John Hlavaty ([email protected])
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 18:33:59 -0500
RECENT CHART PERFORMANCES:
I have excluded the Irish chart listings as my source
has not been updated since the end of November.
I missed one week of chart "watching" on some charts
due to a holiday break. This week is denoted by a "?".
U.K.:
Best Of + B-Sides:
#1-2-15-21-23-25-?-37-62-out of top 75 (sold out?)
Best Of:
#8-9-4-8-9-?-8-7-8-9
The Sweetest Thing:
#3-4-10-18-31-38-44-60-55-70-71-72
U.S.:
Best Of + B-Sides:
#2-5-21-28-29-33-38-45-56-68
Best Of:
#57-45-68-70-70-56-58-53-46
The Sweetest Thing:
15 total weeks on the Modern Rock charts. Last 11 weeks:
#17-13-11-11-10-9-10-9-10-12-12
Revised Hot 100:
#66-69-63-69-?-?
Canada:
Best Of + B-Sides:
#1-4-11-19-27-?-?-out of top 75 (sold out?)
Best Of:
#5-8-6-5-6-6-6-5-5
The Sweetest Thing (Part 1):
#1-3-3-3-6-8-?-9-10-8-10-11
The Sweetest Thing (Part 2):
#3-4-2-7-7-7-?-10-11-10-9-9
Australia:
Best Of (both versions charted as one release):
#1-1-1-1-3-3-2-1-3-2-3
The Sweetest Thing:
#6-6-10-10-15-19-21-23-22-20-15-18-23
CONCERT INFORMATION
For the ENTIRE 1998 (not 1997) GLOBAL year , U2 had
the second highest concert gross.
The Rolling Stones were #1 with their "Bridges to Babylon"
tour grossing $193,351,265 on 69 sellouts.
U2 were #2 with their last leg of the "POPMart" tour
with $45 million grossed and 13 sellouts.
Elton John was #3 with grosses of $40 million
and 48 sellouts.
Yanni (!) was #4 with $38 million in grosses and
49 sellouts.
And Garth Brooks was #5 grossing #35 million
with 101 sellouts.
GRAMMY AWARDS
U2 have won 7 Grammy Awards. They are:
1987: Best Album - JT; Best Rock Group Vocal - JT
1988: Best Rock Group Performance - Desire;
Best Music Video, Short Form - Where the Streets...
1992: Best Rock Group Performance - AB
1993: Best Alternative Album - Zooropa
1994: Best Music Video, Long Form - ZooTV Live From Sydney
CHART AND SALES INFORMATION
************************************************************************
"Achtung Baby", "Zooroopa","POP" and "Best Of" U.S. Billboard Chart Rankings
************************************************************************
In its first week of sales, U2's "Best Of + B-Sides" sold
approximately 230,000 copies. "POP" sold 349,000 copies in
the U.S. its first week and approximately 160,000 copies its second
week. AB sold 295,000 copies its first week in the U.S. and
"Zooropa" sold 377,000 copies its first week in the U.S.
"Best Of + B-Sides" first 10 weeks on the U.S. Top 200
BillBoard chart:
2-5-21-28-29-33-38-45-56-68
The "Best Of + B-Sides" reached PLATINUM status
after 4 weeks and DOUBLE PLATINUM status after 10 weeks.
"Best Of" single CD first 9 weeks on the U.S. Top 200
BillBoard chart:
57-45-68-70-70-56-58-53-46
The "Best Of" reached GOLD status after 4 weeks.
"POP's" first 20 weeks on the U.S. top 200 BillBoard chart:
1-2-8-12-14-13-13-15-15-18
20-29-33-42-49-56-68-89-96-101
"POP" reached PLATINUM status after 9 weeks.
After "POP" dropped out of the top 100, I stopped
keeping track. I believe "POP" spent a total of 28 weeks
on the U.S. BillBoard Top 200 charts.
Here are the chart positions for "Achtung Baby"
for an entire YEAR after its debut. It debuted December 7, 1991
on the U.S. BillBoard charts (each line represents 10 weeks):
1-3-4-4-7-4-7-6-6-6
9-9-8-9-12-12-12-10-7-7
12-13-10-13-11-11-11-17-17-21
18-21-25-30-28-35-39-43-40-26
23(!)-29-30-28-30-34-47-42-37-39
44-45-44-52-50-49-46
The last position above was for the week of December 26, 1992.
