The Smiley Smile Message Board

The recent official press release on the BBs Jubilee states that they are the biggest-selling American group. Is there an accurate record of their sales?

Nah, can't be true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists


Aerosmith - 150 million (I believe it)

Backstreet Boys -  130 million (no way is this claim true because if you look at the tally, they would need about 90 million in sales to come from the rest of the world and the numbers given don't even get to 20 million outside the US)

Bon Jovi - 130 million (again, a HUGE stretch. Artist like Bon Jovi had pretty much their entire catalog counted thanks to modern trackers, so if they have, say, 64 million units certified, it's pretty unlikely that they have just as much not)

Chicago - 122 million (plausible)

Eagles - 120 million (likely WAY undercounted. They've been certfied to have sold 110 million in the United States alone. In fact, the Wiki is ridiculous because they can confirm this band has sold 127 million units for sure whereas the three groups I just listed right above them hover around 47-65 million).

Bruce Springsteen - 120 million (likely right on the money, counts as a band if you were to figure that a great bulk of that comes from his time with the E-Street Band.)

Metallica - 100 million (probably correct although it could be higher)



Anyway, I couldn't even find The Beach Boys on some of these lists. I'd probably estimate their sales to be at around 50 million, with the vast majority coming from single sales and hits compilations as the band has very few albums that even passed the 500K mark in sales in the United States.

Albums:

Surfin' USA - Gold
Surfer Girl - Gold
Little Deuce Coupe - Platinum
Shut Down, Volume 2 - Gold
All Summer Long - Gold
The Beach Boys In Concert - Gold
Christmas Album - Gold
Today! - Gold
Summer Days (and Summer Nights) - Gold
Pet Sounds - Platinum
15 Big Ones - Gold
Still Cruisin' - Platinum

Best Of The Beach Boys - 2x Platinum
Best Of The Beach Boys, Volume 2 - 2x Platinum
Endless Summer - 3x Platinum
Spirit of America - Gold
Made in the U.S.A. - 2x Platinum
The Greatest Hits - 2x Platinum
Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys - Gold
Sounds of Summer - 2x Platinum
Warmth Of The Sun - Gold

Singles:

I Get Around - Gold (1 Million in sales used to signify a gold single)
Good Vibrations - Gold (1 Million)
Kokomo - Platinum (1 Million)



Video:

Good Timin' - Live At Knebworth (Gold - 50,000 for video releases)



Keep in mind that this is overall units, so the thirtieth anniversary boxed set which has five full-length discs would need to sell 100,000 sets in order to count as 500,000 units and receive Gold status. Also, this band, like The Beatles, probably had a lot of would-be Gold singles that hit the 500,000 mark back when a Gold single meant 1,000,000 in sales.

How'd The SMiLE Sessions do in the sales-department anyway?

Guy on Amazon says the 5 disc set sold 18,000 copies according to a Rolling Stone article published two weeks after the album's release. Not sure if that was first week sales, but probably was given that it debuted at #27. If I had to guess, I'd say they've sold about 40,000 copies of the boxed set and two-disc set in just the United States alone, but the total could be way higher. It's also the sort of thing (especially the two disc set since it's a cheap way to get the album reconstruction) that will surely be one of the band's best catalog sellers from here on out a la Pet Sounds. I'm sure the label is happy with the numbers.

It's POSSIBLE, that INTERNATIONALLY, they're the biggest selling American group.  Aerosmith being their biggest american competition.

BTW, there was a fire back 'n the day at Capitol Records that destroyed a lot of album records (paperwork), I know some of the Beatles info was destroyed in the fire, perhaps the Beach Boys numbers were too, so the reason they aren't included is simply because the info isn't available?

50 Million in my opinion is low. 

Several years ago, Melinda mentioned somewhere that in America, royalty payments for radio play put the Beach Boys at #3, behind the Beatles and Elvis. 

Pump Up The Volume! 50 million, 100 million...120 million... Those mega sales figures sure look good in bios and press releases.
When record companies are paying royalties, they don't like Gold or Platinum; they, like, fudge a little. When they are breaking a new group or new release, they love Gold and Platinum; and sometimes they fudge a little.
Labels would pump an album's sales figures for it to qualify for Gold or Platiunum status. Sometimes on a flimsy 'hit' album, in order to have it go Gold, they would count 'records shipped,' that is, before the inevitable returns flow started. Coop advertising was also a tool used to have chains or rackjobbers 'buy in' on an album that was close to going gold or platinum. Often, on those buy-ins, the retailer would get unlimited return priveleges; after the label got their desired chart placement and/or 'sales figure.'  Hype is/was always the name of the game.

