Queen :: Charts & Sales History

[Rockintunesbaby]

It’s a complex subject and record labels are notoriously underhanded when it comes to this sort of stuff.

In the UK they used Led Zeppelins ‘Whole lotta love’ in a perfume advert I think it was and I’m sure Pink Floyd was used in something but Queens music has been overused in my opinion to sell products like ‘Flash’ washing up liquid and Qatar Airlines with WWRY. I think even flogging beds with A kind of magic God forbid!

I guess I tend to side with Queen in these discussions because over the years they were always the underdog certainly in the 80s and 90s amongst the music press and still are to some degree. Their music wasn’t taken so seriously whereas LZ and PF made these records that were worshipped.

[jimmypages59]

But that's the problem I have with all this, I want an objective discussion but I always feel that it's too tempered by emotion or a desire to defend or uphold Queens honour. Most of what I am saying, I believe to be a true reflection of how things are, but people seem to take it as a slight on Queen and get all protective. Why can't they leave their feelings at the door and just discuss things from a logical point of view.

Don't forget though, that Led Zeppelin were also berated in the press, Rolling Stone always had it in for them and the UK press seemed to label them as sell outs to the US, so much so, that they hardly ever gave interviews or done any press. It's only in subsequent years that things seemed to change and they started to be lauded and praised.

[jimmypages59]

Hey Braca, didn't see your post until a few minutes ago.

I agree that GHs take sales away from studio albums, this seems to be true for all acts and even The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin will have lost studio sales to comps but do you never think that the reason the GHs are so popular is because that is actually what people want from Queen and not their studio albums.

While we will never truly know what their studio albums would have done had they not had GHs released at the junctures they did, there always seems to be the assumption that they would have done far, far better, but who is to say that would have been the case. How do you explain in the download and streaming age, where everyone is free to just choose what ever they want to listen to, that most Queen albums are still not streaming greatly beyond their hits? There will be many new listeners to these acts, who never experienced the physical age, yet even these new listeners still do not seem as interested in Queens deeper cuts. I know on the last page you cast doubt on the fact that LZs and PFs studio albums are more respected and iconic but surely that would seem the case, if new listeners are also delving deeper into some of their albums and not Queens.

You say it is fully reliant on certain tracks being on certain albums but I think say DSOTM is so revered because of the album it is, people listen to it because it is DSOTM, it doesn't contain their biggest songs, yet the whole album is remarkably well streamed from top to bottom. Also take HOTH again, none of it's tracks are huge but it has 5 over 50m and 7 over 20m, which is fantastic for a 50 year old album, that contains no stand out monster hit.

I don't think you do get a clear view of how popular the original studio albums are, because it is skewed, if you are measuring them using the current popularity of it's tracks on streaming. I've been aware of Queen since the late 70s and a fan since seeing Flash Gordon around 1980/1981 and my first ever single purchase was I Want To Break Free in 84, so I've been pretty aware of their popularity in the UK for around 40 years and there is no way that Don't Stop Me Now was their 2nd most popular track, in the 80s or 90s. Yet because it is now, Jazz gets a far higher proportion of sales from comps etc than I believe it should. Similar can be said of Hot Space, as big as UP is now, it wasn't big enough to cause HS to rechart in the UK after it's initial run and it had 9 years before GH II was released to supposedly stifle it's sales. Now it looks like HS was quite a successful album because of all the comp sales attached to it, due to UP now being their 4th most streamed track.

[Rockintunesbaby]

Its all very subjective really, Queen's Made in Heaven is streamed more evenly than most of Queen's albums. Yet no one ever talks about that record. Metallica's first 5 albums have incredible streaming numbers and yet Bon Jovi have very uneven streams on their albums, as does Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Kiss, Van Halen, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, ABBA, The Who, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones and even David Bowie. I mean I could go on and on. The question is, what does it say about the popularity of a band? Are Pink Floyd more popular than ABBA? You'd need to look at demographic and country. A 14 year old girl is more likely to listen to ABBA's greatest hits than Dark side of the moon. These album artists taped into a demographic that listen to albums in their entirety and if you look at the actual sales of albums by Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin their actual physical album sales are huge. DSOTM and LZ 4 between them have sold about 80 units worldwide. But does that make them more loved by the general public?