"Achtung Baby" reached the 2 million mark after 9 weeks.
By the 21st week, AB had sold 3 million units.
After 39 weeks, "Achtung Baby" was #40. It then
rebounded to #23 (denoted by the (!)). This was possibly
due to two reasons. At that point, the late summer/fall
segment of U2 outside ZOO tour in the U.S. was in full
swing. Also, "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" was
now being heard on the radio. After 47 weeks (just under
a year), AB reached the 4 million mark in units sold in
the U.S.
After 57 weeks on the charts, AB continued to bounce around between
positions #50-160 for the next year. On January 8th, 1994, two
years and a month after its debut, AB reached 5 million copies
sold in the U.S. AB was still in the Top 200 at that time.
(its chart position for that week was #158).
AB was certified as selling 8 million copies in 1997.
Here are the chart positions for "Zooropa"
for 33 weeks after its debut. "Zooropa" debuted July 24,
1993 on the U.S. BillBoard charts (each line represents 10 weeks):
1-1-2-3-4-6-10-11-13-16
20-22-29-37-40-42-52-62-73-86
81-79-76-65-58(*)-54(!)-60-58-68
82-99-111
The last position above was for the week of February 26, 1994.
"Zooropa" reached the 2 million mark sold after
9 weeks.
"Zooropa" rebounded from #86 after only 20 weeks
all the way back to #54 (denoted by the (!)) when
"Lemon" reached #1 on the dance charts. To the best of
my knowledge, this was U2's only #1 dance remix song in the U.S.
Also, "Stay" was officially released as a CD single at this time.
The (*) denotes the week that AB reached 5 million
in sales. After selling 2 million copies in 9 weeks,
the sales for "Zooropa" slowed dramatically (which
coincided with its rapid tumble down the charts).
********************************************************************
WORLD-WIDE sales information for U2 albums.
These figures were reported by the New Zealand
Polygram office on March 8, 1997 when "POP" was released.
********************************************************************
"Boy" - 2,490,467
"October" - 2,360,717
"War" - 6,551,395
"Under A Blood Red Sky" - 7,556,582
"The Unforgettable Fire" - 6,255,826
"Wide Awake In America" - 1,743,610
"The Joshua Tree - 14,805,257
"Rattle And Hum" - 9,274,502
"Achtung Baby" - 9,763,275
"Zooropa" - 6,079,158
Total - 66,880,789
The last report I read from SoundScan stated that "POP"
sold 1.4 million copies in the U.S. TIME magazine quoted
a Polygram report from February, 1998 that stated
"POP" sold 5.5 million copies worldwide.
Since March, 1997, many of U2's older albums recharted.
These "catalog sales" totaled an additional 1.5 million units
sold in 1997. Therefore, U2 have sold a total of:
U2's previous releases (66.9 million) + plus "POP's" sales (5.5 million)
+ catalog sales for 1997 (1.5 million) = 73.9 million units worldwide.
As of this point, I have not seen any data on worldwide sales of
U2's "Best Of", but based on certifications alone, U2 have sold
2.5 million copies in the U.S. and 600,000 copies in Canada .
The album has not dropped out of the top 3 in Australia and not out of
the top 10 in the U.K. since its debut.
Factoring in catalog sales through 1998 plus sales of the "Best Of",
U2 may be reaching the 80 million mark in total units sold.
********************************************************************
RIAA Certifications
******************************************************************
The RIAA is the only official source in the U.S. that
certifies singles, albums and videos as GOLD, PLATINUM and
MULTI-PLATINUM. Billboard Magazine merely reports these results.
RIAA obtains sales information from music label companies.
All audits are conducted by RIAA's official, independent accounting
firm for a certification fee.
The definition for GOLD, PLATINUM and MULTI-PLATINUM
varies according the country and the format (CD/album or video).
Currently, in the U.S., singles and albums are certified as GOLD
with sales of at least 500,000 copies; 1,000,000 for PLATINUM
and 2 or more million copies for MULTI-PLATINUM.
Long-form videos are certified at 50,000 for GOLD,
100,000 for PLATINUM and 200,000 for MULTI-PLATINUM status.
