How well do the Beach Boys rank against other performers ?

[Slow In Brain]

Every time I look on the Net all the info I get is conflicting. Beach Boys total sales vary between 65 to 100 million. How do they rank compared to Elvis, Beatles and all the other classic performemers ?

[Andrew G. Doe]

Problem with comparing sales is, the most commonly used yardstick - gold/platinum awards - is misleading, not to mention spurious. RIAA awards are not handed out as a matter of course: the record company has to submit their accounts for the album in question and then pay for the auditing. Thus, it's entirely possible to have a million seller, but not get a platinum disc. For example: for years it was assumed that Pet Sounds didn't sell at all well, but in 1999, it was discovered that, in fact, it sold well enough to be awarded a gold disc by summer 1967. Likewise, Endless Summer was in the Billboard Top 200 for ever, and was certified gold about two months after it was released... but until late summer 2003 (doubtless spurred on by the surprise success of Sounds Of Summer), that was the only award until it was back-certified triple platinum.

And of course, RIAA awards only apply to the USA. Here's a list - US/UK awards - of the awards the band have got in the US & UK. On the RIAA lists, they rank well down at #106  with 21.5 million certified units in the USA (the top three are The Beatles (177), Garth Brooks (128) and Elvis (123.5)).

[filledeplage]

Problem with comparing sales is, the most commonly used yardstick - gold/platinum awards - is misleading, not to mention spurious. RIAA awards are not handed out as a matter of course: the record company has to submit their accounts for the album in question and then pay for the auditing. Thus, it's entirely possible to have a million seller, but not get a platinum disc. For example: for years it was assumed that Pet Sounds didn't sell at all well, but in 1999, it was discovered that, in fact, it sold well enough to be awarded a gold disc by summer 1967. Likewise, Endless Summer was in the Billboard Top 200 for ever, and was certified gold about two months after it was released... but until late summer 2003 (doubtless spurred on by the surprise success of Sounds Of Summer), that was the only award until it was back-certified triple platinum.

And of course, RIAA awards only apply to the USA. Here's a list - US/UK awards - of the awards the band have got in the US & UK. On the RIAA lists, they rank well down at #106  with 21.5 million certified units in the USA (the top three are The Beatles (177), Garth Brooks (128) and Elvis (123.5)).

Andrew - I am intrigued and disturbed but not at all surprised by your post.  It supports what I have always suspected about Pet Sounds, and always wondered how this LP could be in every store all the time, for decades, and not have been awarded gold/platinum "whatever" was appropriate for this exceptional, and now recognized gem.  That said, one has to inquire how could that have happened.

Did no one "count" as in "1-2-3"...how many records were produced?  Could it have been an "omission" which was not done inadvertently? If it was awarded in 1967, as should have been appropriate according to your post, would this not have greatly impacted everything that followed historically?  The award itself, propels more sales, more gigs, more promotion and recognition.  It may have forced them back "into a box" creatively that they had "outgrown" because of a perception which was created by powers from "without."

It makes one wonder about what the structure and internal politics were at the time and whether it was "accepted" as a matter of doing business...And longtime fans who knew in their gut that this work was "gifted" both in terms of composition and vocal dynamic should realize that their attraction to the music and faithfulness to it was not misplaced or misguided.   

And it seems to be "tainted" to be a report that one submits, and then "pays" for it...it seems to be a huge conflict...   

A cursory definition of "spurious" means "not what it appears to be."

Thanks for that.  Now we know our instincts were correct, about Pet Sounds, even as teenagers.   

[Andrew G. Doe]

Capitol, for whatever reason, chose not to submit Pet Sounds for certification (it platinum now, btw).

[adamghost]

Wasn't that right around the time the Beach Boys were suing Capitol?

[Andrew G. Doe]

Wasn't that right around the time the Beach Boys were suing Capitol?

True... but the first GH collection got certified gold with some speed: released 7/5/66, certified 4/12/67.

[bgas]

Wasn't that right around the time the Beach Boys were suing Capitol?

True... but the first GH collection got certified gold with some speed: released 7/5/66, certified 4/12/67.

Yeah, That fit Capitol's idea of what the BBs should sound like.
Push Best Of, NOT PS, and maybe Brian/BBs will get the hint and play what we want them to...

[shelter]

Weird thing is, The Beach Boys are entirely missing on the list of 141 artist with 50+ million records sold world wide...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists

And yet, in the US they're the overall 15th best charting music artist, and even the #1 best charting American band of all time... Which I suppose proves that The Beach Boys truely are America's Band.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-charting_U.S._music_artists

[Slow In Brain]

Thats what I mean all the info from various sites conflicts. Really, a complete audit of the Beach Boys sales need to be done.

[shelter]

Another thing I was thinking about a while ago... Songs like 'Good Vibrations', 'I Get Around' and 'California Girls' are nowhere near any list of best-selling singles of all time. But if you'd combine all the sound carriers that these songs ever appeared on... all the singles, albums, BB hit compilations and various artists golden oldies collections... Than I seriously doubt if there are a whole lot of songs that appear on more sold "units".

[filledeplage]

Wasn't that right around the time the Beach Boys were suing Capitol?

True... but the first GH collection got certified gold with some speed: released 7/5/66, certified 4/12/67.

It was Pet Sounds that was the real issue...despite whatever was done with the GH (I assume Greatest Hits?) collection.  It was our (the US) "Rubber Soul" that the Beach Boys fans were robbed of.  It is that loyalty to an American work, analogous to the Beatles.  Both great!    

Now it is clearer to me...but one might really admire what the Boys did to land on their feet and show what they were made of despite the marginalization of that Pet Sounds opus.  They were young guys, in their twenties, and it is unlikely they could not have  appreciated the chicanery of the business.  

Good for them, though, not letting that event ruin them and keep them from ultimate success, which came from the hard work of touring abroad, and diversification to their own or other labels.  To their credit, they "evangelized" their own work, continuously and inexorably and made it the hit over time that the studio appears to have failed; from their inaction or resistance, or favoring another band's work.  It is a disgrace that the same label that released Rubber Soul for Christmas, in the US, in 1965 did not do the same for Pet Sounds in May of 1966.

Perhaps the rationale was there was not enough "room" for two of a somewhat similar "genre" to enjoy the marketing and promotional spotlight and resources.  It created a subliminal concept that one band was more creatively superior to the other and they were both great talents.  Unfortunately it was divisive and for no need.    

Eventually, when you try to subvert and stifle an art form, it finds its own way to the top, like the cream which always "rises to the top."

[Runaways]

i feel like i read somewhere that they don't know how many records the beach boys have sold.  that's why they don't show up officially anywhere?  it's all just guesses still. 

[filledeplage]

i feel like i read somewhere that they don't know how many records the beach boys have sold.  that's why they don't show up officially anywhere?  it's all just guesses still. 

The individual companies who produced (as in factory production) must know how many came off the assembly line...even in the foreign context...I have a French edition of Smiley Smile, which I bought in the late 1990's, on CD which is very cool to have, but which I bought in the US, so maybe some of the actual figures could be skewed, by making CD's in one country and selling in another.   


under "errata" - in my post above, in paragraph two, the word "not" should not be there...it was not intended as a double negative...
It should read..."They were young guys, in their twenties, and it is unlikely that they could have appreciated the chicanery of the business."   Sorry about that mistake.