Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Random Music Row Ramblings

Sometimes, things befuddle me. Last week's country soundscan chart completely befuddles me.

I remember having a conversation with someone at Big Machine during GRS when they announced Garth's street date. "He's sneaking in and putting his album out the week BEFORE hers?" I asked. "What does that do to marital harmony if he's still #1 the week hers comes out and she comes in second?" I was really only half joking, but thinking how cool it would be to have Mr. and Mrs. Brooks at the top of the chart.

After all, Jasper County debuted #1. 117,000 copies sold the first week. With the power of the Big Machine behind it, no reason to think the new album wouldn't do those kind of numbers.

I've never been a die hard Trisha fan. Never been a die hard fan of any female, really. There are songs of hers that I just love. "The Song Remembers When" is probably one of my Top 10 Favorite Country Songs EVER. I think she's got an amazing voice. She rocks as a person. But I don't think I've ever went out and bought an album.

However, this new album, Heaven, Heartache & The Power of Love, is freakin' AWESOME. Really great material. She's been all over the place promoting it... TV... Radio.... online. She crossed the picket lines to co-host on The View. Promote, promote, promote!

So when last week's sales numbers came out, I was befuddled. Stunned, really. Mr. Brooks was #1 all right. But Mrs. Brooks... #10? And barely that, just 350 copies ahead of Josh Turner. What. The. Hell.

ll the radio specials she did on the CD... those kind of sales on that kind of exposure makes you think people didn't like it. Kind of the way you can look at the Post-CMA sales numbers and correlate bad performances with sales drops and good performances with sales increases. How could people NOT like this album? Are my tastes that wacked?

I've seen some wrong sales totals posted, by the way. (Although not quite as bad as the people who tried to say they had GB album sales numbers a day early that were TOTALLY offbase.) Official Soundscan tally for the week was 33,113. That's 16k behind album #9 - the Alison Krauss / Robert Plant project that's getting no airplay or promotion, in it's 4th week on the chart.

Just for a little mind blowing comparison... Trisha's Greatest Hits Cd, which MCA released earlier this year that wasn't promoted at ALL... sold 22k the first week. It's over 62k scanned to date, without any effort.

I haven't blogged about this sooner because I keep expecting that any minute we'd get a press release and find out that like... Walmart forgot to report their numbers. Best Buy credited Trisha's numbers to Garth. Semis worth of albums were stuck in the Rockies and didn't make it to store shelves. SOMETHING.

But yet. Nothing.

Another thing that baffles me is how a certain website can bombard people with a zillion emails about buying the album in the days leading up to the release, and then prohibit the members from posting anything about how many albums were actually sold. So if the numbers shock you, by all means you are welcome to post here.

And while I'm being baffled and befuddled (I really need to rename this post) let's talk Greatest Hits projects, shall we? There's a plethora of them all of a sudden.

Sara Evans... Keith Urban... Faith... Garth... Trisha... and oh yeah. King George.

Now I know he's the King. But all of ya'll who give Garth a rash and a crap about releasing another GH project 13 years after his last one... let's look at this new CD 22 More Hits. Shall we?

Something about the title 22 "More" Hits lead me to think it was hits that had come along since his last Greatest Hits project, which was that 50 #1's a couple years back. Wasn't sure how he'd had 22 of them in that time span, but sometimes people get creative. He's had some duets and things from other albums. Then... I saw the track listing.

"Amarillo By Morning" -- didn't that come out in 1983? Drinkin' Champagne? And how does his 22 song CD compare in price to a 34 song 2 cd and 33 track DVD for $11.88? At Walmart, you get George's 12 less songs and 34 less videos for $2 less than Garth. Really... Garth fans need to quit yer whinin'. Think of how the Strait fans feel. Poor guys can't even get new album art.

And yet... 80, 186 copies of 22 More Hits were scanned the first week.

Baffling.

One more late night rambling... I don't know when the next Garth single is officially going to be released, but Highway 16 is going to start playing it in the next couple of days. I haven't heard that it's been announced anywhere, so feel free to make a prediction on which one you think it will be. (Unless you roomed with me in Kansas City, in which case you are disqualified.) It's gone largely unnoticed, but MTAM has been #1 on the Music Row chart (smaller, secondary markets) for the past FIVE weeks.

Meanwhile, "Heaven, Heartache & The Power of Love" is the #1 song on Highway 16 this week.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow, to both peices of news (Trisha and King George)...don't really know what to say except, I too, am baffled.

P.S. Love your Turkey Day family pic J. Glad you had such a nice get together :o)

Anonymous said...

Maybe it is the choice of single who makes Trishas album sales so low. I'm not a die hard fan of her either, but like you there is a lots of her song who I think is just great. "Georgia rain", "The song remembers when", and "Like we never had a broken heart" just to mention some. But I really don't like "Heaven, heatache & the power of love", and everyone I talk with says the same.

And for King George... I have had the same thoughts. I am a die hard fan of his, but I will not buy this GH cd. I have bought 10 of Garth's, so far.. ;)

I think "Midnight Sun" should be the next single from Garths cd. Even though I like "Leave a light on" better. That may have something to do with the message in that song. I think "Midnight Sun" will make it better on the charts. Besides, I live in the land of the real midnight sun ;)

A Blogger said...

Thanks once again for a great post on your blog. Its one of the first sites I check each morning.

I found it interesting, how Garth can get bad press from some in the media for doing a greatest hits CD/DVD, but George Strait gets a free ride.

Anonymous said...