The Smiths and Joy Division as well have really solid streams spread out over their albums.

[Lawyeris]

Lawyeris, I stand by everything I said. There really is no need for statements like "trying to...understate the magical supergroup Queen, their power and influence" on here, we are not here to wax lyrical about our feelings about Queen as band, we are here to discuss sales and charts. It seems you can't separate your feelings about Queen from facts about Queen, whereas I can.

I'm not trying to understate Queen, I am being frank and honest about them, if anything, it is you that overstate. You see The Miracle as something great, when in the grand scheme of things, it is not that loved an album, even amongst Queen fans. On top of this, it is abundantly clear to most, that even their more respected and bigger albums like ANATO, NOTW or The Game just do not resonate with the general public in the way say Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or Beatles albums do. Just look back to when Universal took over their catalogue and released remastered versions in 2011, they done pretty much nothing, people just didn't buy them in any great quantities. The majority of them didn't even chart in the UK and those that did spent a solitary week on chart in the lower reaches, hitting positions in the 80s and 90s.

I never cared about 2011 remastered versions and didn't expected them to chart, but The Miracle Box set was another case, I objectively (not considering by feelings - you are wrong here) thought it's a big deal (for those 4-5 reasons, which I have written), especially when it's not so hard for a album to hit TOP 3 nowadays (for example Roger Taylor's Outsider, which "no-one" remembers, hit No 3 and now it is the highest solo entry for any member from Queen...).
But of course, the first real bad sign was when News of the world Boxset hit only No 58 in 2017...but I thought maybe there was no promotion for it or what...

Of course, real results and chart positions show, that Queen even in UK are more Greatest hits band... and this is very disappointing thing...

[Rockintunesbaby]

I never cared about 2011 remastered versions and didn't expected them to chart, but The Miracle Box set was another case, I objectively (not considering by feelings - you are wrong here) thought it's a big deal (for those 4-5 reasons, which I have written), especially when it's not so hard for a album to hit TOP 3 nowadays (for example Roger Taylor's Outsider, which "no-one" remembers, hit No 3 and now it is the highest solo entry for any member from Queen...).
But of course, the first real bad sign was when News of the world Boxset hit only No 58 in 2017...but I thought maybe there was no promotion for it or what...

Of course, real results and chart positions show, that Queen even in UK are more Greatest hits band... and this is very disappointing thing...

No they're not a greatest hits band. They are a lot more than that. Their hits are extremely popular, please explore their streams throughout their catalogue. They are solid and consistent. Their 15 studio albums averaged about 5.6 million per go, thats extremely good. Would you say David Bowie was a singles artist? Queen's streams are far higher than his throughout all the deep cuts and many other artists who would not be considered hits groups. I think we should move on from this.

[Lawyeris]

I'm not saying that Queen are ONLY GH band. I say - more GH band (...than albums band).
So, why so long awaited Miracle Boxset's sales in UK are only around 10k???
Why NOTW boxset reached only No 58???
OK, you may not answer that.

[jimmypages59]

I'd say they are more known for their singles than their albums. I honestly don't get the hostility towards them being seen as more of a "singles" band, it's like it's seen as derogatory or something.

It's clear they are not an "albums" band like Floyd, Metallica or Zep, as an average of 5.6m is not great in my opinion, its not bad but its not what I'd class as a band whose albums are highly bought or sought. I mean Zep, admittedly with less albums (8) have an average of around 17.5m, Floyd (15) an average of around 11.5m and Metallica (11) an average of around 11m.

Personally, while Bowie does indeed have a few iconic albums, I have always seen him as more of a "singles" artist.