Please keep these definitions in mind when examining
the information below.
According to Billboard, here are the latest RIAA certification
listings (as of 12/97) for all U2 releases:
"Boy" was certified as PLATINUM on September 11, 1995.
"October" was certified PLATINUM on September 11, 1995.
"War" was certified as MULTI-PLATINUM with 4 million units sold
on September 11, 1995.
"Under a Blood Red Sky" was certified as MULTI-PLATINUM
with 3 million units sold on May 23, 1994.
"The Unforgettable Fire" was certified as
MULTI-PLATINUM with 3 million units sold on May 23, 1994.
"Wide Awake in America" was certified as PLATINUM on
May 23, 1994.
The Joshua Tree" was certified as MULTI-PLATINUM
with 10 million units sold on September 11, 1995.
"Rattle & Hum" was certified as MULTI-PLATINUM
5 million units sold on September 11, 1995.
"Desire" was certified as GOLD on January 10, 1989.
"Achtung Baby" was certified as MULTI-PLATINUM with
8 million units sold on November 15, 1997.
"The Achtung Baby Videos" was certified as PLATINUM
on October 13, 1993.
"Zooropa" was certified as MULTI-PLATINUM with
2 million units sold on September 8, 1993.
"ZOO TV - Live in Sydney" was certified as GOLD on
February 15, 1995.
"Mission: Impossible" by Larry Mullen, Jr. and Adam Clayton
was certified as GOLD in July, 1996.
"Discotheque" was certified as GOLD on April 7, 1997.
"POP" was certified as PLATINUM on May 7, 1997.
"Best Of" was certified GOLD in December, 1998.
"Best Of + B-Sides" was certified as MULTI-PLATINUM
with 2 million units sold in January, 1999.
To Summarize:
All 12 U2 albums or EPs that have been released in the
U.S. have at least gone PLATINUM. Total *certified* sales for
these 12 albums and EPs is at least 41.5 million units
in the U.S. Actual U.S. sales may slightly exceed this number.
U2 have had 2 GOLD singles in the U.S.: "Desire" and
"Discotheque". Despite better chart successes
of other singles, none have been certified as GOLD or better
by the RIAA. Larry Mullen and Adam Clatyon also had
a GOLD single with their remake of the "Mission: Impossible"
theme.
To the best of my knowledge, U2 have released 7 videos
that are readily available for sale in the U.S.:
"Under a Blood Red Sky", "The Unforgettable Fire Collection",
"Rattle & Hum", "The Achtung Baby Videos", "ZOO TV - Live from
Sydney", "Numb" and "POPMart - Live from Mexico City".
Only two of these, "The Achtung Baby Videos" and "ZOO TV - Live
from Sydney" are certified as PLATINUM and GOLD, respectively.
The latter video also won a Grammy Award. I have not
seen any other information concerning certification of the
"POPMart" video.
For Canada:
According to CRIA certifications, "With Or Without You", "I Still Haven't
Found What I'm Looking For", and "Desire" sold over 50,000 units (GOLD).
In Canada, SoundScan has been keeping tabs on sales figures
only since October 1996, thereby excluding many of U2's hits. The concept of
collecting sales statistics via barcode scanning is fairly new and is
currently less than helpful when data from the 1980's are needed.
"POP" has been certified as TRIPLE PLATINUM in Canada with sales
of approximately 380,000 units. However, this certification was
presented in April, 1997. I will assume that "POP" has now
reached QUADRUPLE PLATINUM status, but this has
not been confirmed. The sales of both forms of the "Best Of"
album has reached over 600,000 units (6x PLATINUM) as of
January, 1999. I have no other certification information.
**********************************************************************
U.K., U.S. and Canadian Highest Chart Rankings for U2 Songs and Albums
**********************************************************************
I am posting this information in the following format:
Song or Album/U.K. Ranking/U.S. Ranking/Canadian Ranking
The list below names the song or album and its U.K., U.S. and
Canadian highest chart position. A dash (-) means that the item
was not officially released in the U.K., U.S. or Canada. An "X" means
that while the item was released in either the U.K., U.S. or Canada,
it did not enter in the top 100 on the corresponding chart. A question
mark (?) means that I have no information regarding the release of
the item in a particular country.