I am a die hard Trisha fan and am completely baffled. I didn't think it would debut at #1 for several reasons, such as she is a female artist and her first name isn't Carrie. But I did expect it to sell better than the greatest hits cd that had virtually no promo. Some major retailers hadn't even received the cd in the stores on Friday, so maybe there was a distribution issue. Bottom line is that it is a great cd and as long as she keeps singing the die hards will be there.

Main said...

I finally heard "Midnight Sun" and "Leave A Ligth On" for the first time yesterday. (Thanks to one of my USA friends, I got the Pink edition!) And I hope "Leave A Light On" will be the next single. It is suitable for a single around Christmas time, I think. And I like it best :D

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'm shocked to hear Trisha's album didn't do better than that!!

I just can't get enough of 'Midnight Sun'...I'm hoping this is the next single.

Anonymous said...

Great blog, thanks! I am not a big fan of Trisha and like you only like a few of her songs. I do not like "Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love". Maybe that song has hurt the whole album since that seems to be the song that people have heard the most.

I hope the next single for GB is "Midnight Sun". I love that song and cannot get enough of hearing it.

BTW, love the Thanksgiving pictures and glad you had such a great holiday.

Anonymous said...

I've been puzzled as well...very strange.

I didn't buy George's 22 more hits and didn't even realize the album art was the same. I figured the reference to 22 more hits were hits that just didn't make it to #1 and didn't get put on the #1's CD. I didn't check out the track listing to see if all of those "more" were on the three previous greatest hits single CD's I have or if it included some from the previous CDs and some more that were released since the "last" hits CD (was that Latest Greatest Hits).

As for the next Garth single, I'm going to guess at Midnight Sun. Since Leave A Light On was a bonus track, I'm thinking that won't be released as a single; and I'm still not warming up to Working For A Living, although that may come. It took me a while to go from liking to loving More Than A Memory.

Paula

Anonymous said...

I *love* this blog!!! Fantastic job in summarizing it all up.

I really love the single, and I think no matter what she released someone would have complained--remember Georgia Rain? Radio didn't play that either, saying they wished she released something other than ballads. She can't win. As far as sales of HHPL...it's simply unexplainable. How does that happen?? I did expect it to be #1, at least for a week. Didn't expect it to break any records or anything, but I did think it would come out on top. It's just whacked.

Anonymous said...

Trisha's cd ROCKS, so I can't believe it sold so few, but having said that I had to go to 3 stores to get it-in a city of over over half a million people. Amber at her website is obnoxious.

Midnight Sun is my favourite of the new stuff, just edging out MTAM. The video really seals the deal. Great to see Chuck and Rodeo; he's a truly loyal person, isn't he?

Anonymous said...

As long as it isn't "Workin' For a Livin". That would completely kill the momentum of "The Ultimate Hits". Midnight Sun would be a #1 hit for him.

Producer J. said...

Umm....

It's not Midnight Sun.

Anonymous said...

Then I hope it is "Leave a light on" But that is "only" the bonus track so maybe not...

Anonymous said...

Trisha's alblum sales really make me sad, it's her best cd! I hope she's ok about it. I too thought it would be #1, ok George Strait has a new compliation, maybe she'll be #2, but #10 is every descriptive word for baffling.

Come on Garth, couldn't ya pick up a few extra copies? j/k

Anyway, I'm really hoping for a few Grammy Nominations, because every review of the album says it's killer!

And you're right something else that is baffling is why we can't talk about it on her own board?

Anonymous said...

J, do you think the GH that MCA put out hurt this album at all?

Pam said...

I don't buy Greatest Hits CD's regardless of who the artist is. Actually I haven't bought any CD's in the longest time. I hate being broke. LOL

I do have several CD's on the list I"m giving my hubby of possible Christmas presents and Trisha's is on that list.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely ADORE Trisha's new CD, I have all her others and this one beats em all. One thing I did notice was the price difference between her CD and others - over Thanksgiving weekend I saw Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Sara Evans and others for under $10 but the cheapest I could find Trisha's was $13.9 and I checked Target, WalMart, Kmart and Best Buy. Wouldn't be surprised the price turned off people who were interested in other artists as well.

And Pam, take Trisha's CD off your list! Happy Birthday!

Producer J. said...

I wouldn't think the MCA GH hurt this album. If anything it should have reminded people what great hits she's had and made them hungry for more.

You know, the price point is a really good point that I hadn't even thought about. Most street weeks they do deep discounts on CD's -- $9.99 or less. Did they do anything like that for Trisha?

And I'm very sorry to report that the next single isn't "Leave A Light On" either. *sigh* Surely they did some research on this somewhere.

Yay for Pammy and her birthday present!

Anonymous said...

Pretty sure Trisha's was 11.99 or less at my Target.

Anonymous said...

I paid $9.99 at Wal*Mart with a Best Buy or Circuit City circular (can't remember which one) price match. :-)

Paula

Pam said...

WOOHOO hanks Karen. :D THis has been a great birthday. Hubby bought me a new laptop, the Bobby Labonte die casts I ordered in May finally showed up yesterday, and the kids bought us a Chilis gift card.

Anonymous said...

I would be cool with WFAL - I love the video, and lot of us boomers bought the 'News' original way back when.

I suss we'll see MS as well since the video is done.

Anonymous said...

Just a have few point's

Trisha new Album is just different and playing Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love non-stop hasn't helped it.

There's many great songs on there and I love "Let the Wind Chase You"

I simply think, people weren't ready for the title track and many judge the whole album by it and thinking it's an up-beat one, rather than what she put out before.

As for Garth's next single and regardless of how much I love the other song's and like the up-beat one's less, I have to say, I loved "Workin' For a Livin'" as it puts out a different side of Garth where he has ventured before, but this time it has to be a winner.

The Video gets some use too though.

UK