The Smiths total records sold

[candydarling]

Anyone have any idea as to how many records The Smiths have sold total, worldwide? I have a friend who insists the British group The Jam have sold more records than The Smiths. I say no. Anyone have any idea?

[Kewpie]

Possibly Stephane and Johan know the details.

[Worm]

Anyone have any idea as to how many records The Smiths have sold total, worldwide? I have a friend who insists the British group The Jam have sold more records than The Smiths. I say no. Anyone have any idea?

Others will no doubt direct you to The Smiths' album sales, but I can't find much on The Jam's. However, looking over the band's Wikipedia page, they have more releases than The Smiths and they often charted as highly, or higher. On the other hand, The Smiths probably sold more albums in the U.S., which would make up the gap. Probably a close call but I'm guessing The Jam sold more.

[Years Of Refuse]

The link from the main page article on the subject

THE SMITHS & MORRISSEY SALES FIGURES

[Not Right in the Head]

The link from the main page article on the subject

THE SMITHS & MORRISSEY SALES FIGURES

Uh, go re-read your link. Those are the sales figures from 1992 through 2007, so while it's interesting in and of itself, it hardly helps answer the submitter's question.

[Years Of Refuse]

Uh, go re-read your link. Those are the sales figures from 1992 through 2007, so while it's interesting in and of itself, it hardly helps answer the submitter's question.

Before SOUNDSCAN was adopted record sales figures were made up by retailers so there can be no real way to get accurate sales figures from before that time .



I see that your family is once again second fiddle to trolling the internets

[Not Right in the Head]

I see that your family is once again second fiddle to trolling the internets

Honey, is that you?
Is that a tacit admission that your link above was pointless?

[Years Of Refuse]

Honey, is that you?
Is that a tacit admission that your link above was pointless?

Not at all .

What else ya got to riff about whiny

[Not Right in the Head]

Not at all .

What else ya got to riff about whiny

Good job editing your previous post. It's ludicrous to say that using retailers' sales figures in the days before Soundscan is an invalid method of calculation. They'd have no reason to report inaccurate sales figures. Even if some did, ballpark figures are more than sufficient to answer the question.

[Years Of Refuse]

Good job editing your previous post. It's ludicrous to say that using retailers' sales figures in the days before Soundscan is an invalid method of calculation. They'd have no reason to report inaccurate sales figures. Even if some did, ballpark figures are more than sufficient to answer the question.

Having been a music retailer for 20 years from 1975 to 1995 i can tell you as a matter of fact that it was not only done readily but was solicited from labels , independent reps and even artist themselves .


Just sitting @ your computer all day , day in and day out , how the hell would you know much of anything outside of the internet ?

[Not Right in the Head]

Having been a music retailer for 20 years from 1975 to 1995 i can tell you as a matter of fact that it was not only done readily but was solicited from labels , independent reps and even artist themselves .

Well, then, I concede that the sales figures are meaningless. But tell us--did you sell more Smiths records, or Jam ones?

Just sitting @ your computer all day , day in and day out , how the hell would you know much of anything outside of the internet ?

If I didn't have the Internet, then how would I learn from people like you, who have real knowledge of the outside world.

[Years Of Refuse]

During the 80's , anything British sold well to the mindless youth of America , but our chain sold much more of The Smith's product than The Jam's product .

[candydarling]

Others will no doubt direct you to The Smiths' album sales, but I can't find much on The Jam's. However, looking over the band's Wikipedia page, they have more releases than The Smiths and they often charted as highly, or higher. On the other hand, The Smiths probably sold more albums in the U.S., which would make up the gap. Probably a close call but I'm guessing The Jam sold more.

Hmm that's interesting. I really would have assumed that worldwide The Smiths have sold much more than The Jam. I'd be really curious to know the figures, although it seems almost impossible to get anything concrete.

Thanks for everyone's replies so far.

[Maurice E]

Anyone have any idea as to how many records The Smiths have sold total, worldwide? I have a friend who insists the British group The Jam have sold more records than The Smiths. I say no. Anyone have any idea?

The Jam were massively more successful, commercially, than the Smiths, in the UK at least.
They had several number one singles and loads of songs that made the top 10. The Smiths never got anywhere near number 1 (think they had just two songs in the top 10).
The Jam were a mainstream band, their songs got loads of radio airplay on all the major radio stations and still do.
In terms of critical success, The Smiths were certainly more successful. You'll never see a Jam record in an all time top 20 albums list but commercially the Jam were in a different league to the Smiths...

[sistasheila]

the Article only name the US sales in 2007and the US-sales from1992-2007,doesnt it? not really the world wide sales.
as says the thread title v
Morrissey/Smiths US album sales in 2007 and total sales since 1992
http://www.morrissey-solo.com/articl.../03/05/1811210



One thing I have read that "the quarry" sold 1. MIO worldwide..but you did ask on the smiths sales anyway.....

[Maurice E]

the Article only name the US sales in 2007and the US-sales from1992-2007,doesnt it? not really the world wide sales.
as says the thread title v
Morrissey/Smiths US album sales in 2007 and total sales since 1992
http://www.morrissey-solo.com/articl.../03/05/1811210



One thing I have read that "the quarry" sold 1. MIO worldwide..but you did ask on the smiths sales anyway.....

Yeah, Quarry sold over a million worldwide out selling all other Morrissey and Smiths albums.
Based on this, I'd guess that the total number of worldwide sales for Smiths albums in no more than 3 or 4 million...

[Dave2006]

Given that Mike Joyce is an occassional visitor here, we could ask him - assuming he got 50p for each record sold, let's ask how much has he made?

We could then try and track down Bruce and Rick to see how much they made from Jam sales - that's sales from The Jam, not from selling fruit preserves

Just a suggestion...

[Jukebox Jury]

No idea about worldwide, but I'd say if I was a betting man (which I'm not) The Jam sold more albums in the UK than The Smiths, as someone else mentioned, they were huge, mainstream, number 1 singles and albums, huge sell out tours of big venues.

Jukebox Jury

[Worm]

No idea about worldwide, but I'd say if I was a betting man (which I'm not) The Jam sold more albums in the UK than The Smiths, as someone else mentioned, they were huge, mainstream, number 1 singles and albums, huge sell out tours of big venues.

Jukebox Jury

From the Wikipedia page:

They had eighteen consecutive Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their breakup in 1982, including four number one hits. As of 2007, That's Entertainment and Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero? remained the best-selling import singles of all time in the UK. They released one live album and six studio albums, the last of which, The Gift, hit number one on the UK album charts. When the group split up, all 18 singles were re-released and all placed within the top 60.

The question would be, as I said, ex-UK sales. Were The Jam very popular in Europe? They had a low profile in the US. Over the years I had the impression that The Smiths did not chart well in the US but sold a decent number of albums, probably more than The Jam.