One thing I'd say about the NOTW box sets #58 placing, was it not quite an expensive set.

[Rockintunesbaby]

I’m one if the biggest Queen fans in the world but I’d never buy an album box set of theirs. I own all the albums. 5.6 million spread over 15 albums is an incredibly number average. That’s more than the Rolling Stones, Elton John or David Bowie, to name just a few. Madonna, Celina Dion, Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson had huge album averages, where do they fall into all this.

Also if we’re talking about popularity, Queen have more monthly followers on Spotify than all of them and 16.6 million subscribers on YouTube which is more than any other act from the 20th century other than Michael Jackson.

[jimmypages59]

Yes but no one here is disputing their current popularity, we all know they are absolutely huge.

How is it an incredible number if Floyd also have 15 albums and an average that is nearly double? Yes, it is a higher number than a lot of artists but if you are trying to claim that Queen are a Bone fide album artist, surely you measure their average and success against other album acts.

I certainly wouldn't class myself as one of their biggest fans in the world but I also have all of their albums, various solo albums, used to have all their UK singles and had the Complete Works UK box set. I also have the original German P/S for Larry Lurex I Can Hear Music, yet I encounter many people in the UK who say they love Queen, their favourite artist but when I quiz them about their favourite albums and tracks, it's clear I know far more about Queen and go far deeper into their discography than these supposed huge fans.

[Rockintunesbaby]

Of course! Pink Floyd’s albums from DSOTM to The Wall are insane as well as most LZ albums, I’m not disputing that. I think MJDs breakdown of Queens sales are very well explained. Queens deep cuts are pretty solid, certainly not as high as PF or LZ but good! I’m not one of Queens biggest fans in the world, I do own FMs solo stuff but that’s it and all the official album releases but I also own all PF and LZs albums.

[jimmypages59]

Eh? You've lost me here Rockin' lol. In your 12:31 post you started it by saying "I’m one if the biggest Queen fans in the world", then in your last post you say "I’m not one of Queens biggest fans in the world". Which one is it, I'm confused.

[Rockintunesbaby]

I am a big fan but there are many bigger fans than me. In fact in school I didn’t like them at all. Then FM died and suddenly I was made aware of how much great music they made. Yeah I don’t know why I said that.

[Braca3]

Hi jimmypages59

ref "I agree that GHs take sales away from studio albums, this seems to be true for all acts and even The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin will have lost studio sales to comps but do you never think that the reason the GHs are so popular is because that is actually what people want from Queen and not their studio albums. "
i am not denying that both PF and LZ have lost studio album sales to GH. Hower, GH tally for PF is 52,025,000 and 51,200,000 for LZ. while Queen GH tally is 139,348,000. Close to 3x times of the total of either PF or LZ. I am arguing that in Queen's case it has had more of an negative impact on their (top) studio album sales.
I am not denying that there are a lot of Queen fans / buyers who are more focussed on the GH packages. But this has also been influenced by physical single sales PF tally is set 8,800,000 and LZ 6,350,000 while Queen tally is 49,960,000. PF and LZ have more an album audience

ref "you cast doubt on the fact that LZs and PFs studio albums are more respected and iconic but surely that would seem the case, if new listeners are also delving deeper into some of their albums and not Queens" I was referring to the Uk press and US billboard.

ref "people listen to it because it is DSOTM" People also listen to DSOTM because media keep talking about the album and promoting it (its mysterious, magical - you can flush in down the drain as far as i am concerned like all of PF)
I still stand by it that certain songs sold the album....but a hype has develped around the album.

i am convinced in the old days people go out to buy some LZ or queen music because there are certain tracks (which get played on the radio) that got our attention. when there are 5 or 6 tracks you want and they are all on 1 GH album rather than spread over 2 or 3 studio albums many will buy the GH , in the absence of a GH package they might even have bought all 3 studio albums (we will never know)

you mention DSMN. A hit up on release but not the monster hit it is now. It turned big because it got a lot of attention. Queen studio albums do not get that much attention as the focus is on the GH packages.

ref "There will be many new listeners to these acts, who never experienced the physical age, yet even these new listeners still do not seem as interested in Queens deeper cuts"
We are herd people. People do not know the lesser known songs. Current success of DSMN proves it IMO, it got attention, everybody is streaming it now!

i am not suggesting that ANATO or NOTW would have the numbers that DSOTM or LZ4 would have but those 140,000,000 album sales would have gone somewhere.

