Something is Squeezing My Skull: the airplay thread

[Maurice E]

Re: Something is Squeezing My Skull; the airplay thread

Gotta go with Thewlis on this one. I find it hard to believe that Quarry has outsold "The Queen Is Dead". Perhaps it had a stronger debut, or sold more copies in a certain stretch of time.
Every month or three somebody posts the sales figures. Maybe someone can post them again? I'd love to know if "Quarry" is, indeed, his best-selling album.
Kewpie?

Quarry was heralded as the best selling album by Morrissey or The Smiths (see the three references I provided earlier on). This may have been based on a false claim by the record company but it's a claim which hasn't been officially challenged. It is without doubt the biggest selling Morrissey solo album in the UK, lasting several months in the top 75, with all four singles from the album reaching the top 10; a feat never achieved by the Smiths (although their singles lasted longer in the charts)
The Smiths were a cult band in the USA in the 80's (Morrissey's US fame probably peaked at the beginning of his solo career) and just an averagely successful indie band here in the UK, in terms of sales. They had nothing like the commercial clout that the big indie bands of the last 15 years have enjoyed who regularly achieve million-plus sales in the UK.

 

[justme]

Hey guys. I'm not sure if this is any news but I saw that Refusal is now Gold in the UK (http://www.itsmorrisseysworld.com/story.php?newsID=54)

So while looking for info on this, I came across the Recording Industry Association of America website, and their Gold/platinum certifications for US sales. (http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinum.php) - just out of curiosity I typed Moz and the Smiths in their database and I found this:

Artist
MORRISSEY Title
VIVA HATE Certification Date
11/16/1993 Label
SIRE
Award Description
GOLD Format
ALBUM Category
SOLO

Artist
MORRISSEY Title
BONA DRAG Certification Date
06/12/2000 Label
SIRE
Award Description
GOLD Format
ALBUM Category
SOLO


Artist
SMITHS, THE Title
STRANGEWAYS HERE WE COME Certification Date
09/19/1990 Label
SIRE
Award Description
GOLD Format
ALBUM Category
GROUP Type
ST

Artist
SMITHS, THE Title
LOUDER THAN BOMBS Certification Date
09/19/1990 Label
SIRE
Award Description
GOLD Format
ALBUM Category
GROUP Type
ST

Artist
SMITHS, THE Title
THE QUEEN IS DEAD Certification Date
09/19/1990 Label
SIRE
Award Description
GOLD Format
ALBUM Category
GROUP Type
ST

Gold in the US is 500,000 copies

 

[Worm]

I found this on a Google search. It's from Moz-Solo so its veracity is open to challenge.

A front page post with sales figures as of 2006.

This post says YATQ sold 1,200,000 copies worldwide.

cmrock456 added: "according to The Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums of All Time in '04--it listed TQID at 850,000 sales in the US alone". Emphasis mine.

If these numbers are correct, as of 2006, "The Queen Is Dead"'s U.S. sales accounted for nearly 75% of the worldwide total for "You Are The Quarry". Never mind the sales numbers in other territories, if you add only the U.K. sales of TQID to that 850k I'm sure it would surpass "You Are The Quarry".

 

[jesuisbryony]

It's on 6Music now, boys and girls.

 

[ClintBoon]

It was played at Old Trafford at half time last night

 

[Johan de Witt]

I found this on a Google search. It's from Moz-Solo so its veracity is open to challenge.

A front page post with sales figures as of 2006.

This post says YATQ sold 1,200,000 copies worldwide.

cmrock456 added: "according to The Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums of All Time in '04--it listed TQID at 850,000 sales in the US alone". Emphasis mine.

If these numbers are correct, as of 2006, "The Queen Is Dead"'s U.S. sales accounted for nearly 75% of the worldwide total for "You Are The Quarry". Never mind the sales numbers in other territories, if you add only the U.K. sales of TQID to that 850k I'm sure it would surpass "You Are The Quarry".

Yes, Maurice was obviously misled by record company rhetoric which got picked up and spread around by lazy journalism.

Of course Quarry isn't the best selling album of Morrissey's career, not even of his solo career.

The Queen is Dead was certified gold (as 'justme' pointed out above) in 1990. Since then, up to 2008 it sold almost 290,000 copies in the Soundscan-era, as posted by me on the main page in 2008, so that sort of confirms the Rolling Stone-figure of 850,000 Worm mentioned.

As for the UK sales of The Queen Is Dead, we don't know. They probably didn't keep track on sales in the 1980s as closely as they do know. What we do know, however, is its chart performance and we can compare that to his best selling UK album You Are The Quarry:

The Queen Is Dead chart performance: 2-6-14-18-23-22-26-22-20-27-34-38-45-57-59-73 (16 weeks)
You Are The Quarry chart performance: 2-7-17-31-28-28-41-33-23-18-23-28-33-37-47-48-63-71 (18 weeks)

So presuming album sales in 1986 were as good as they were in 2004 (and there's no reason to think they were not), TQID must have sold something close to the 380,000 copies Quarry shifted in 2004. Plus The Queen Is Dead has had the added advantage of being 18 years older and being generally heraldad as one of the most important albums of the 1980s in various polls. i.e. it gets rediscovered by new generations again and again. It seems therefore safe to presume it has sold at least 500,000 copies in the UK.

So 800,000 copies in the US plus 500,000 in the UK brings the total UK/US sales to 1.3 million against YATQ's 610,000 (US: 230.000, UK: 380,000).

Worldwide sales are usually based on doubling UK/US sales so The Queen Is Dead would be at 2.6 million against Quarry's 1.2 million.

Is You Are The Quarry hist best selling solo album then? I'm afraid it isn't either. Both Viva Hate and Bona Drag went gold in the early 1990s in the US (500,000 copies sold). Doubling that amount for the worldwide sales would already bring them well over a million, and of course the UK sales have to be added to them, and Viva Hate performed almost as well as Quarry did in the UK, so my guess is that it would be at 1.5 million at least.

 

[Maurice E]

well, things are looking pretty bleak with just two weeks to go before the single's released.
it's on the 6 Music A-list and it seems to be getting some plays on Xfm but that's about it over here in the UK.
with so little airplay, and no new songs on the b-sides, could be his first single to miss the top 40 since Roy's Keen...

 

[Luxo]

It's Clint Boon's single of this week (W/B Monday 20th April)