Albums are enclosed by brackets, [ ], and other artists' work
are properly denoted. The U.K. chart positions are from the "Official
U.K. Charts Listings". The U.S. chart positions for songs and albums
are taken from BillBoard's Hot 100 Singles and Album charts,
respectively. Canadian chart positions were kindly supplied
by Nanda Lwin at "Jam Music". This list is presented chronologically.
Song or Album/U.K. Ranking/U.S. Ranking/Canadian Ranking
U2-3/-/-/-
Another Day/-/-/-
11 O'Clock Tick Tock/X/-/-
[Boy]/52/63/?
I Will Follow/X/-/?
Fire/35/X/?
Gloria/55/X/?
[October]/11/X/?
A Celebration/47/X/?
New Year's Day/10/53/?
[War]/1/12/5
Two Hearts Beat as One/18/X/?
[Snake Charmer] by Jah Wobble with Edge/X/X/?
[Under a Blood Red Sky]/2/28/40
I Will Follow (live re-release)/-/81/-
Pride/3/33/33
[The Unforgettable Fire]/1/12/6
The Unforgettable Fire/6/X/?
[Wide Awake in America]/11/37*/39
[Macalla] by Clannad with Bono/33/X/?
In a Lifetime by Clannad with Bono/20/X/?
[Captive Soundtrack] by the Edge/X/X/?
Heroine by Sinead O'Connor, written by Edge/X/-/?
[Robbie Robertson] by Robbie Robertson with U2/47/38/?
With or Without You/4/1/2
[The Joshua Tree]/1/1/1
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/6/1/11
Where the Streets Have No Name/4/13/14
In God's Country/48**/44/28
One Tree Hill/-/-/-
[Mystery Girl] by Roy Orbison, features song written by Bono and Edge/2/5/?
She's a Mystery by Roy Orbison, song written by Bono and Edge/27/X/?
Desire/1/3/2
[Rattle & Hum]/1/1/2
Angel of Harlem/9/14/15
When Love Comes to Town/6/68/X
All I Want Is You/4/83/X
In a Lifetime by Clannad with Bono-recharted in 1989/17/X/-
[Red, Hot and Blue] features "Night and Day" remake by U2/I did not see this
item listed
The Fly/1/61/3
[Achtung Baby]/2/1/2
Mysterious Ways/13/9/4
One/7/10/3
Even Better Than the Real Thing/12/32/45 (re-released in 1997)
Even Better Than the Real Thing - remixes/8/X/?
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses/14/35/26 (from the re-release in 1997)
[Zooropa]/1/1/1
Numb/-/-/-
Lemon/-/-/-
Stay/4/61/X
[In the Name of the Father Soundtrack] with Gavin Friday and Bono/X/X/?
In the Name of the Father by Gavin Friday and Bono/46/X/?
You Made Me Theif of Your Heart by Sinead O'Connor, written by Bono and
Gavin Friday/42/X/?
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me/2/16/11
[Batman Returns Soundtrack]/I did not see this item listed
[Original Soundtracks 1] by the Passengers, featuring U2/12/76
Miss Sarajevo/6/X/?
Goldeneye by Tina Turner, written by Bono and Edge/10/X/?
Mission Impossible remade by Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr./7/7/17
Discotheque/1/10/1
[POP]/1/1/1
Staring at the Sun/3/26/2
Last Night on Earth/10/57/4
Please/7/9 (charted on the U.S. Maxi-Single Dance Charts)/10
POPHeart EP/7 (charted as "Please")/-/4
If God Will Send His Angels/12/-/X
Sweetest Thing/3/63(not released as a CD single in the U.S., it
reached #9 on the Modern Rock charts)/1
[Best Of + B-Sides]/1/2/1
[Best Of]/4/45/5
*"Wide Awake in America" was taken off the U.S. album
charts one week after it's release since it was considered
an "EP" and not an album. The chart value reflects the
position of that week.
********************************************************************
That's it!
Ciao,
John
John J. Hlavaty, Ph.D. Tel: 978-927-5054, ext. 360
New England BioLabs, Inc. Fax: 978-921-1350
32 Tozer Road e-mail: [email protected]
Beverly, Ma 01915
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