Btw I love LZ

[Braca3]

Congratulations Lawyeris .. you kick started this new debate ......and i cannot keep up!

[jimmypages59]

Hey Braca, I think we are pretty much in agreement on most things, just that you side slightly one way and I slightly the other, but I think we both concede that our thoughts are pretty much in the same ball park, just at different ends of the park perhaps lol

DSMN is a funny one. Being on Queens GHs it was obviously never an unknown track, but in the 80s it was certainly not one of the go to tracks from the album, sure it was enjoyed but in my opinion, it only really started to become a monster, somewhere in the early part of this century. In the UK it started turning up on TV adverts etc and around maybe 2006-2008, I distinctly remember thinking that it's popularity had definitely grown.


As you know Led Zeppelin are my favourite act but I also love Queen...you don't have as much of their music as I have or had as many rarities, solo projects, singles, promo stuff as I did, if you are not a very big fan of them and appreciate them far beyond what your average fan does.

While I love a good few of their hits, such as Play The Game, Save Me, Somebody to Love and IWTBF, which will always hold a special place in my heart, being the first ever single I bought, 85p it cost me back in 1984, it's far lesser known tracks like It's Late, The Loser In The End, Long Away, Teo Torriatte and All Dead, All Dead that I really love. One of my favourite albums is actually Hot Space, I think it's fantastic and while I kind of understand the derision it's usually met with, I disagree with it whole heartedly and love pretty much every track on it.

I really enjoy bits and pieces and certain albums from Pink Floyd but there is a lot of stuff I am just not that keen on.

I've actually got A Day At The Races on at the moment, which again, I think is a great album and doesn't get the attention it deserves beyond STL, Tie Your Mother Down and Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy.

[Rockintunesbaby]

Jimmypage I like Hot Space a lot as well, even the slightly cheesy stuff like Cool Cat and Back Chat! I think Teo Torriette is an amazing song as well and should have much higher streams!!

[jimmypages59]

I have to admit, Cool Cat is the only track on the album I don't really like. I'm not too keen on Freddies vocals and find it a bit pedestrian overall. LPDA is another one of my favourites of theirs and I think stuff like Dancer, Action This Day, Calling All Girls and Put Out The Fire are great.

My absolute favourite solo track is Let Me Out by Brian and Eddie from The Star Fleet Project. My god I love that track.

[Rockintunesbaby]

You know I’ve never listened to the Starfleet album in its entirety but I should check it out. I’m a big Van Halen, the DLR period anyway.

What I wanted to say was that Queens catalogue has very solid streams throughout every album track aside from Flash Gordon and has over 2 million streams. Take Hot Space as an example, how many albums from that year have 2 million streams per song throughout. There really are not many. If you go back to Queen I the same could be said in 1973. Apart from obviously LZ and Pink Floyd. I think Queens streaming figures have increased right across the board, the masses go for the hits but the deep tracks have also increased.

[jimmypages59]

I'm not saying these are all the albums from 1973 and 1982, that have every track above 2m, but here are a few for both years;

1973
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced...
Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On
Bob Marley - Catch A Fire
Wings - Band On The Run
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

1982
Led Zeppelin - Coda
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Roxy Music - Avalon
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
The Cure - Pornography
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold

Yeah, the film helped to lift a lot of their album tracks, some of them were looking very poor before it.

