The Elfoid_TFS

The guy who runs the site "Fan Of Music" did a few interviews on Hitsville which made him seem like he knows his stuff. He's MJDangerous on the UKMix.org forums too, a very respected authority.

A few notes on these stats:
* They total 94 million albums sold worldwide
* This deals in sales, not shipments, and counts by the album not by the disk
* Roth's sold 54.1 million to Sammy's 29 before you innevitably check
* Last updated February '08

Van Halen (1978) - 14.8 million (11 million USA)
Van Halen II (1979) - 7.7 million (5.7 million USA)
Women & Children First (1980) - 5.6 million (3.7 million USA)
Fair Warning (1981) - 3.9 million (2.5 million USA)
Diver Down (1982) - 5.9 million (4.3 million USA)
1984 (1984) - 16.2 million (10.5 million USA)
5150 (1986) - 9.4 million (6.3 million USA)
OU812 (1988) - 6.3 million (4.1 million USA)
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991) - 5.2 million (3.9 million USA)
Live: Right Here, Right Now (1993) - 2.4 million (1.4 million USA)
Balance (1995) - 5.7 million (3.1 million USA)
Best Of Volume I (1996) - 7.6 million (3.6 million USA)
Van Halen III (1998) - 1.6 million (0.7 million USA)
The Best of Both Worlds (2004) - 1.7 million (0.8 million USA)

Source: http://fanofmusic.free.fr/BestSellersWorldActs

Not sure what one might discuss here, but thought it could be of interest. I found it interesting how near VHIII is to BOBW in sales. And Sammy's attempt to sell VH worldwide in the 90s worked to an extent (Balance outsold F.U.C.K. and OU812 even if not to a dramatic extent).

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Scott

Balance outsold FUCK?! I find that hard to believe.

Also - dumb question - I'm assuming these are all sales (cassette / vinyl / CD / digital download)?

Also - I thought VH III only cracked 500K?

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Eddymon

I find it amazing that what is considered my many to be their best album, Fair Warning has the worst sales of all studio albums with the exception of their worst, Van Halen III.

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spanked55

I thought that right away too...

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right-here-i-say

I find it interesting that VH1 outsold 1984 in the United States. I believe about 20 years ago 1984 had a lot more than VH1. Of course, if I'm wrong, I'm sure I will be corrected, and may God have mercy on my soul.

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The Elfoid_TFS

These are all sales of albums yes (not singles). Which is something that has always been a point of argument among DLR/SH fans of course - everyone who had the DLR vinyls re-bought, and that's part of why the DLR sales figures are higher.

VHIII only sold 700, 000 in the USA. It probably shipped 800-850, 000 units stateside, and that's why it's not Platinum yet (1 million).

Balance only outsold FUCK globally, not USA. It's cuz they took the tour all round the world, and it was Van Halen's biggest tour ever. Album sales peaked in the mid 90s generally, too.

It didn't have the singles, and it was a USA only tour I think - the first time VH did that.

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The Elfoid_TFS

That list puts VH as 38th best seller ever, but I think now GN'R woulda knocked em down to 39, since the last GN'R sales update.

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QUITE A YEAR!

LLFHS

Just goes to show you that numbers don't mean shit. Tried to explain to some doorknob here that high record sales do not a good product make by using the Olive Garden rule of quality......just because the lemmings line up for it doesn't mean it's quality Italian food.

Anyone with 1/10 of a brain knows that Fair Warning is the best album of the Roth era, probably the best in the entire catalog.

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Little Dreamer

I find that list hard to believe for one reason: looking at the difference between US sales/international sales, i was expecting the gap to narrow in the Van Hagar years. Meaning that during those years VH did not sell well overseas. No promo, no airplay, no tour. But looking at the list you don't see a significant different between the Roth and Hagar years overseas. The ratio is pretty much the same. No drop in overseas sale.

I find that very hard to believe, having lived in Europe during that time. And I don't think Japan would've totally made up for the drop in European sales. What gives?

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Raldo

Thanks for posting the stats.

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Dutchie5150

That list of highest sellers is interesting... I would of thought that Zeppelin would of sold more than a few of the other 10 bands...

Paul McCartney.... God Damn.... 103,700,00 by himself and 346,500,00 with the Beatles. That's amazing....

There some big numbers for Van Halen... Not to far away from 100,00,000. Cool.

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Samoa Joe's Ego

What is interesting to me is how much "replacement" would figure into the sales.

Many older albums were bought on vinyl, cassette then CD by some....the same person likely wound up buying them 3 times because of technology change. Especially bands like The Beatles benefit from that angle.

After what...1986 or 87 or so likely it was the CD that was bought first. Do many people now actually buy the "digital albums" to make much of a difference? Seems it is songs.

It is almost like the music business is more like during Elvis' time when the important thing was a big single and touring rather than people buying albums. I suspect a person in the future with a one or two hit wonder could make a mint off downloads of the one or two songs, then parlay it into a tour and merch and it wouldn't even matter if there were an album.

Also, and this thought really is kind of off the reservation, it has always been interesting to me that the music business uses units sold and the movie business goes by gross. Gone With the Wind is still FAR and away the number one movie of all time if you go by ticket sales or do an inflation adjustment like on boxofficemojo. A lot of the newer movie grosses look impressive, but it really diminishes the true popularity of movies like Jaws and earlier if you don't look deeper.

Album sales are what they are. But they still uses grosses for concerts rather than tickets sold as a barometer...falls prey to inflation.

Don't know why I got off on that tangent

graeme

I don't think that VH has ever had big play/promotion in Europe, either with Roth or Hagar. I started playing guitar in the mid eighties and heard "Jump" on the radio. I loved the solo and I didn't even know who it was by. The only Hagar I have ever heard on TV was WCTBL.

I think that, whereas in the USA they almost seem part of the cultural fabric of the country to an extent, in Europe and elsewhere they are just another band that obviously has had a loyal following but never became part of everyday vocabulary.

I think sales have been steady simply because the same core audience bought their music, regardless of the singer at the helm, mainly because of the guitar playing.

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EUX4Life

I can't believe VHIII is at 0.7 million. That'd be funny if it FINALLY went platinum another 10 years down the road.

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Jor-L5150

very cool thank you.

1) i was too young to buy classic VH on vinyl, but i did get the whole catalog on cassette !
i DID rebuy on cd, and then bought used vinyl for the heck of it ( buying used copies doesnt count , i know )
bought balance on cd and vinyl when new. also got the cd single w/crossing over.
bought chickenfoot on cd and vinyl.
going to have to replace some scratched up cd's.

2) very surprised balance did better than Fuck. of course there was a lot of film for balance. i prefer fUcK, but balance is great.
not surprised VH3 is at the bottom. it should have been an EP with maybe 3 or 4 of those tracks and the rest is crap that leffler would have deleted.

4) fair warning is tragically underplayed. wacf as well.

5) bobw is near bottom. should be. damn useless thing.