You are the Quarry (and other Morrissey/Smiths album) sales

Yes, it's ridiculous, and I don't believe it either! Fact is that Quarry sold 380,000 copies in the UK. As for The Queen is Dead, we don't know. Apparantly BPI have never certified it platinum (300,000 copies sold), but Hatful of Hollow was!
That just cannot be right.
I know Hatful was a midpriced release but still its unfathomable that The Queen Is Dead wouldn't have sold as much. I'm pretty sure it sold much more.

As I said above. maybe they started a recount when WEA rereleased the record in 1995, when it made the UK album top 30 again: http://www.chartstats.com/albuminfo.php?id=10059

Yes, Hatful was a discount album since it was mostly radio sessions (I think). It was a bargain since it had the best songs on The Smiths and had HSIN from Meat. Not surprising it did well. In fact, being a gatefold too made most young fans back then buy it and not the Smiths first 2 albums. However, Queen changed that. Fans had to buy that album even if they had Hatful. All the more surprising that Queens "alleged" sales numbers are low.
 
Yes, it's ridiculous, and I don't believe it either! Fact is that Quarry sold 380,000 copies in the UK. As for The Queen is Dead, we don't know. Apparantly BPI have never certified it platinum (300,000 copies sold), but Hatful of Hollow was!
That just cannot be right.
I know Hatful was a midpriced release but still its unfathomable that The Queen Is Dead wouldn't have sold as much. I'm pretty sure it sold much more.

As I said above. maybe they started a recount when WEA rereleased the record in 1995, when it made the UK album top 30 again: http://www.chartstats.com/albuminfo.php?id=10059

Hatful of Hollow is effectively an early singles (and b-sides) compilation.
It contains some of the Smiths’ best known and best loved singles.
This Charming Man, How Soon is Now, William, Heaven Knows etc.
I’m not at all surprised that it sold so well. It’s flipping brilliant!

Although TQID is easily the best studio album, it doesn’t have many songs which are well known beyond the hardcore fan base (I don’t think 'Bigmouth' and 'Boy With' did very well in the charts).
 
Probably!? The Queen Is Dead sold 850,000 copies in the US and you think it 'probably' sold more than 1.2 million worldwide? You either think The Smiths were a US phenomenon or are really bad at maths :) Or just plain stubborn!

Really, just your personal opinion! There are at least as many examples that would not support your theory, and some are right here, in this thread.

Just look at the US mid 90's sales figures:

Vauxhall & I: 293,017
Southpaw Grammar: 67,451
Maladjusted: 88,554

Vauxhall and I was and is generally viewed as Morrissey's best solo album, yet more than 75% of its US buyers couldn't be arsed to buy it's follow-up.

I think you're underestimating the intelligence of the Morrissey record buying-public. They know a good album when they hear one, and when an album isn't considered to be very good, only the die-hards are left buying it.

There ain’t no figures, so I’m afraid ‘probably’ it is, although it looks pretty certain. Like the atheist bus campaign which tells us there's probably no God!
You ought to now know the risks of making unbacked-up assumptions following your claim that TQID had shifted 500,000 in the UK; we now know it’s not even reached 300,000!
Also, your statement that YATQ was definitely not his biggest selling album is looking distinctly wobbly too.

Let’s face it. We’re both not as clever as we thought we were!

Fair comment about the follow up to Vauxhall doing badly. Choice of opening single does clearly have an effect and Dagenham Dave pretty much remains his worst ever.
I bought Southpaw Grammar but actually took it back to the shops coz I thought it was so awful (not sure how that would show up in the sales figures). Looking forward to getting the re-release though...
 
You ought to now know the risks of making unbacked-up assumptions following your claim that TQID had shifted 500,000 in the UK; we now know it’s not even reached 300,000!
...

I still think it did, though! See above!

OK, based on hard evidence (US sales) and not so hard (UK sales pre-Quarry), this is my rough estimate on Morrissey's worldwide album sales:

Viva Hate US 600,000/UK 250,000, worldwide sales: 1.7 million
Bona Drag: US 550,000/UK 90,000, worldwide sales: 1.3 million
Kill Uncle: US 230,000/UK 90,000, worldwide sales: 650,000
Your Arsenal: US 375,000/UK 150,000, worldwide sales: 1.05 million
Vauxhall and I: US 300,000/UK 200,000, worldwide sales: 1 million
Southpaw Grammar: US 75,000/UK 75,000, worldwide sales: 300,000
Maladjusted: US 90,000/UK 40,000, worldwide sales 260,000
You Are The Quarry: US 230,000/UK 380,000, worldwide sales 1.2 million
Ringleader: US 100,000/UK 160,000, worldwide sales 600,000
Years Of Refusal: US 50,000/UK 60,000, worldwide sales: 220,000
 
Hatful of Hollow is effectively an early singles (and b-sides) compilation.
It contains some of the Smiths’ best known and best loved singles.
This Charming Man, How Soon is Now, William, Heaven Knows etc.
I’m not at all surprised that it sold so well. It’s flipping brilliant!

Although TQID is easily the best studio album, it doesn’t have many songs which are well known beyond the hardcore fan base (I don’t think 'Bigmouth' and 'Boy With' did very well in the charts).

True enough. Not only did Queen not have any of your radio friendly foot-tappers, but it was bloody expensive I remember. Even today its sold at a premium. And it was relatively short on actual time span as I recall.

That said, I still cannot believe it wasnt a blockbuster in terms of sales given the tidal wave it rode in on with first 3 albums (if you include Hatful), and critical acclaim. Most people would have gone and blindly bought it given the lead up the group had done. If it had been felt mediocre by the masses (core fans asside) -- like others have said here, that would have affected the followup album, not the album itself.

Christ Im thinking about this way too much!!!!
Someone set us straight...please!:confused:
 
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