I think we just have different standards about what we constitute as a poorly streamed album track. Personally, I think the 2.7m streams of Candy Store Rock, Led Zeppelins lowest album track, are terrible. I don't find Presence having three tracks CSR 2.7m, Royal Orleans 3.5m & Hots On For Nowhere 3.8m and In Through The Out Door having two tracks, Carouselambra 4.5m & South Bound Saurez 4.9m, under 5m, very good either and I'm also pretty disappointed that Led Zeppelin III has one track (although, I've never liked it and wish they'd left it off and put Hey Hey What Can I Do, on instead) and Physical Graffiti has four tracks, below 10m.

[Braca3]

Hey jimmypages59

ref.. "our minds are pretty much in the same ball park, just on different ends of the park maybe lol"
yes I think so... I'm in the sunny part of the park drinking a beer! come on over!

yes, your appreciation for Led Zeppelin is well known. with your profile name it would have been blasphemy if you had chosen a different band!

i bought HOTH back in the day, because i wanted some zeppelin music. why I chose that album at the time is still a mystery to me, because it is not the easiest of their albums to get acustomted to. i like the album now but the time not so much.

i am guessing jimmy is ur preferred guitar player (over BM and all of them). Is Percy ur preferred vocalist or does Freddie have the edge?

ADATR one of my favorite songs is "You Take My Breath Away"
a song that (imo) deserved so much more attention. Maybe they can use it in blockbuster series or commercials so it will get a shot in the arm.
I like the piano work on this song. I appreciate (rock) music with piano work. Like with Meat Loaf's Bat out Hell. Interesting story how the album come to realisation. Would the world have known about meatloaf without Todd Rondgren!

[jimmypages59]

III was the one I struggled with initially. I bought it around 87/88, played it once, didn't like it at all and never played it again until around 90/91, I think on the back of buying and listening to the Box Set. Needless to say, I totally got it this time and loved it, wondering how I hadn't first time around and annoyed I'd not given it another shot until then. I love HOTH (although I can take or leave The Crunge), which was actually knocked off the #1 spot, in the UK, the very day I was born.

Yeah, I love Jimmys playing. I particularly enjoy his acoustic playing and love his improvisational live stuff, just going off on tangents and seeing where it goes. It's one of things I love about Zeppelin, how they jammed, when playing live, just getting into grooves, building them up, taking them down and then going off somewhere else. It's not something I feel Queen ever really done or done to any great extent live and while I can't fault their individual performances, when playing live, I've always found them a bit too "like the record", to really enjoy them.

I do love Brians playing, in my eyes he has perhaps the most recognisable sound and tone, of all guitarists out there. I really enjoy a lot of his Queen tracks, he's written some of my favourites and also have a lot of time for his vocals as well.

Having said all that, I'm not sure if Jimmy is my favourite guitarist or at least, always my favourite guitarist. I love so much what he does on the guitar but Ritchie Blackmore, just blows my mind sometimes. Some of his live stuff with Deep Purple and Rainbow, is quite simply amazing and I find it totally awe inspiring to watch sometimes.

Plant is my favourite vocalist ever. His voice on those early albums and his live voice until late 72, will never be matched in my ears. In my opinion, as brilliant as Freddie was, he was never a good as Plant in this period. His voice gives me the chills around this time. My other favourite vocalist is actually David Coverdale, in particular his beautiful rich bluesy tones, on his two solo albums and early Whitesnake albums. His 2nd album Northwinds, I think is him at his prime and he just sounds outstanding, singing this style of bluesy Free style music. It's also got some lovely piano playing on it.