True, but a lot of the bands they're talking about didn't need the hype.  Aerosmith, the boys, the beatles, Elvis really DID sell a shitload of records. 

I've read many places that BB's have well over 100 million sold records, but that it cannot be confirmed officially. I think the ommision on wikipedia is bad and someone should change it because they are nowhere on that list, even with their lowest estimated slaes numbers they should be on it.

I dont really get Americans... well-selling acts like Aerosmith, Nickleback and Bon Jovi are about as oversentimental cheese rock one could ever hope to find. At least the BB's can safely say that they did some cheesy stuff without it havign to be uber-saccharine hard rock. Terrible!

Where does Nielsen get its stats, then, as reported on the Jubilee press release?

I don't know man, I think only women buy records over here or something.  The people on this board don't know about it because they're all loners and single.  Normal, record buying public people though all have their girlfriends tell them what to listen to.  That's why Aerosmith, Nickleback and Bon Jovi sold like a motherfucker.  Of course women were a lot of the reason for the BB's success too. 

It may be legit, man.  I'm serious about the capitol records fire thing, has anybody else ever heard of that?  There was a fire, that burnt up a lot of Capitol Records paperwork, therefore they couldn't get the Beatles certified for a lot of albums.  It could have easily involved the Beach Boys too.

When did that supposedly happen? The 60's? The 70's? 

From about 1967 up to the break out of the  Endless Summer album, the Beach Boys Capitol catalog was stagnant and many of their titles were out of print. I don't think Capitol missed out on any possible Beach Boys Gold Record certifications.

Don't overlook ACDC: 200 million albums worldwide as of 2010!

ACDC aren't American.

They are from Australia....Like Crowded House, Russel Crowe and Phar lap............ ;)

Are we talking world-wide or in the States alone?

Don't forget Yahoo Serious!!!!  :p

And Paul Hogan/Mick "Crocodile" Dundee! Bee Gees, Jet, The Lucksmiths, the Tasmanian Devil, Duck-Billed Platypi, Mel "FREEEEDDOOOOMMM!!" Gibson, Rocko the Wallaby, Geoffrey Rush, Kylie Minogue, Naomi Watts, Midnight Oil...

I was listing world-wide figures. Neither can lead to The Beach Boys being #1. In fact, The Boys likely have a greater percentage of their sales come from a worldwide audience than something like Aerosmith or whatever....which mostly has to do with the American market for the past forty years or so only wanting to purchase "RAWK!" music.

Looks like someone's been checking out my website.  ;D

Total sale were widely reported as 94 million in 1976.

Interesting.....also, I don't know of a website of yours. What I posted is from a text file I made four years ago although I went to the RIAA website and found that the Good Timin' video had been certified.

I've noticed press releases for some artists have their record sales suddenly jump up from time to time. For example in the late 90s it was written that Billy Joel had sold 90 million albums. A few years later 100 million, and about 5 years after that it is commonly stated as 150 million (this despite not releasing any new albums in that time).  When calculating all album sales either in US or worldwide it often doesn't add up.

I always thought The Eagles were the most successful American band of all time sales wise?

Something that must be borne in mind is that RIAA certification isn't automatic. The record company has to request it, submit their records for audit and pay for it. This explain why Endless Summer went gold roughly three minutes after it was released (OK, about eight/nine weeks) but wasn't certified as platinum (triple platinum, actually) until over 39 years later.

If, like me, you find all this fascinating, check out the RIAA (http://www.esquarterly.com/bellagio/Riaa.html) page of 104532.

39 years??    :)

Certified gold 8/14/1974, certified platinum/double platinum/triple platinum 9/30/2003. Like I said, over 29 years later.  ::)

my fault...i need new glasses...  ;D

I heard the fire happened on 11/28/66 :)

What????  I'll give you ACDC notwithstanding that Phil Rudd lives a couple of miles from me.

Ive heard on the news last night and today, Whitney sold 130 million,170 million and over 200 million records! Lets just make up a number!

I read an article that cited 55 million records in the United States  :lol

Do the sales of an album include all formats? Records, tapes, cds, 8 tracks, downloads, etc? So when Pet Sounds first came out on cd in 1990, I assume that is added on to record sales previously?

Yep, units is units.

No, they are from Australia like The Bee Gees, Olivia Newton John and Joe Bugner.

Thanks like attendance figures, I love this stuff!