #14 with a bullet for something like 6 weeks and held strong finally climbing to #13 for 1 week then #12 the week after and then began it's descent. Just odd..

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by StevieNicksfann

Yes but the puzzling thing is that OSOTM went top 10 without having a top 10 single and only one top 20 single over all. RAL had a top 10 (top 5 for that matter) and another top 20 single and yet the album never cracked the top 10. It was at #14 with a bullet for something like 6 weeks and held strong finally climbing to #13 for 1 week then #12 the week after and then began it's descent. Just odd..

The Other Side of the Mirror came after Tango In The Night but it never got word of mouth. I remember there being tons of CD in the sale back bins.

[StevieNicksfann]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

The Other Side of the Mirror came after Tango In The Night but it never got word of mouth. I remember there being tons of CD in the sale back bins.

oh good point. Now that makes sense. Thanks!