There are so many great tracks on a ADATR. YTMBA is a beautiful track, up there with Long Away, Teo and Somebody as the best tracks on the album for me. I'm not sure where you are from Braca, was it Portugal or have I just dreamed that up, but in the UK, as Rockin' said a few days ago, every few months it seems like there is another advert with a Queen song. Honestly it is ridiculous the amount tracks that have been used or covered, especially since the movie. Off the top of my head, I can think of Another One Bites The Dust, Don't Stop me Now, A Kind Of Magic, I Want To Break Free, Flash, I Want It All, Somebody to Love (cover) and Bohemian Rhapsody (cover). So, never say never with YTMBA lol

Yes, I'm partial to a bit piano as well. I also love a bit organ, especially a bit hammond. Absolutely love Jon Lords playing in Deep Purple and early Whitesnake and always liked John Paul Jones playing on stuff like You Shook Me. Another band I love with piano in it, is Little Feat, especially their 1973 album Dixie Chicken, some great piano and keyboards on that and obviously Queen, who wouldn't be Queen without Freddies beautiful playing and piano based tracks.

Yeah, absolutely nobody was interested in BOOH. Some of the stories are quite funny about the time and trouble they went through, trying to get the record released.


p.s. I got to thinking about what songs Brian had actually wrote for Queen and realised, I wasn't really 100% sure beyond We Will Rock You and Hammer To Fall. It actually turns out that 8 of the 14 tracks I've mentioned above as liking, are his.

[Rockintunesbaby]

[QUOTE=jimmypages59;n11080980]I'm not saying these are all the albums from 1973 and 1982, that have every track above 2m, but here are a few for both years;

1973
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced...
Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On
Bob Marley - Catch A Fire
Wings - Band On The Run
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

1982
Led Zeppelin - Coda
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Roxy Music - Avalon
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
The Cure - Pornography
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold



Yes I can see there are a few that have passed 2 million each on those years. It isn't that many though! Prince's 1999 (1982) album hasn't reached 2 million per song, niether has Madonna - Madonna (1983), Van Halen's - Diver Down (1982), Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain (1982), Elton John - Jump up (1982), AC/DC - Flick of the switch (1983), Phil Collins - I must be going (1983), Paul McCartney - Tug of War(1983), Journey - Escape (1981), Lionel Ritchie - Can't Slow down (1983).

Whats really interesting is some of the these albums were huge when they were released, the most obvious ones being Journey, Lionel Ritchie and Phil Collins. These albums were much bigger than Queen's Hot Space which I think has sold about 3 million units globally.

Rainbow's Straight between the eyes in 1982 has some seriously low streams but I certainly would never have said they were a singles act and neither has Deep Purple's Perfect Strangers which suprised me AND Whitesnake's Saints and Sinners.

[Braca3]

Chart Date: 01/20/2023 (WEEK ENDING: 01/19/2023)

LW

TW

ARTIST | TITLE | LABEL

TOTAL

CHANGE

ALBUMS

TEA

SEA

39 31 QUEEN | GREATEST HITS 1 HOLLYWOOD (UMG)

14,556

1%

2,413

324

11,819

YTD OVERALL ACTIVITY

RANK

ARTIST | TITLE | LABEL

YTD ACTIVITY

ALBUMS

SONGS

AOD STREAMS

VOD STREAMS

27 QUEEN | GREATEST HITS 1 HOLLYWOOD (UMG)

46,590

9,400

9,600

47,596,000

1,890,000

[Braca3]

Jimmypages59

surprised III is the album you struggled with initially. I found III so much much easier to tune in / appreciate than HOTH. SIBLY is one of my all time favorite tracks. when it comes to favorite guitarists yes brian, jimmy and Eddie van Halen, followed by Neal Schon (Journey) and Tom Scholz (Boston)

i love Plant's voice, he is one of my favorite vocalists but in line for the no 2 postion. I also love Steve Perry from Journey a lot. david lee Roth and george michael
but imo none can match Freddie. Percy himself made the case at the FMT "people are changing the keys, to they Queen songs they are singing, because the just can't do it Freddie"

I am from the Netherlands. Last song used in commercial overhere was AOBTD.

BOOH yeah the whole story was fascinating. Todd Rundgren had already came to terms with signing the production coast of BOOH off, as a tax write off, ....and it turned out that the 1st cheque he received as a result of sales of the album was the largest he ever received.