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Post by ShardEnder on Jan 16, 2024 4:53:29 GMT
Regarding the sales figures for Time, I wouldn't be surprised if it's shifted half a million copies just from the expanded 2001 reissue, the 2015 digital remaster and the clear vinyl pressing. As for Out Of The Blue, we'll probably never get a definitive number thanks to the counterfeiting scandal.
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Post by Timeblue on Jan 16, 2024 7:16:29 GMT
Do we think then that Time HAS gone platinum (at least in the states?)
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Post by ShardEnder on Jan 17, 2024 2:46:08 GMT
This is just an educated guess on my part, but I'm fairly confident Time went platinum years ago. Streaming figures will have surely helped it over the finish line, though we're long without any kind of official representative to answer such questions unless they can somehow be incorporated into social media posts celebrating arbitrary milestones, and this is one album that's been neglected to an extent unreflective of its evergreen cult status.
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Post by lawrev on Jan 17, 2024 16:46:27 GMT
Here is some further information on Luminate (formerly SoundScan): SoundScan was developed as a tracking system that tracks sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada. The system is presently operated by MRC Data and has been rebranded under the name Luminate. Any music product that carries a UPC or EAN barcode and ISRC code is eligible to be tracked by Luminate (formerly SoundScan). According to their website, “Sales data from point-of-sale cash registers is collected weekly from over 14,000 retail, mass merchant and non-traditional (on-line stores, venues, etc.) outlets. Weekly data is compiled and made available every Wednesday. Luminate (formerly SoundScan) is the sales source for the Billboard music charts.”
In order to have a chance at making the Billboard music charts, any release must be registered with Luminate (formerly SoundScan) using UPC number (for the whole album) and ISRC codes (for the individual tracks). Without registration, the sales figures will not be counted, and will remain invisible to the system.If Time went plat in the US in the modern era (post SoundScan), the weekly sales total for that album would have been tabulated and we should have seen a USA/Canada plat cert on the album years ago. Go back farther with Face the Music - that went gold in 1976 - 48 years ago. Shouldn't that album have been upgraded to plat in all the years since?
Intuitively I would agree that Time should have gone plat by now, and an equal or greater argument for Face the Music (which has at least two hit singles on it). But given that record sales on Luminate are reported weekly, and still no updated RIAA cert - I guess it is reasonable to question the intuitive assumption.
Further information may be seen at: www.isrc.com/FAQ-Soundscan.php
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Post by Timeblue on Jan 17, 2024 21:48:42 GMT
It would be good if the powers that be COULD finally say one way or another if those two albums did reach platinum status (it would look good on the statistics chart!)
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Post by lawrev on Jan 17, 2024 22:13:45 GMT
It would be good if the powers that be COULD finally say one way or another if those two albums did reach platinum status (it would look good on the statistics chart!) Agree. I am all in favor of ELO's RIAA records being accurate to the present. Maybe this is a Craig Fruin / record company issue more than Jeff (he probably wants to write more music anyway).
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Post by orioles70 on Jan 18, 2024 17:30:10 GMT
IMO, Xanadu was a non-event. It bombed at the box office and the average person was only vaguely aware. It didn’t hurt ONJ’s reputation so why would it significantly hurt ELO?
The bigger issue was changing musical tastes. ELO changed too, but American DJs and music execs kind of wrote them off after Discovery. Too bad, because TIME deserved much more air play than it got.
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jimm64
Junior Member
Posts: 14
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Post by jimm64 on Jan 19, 2024 13:57:36 GMT
I don't understand the continuing negative comments about the Discovery album. It was certified platinum in the US only one week after its release. Four singles hit the US Top-40. And because it was selling so well 6 months later, none of its tracks were included on the first Greatest Hits album, which would've compromised Discovery's sales. I think its one of the finest pop/rock albums of the era.
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Post by helli on Jan 19, 2024 17:11:24 GMT
I don't understand the continuing negative comments about the Discovery album. It was certified platinum in the US only one week after its release. Four singles hit the US Top-40. And because it was selling so well 6 months later, none of its tracks were included on the first Greatest Hits album, which would've compromised Discovery's sales. I think its one of the finest pop/rock albums of the era. View AttachmentDiscovery is certainly one of the best-produced ELO albums ever, if not the best-sounding. Absolutely great sound, brilliant mix, perfect pop songs. But I remember well, in the public perception ELO finally left the path of serious, progressive pop/rock music with this release. Many music fans and critics, who had been sympathetic to ELO until then because of the (supposed) mixture of classical music (serious) and rock, were disappointed by the drift into the absolute pop mainstream. This did not detract from the success of the album, it probably even reached a broader target group. But there were hardly any classical influences left (and the classical musicians were all fired), very little rock, pure pop. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact is that it took a while to re-establish Jeff Lynne's reputation as a great producer and songwriter in certain circles of the music world (those with an attitude where pure light music is inferior) - probably until Cloud Nine and the Wilburys.
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Post by airlane1979 on Mar 21, 2024 14:54:41 GMT
All of my friends in high school disavowed ELO when they heard Xanadu - it was ABBA - esq pop, and I would agree that the movie was primarily aimed at women. Xanadu was (and is) nothing like Grease or Saturday Night Fever. I was in secondary school here in the UK when Xanadu reached No. 1 in the singles charts. None of my male friends was impressed but I adored the ELO songs from the film: I found them to be exactly my kind of top quality cheese and I much prefer the completely over-the-top single version of Xanadu over any later version by Jeff.
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Post by lawrev on Mar 21, 2024 15:12:52 GMT
I don't understand the continuing negative comments about the Discovery album. It was certified platinum in the US only one week after its release. Four singles hit the US Top-40. And because it was selling so well 6 months later, none of its tracks were included on the first Greatest Hits album, which would've compromised Discovery's sales. I think its one of the finest pop/rock albums of the era. View AttachmentDiscovery is certainly one of the best-produced ELO albums ever, if not the best-sounding. Absolutely great sound, brilliant mix, perfect pop songs. But I remember well, in the public perception ELO finally left the path of serious, progressive pop/rock music with this release. Many music fans and critics, who had been sympathetic to ELO until then because of the (supposed) mixture of classical music (serious) and rock, were disappointed by the drift into the absolute pop mainstream. This did not detract from the success of the album, it probably even reached a broader target group. But there were hardly any classical influences left (and the classical musicians were all fired), very little rock, pure pop. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact is that it took a while to re-establish Jeff Lynne's reputation as a great producer and songwriter in certain circles of the music world (those with an attitude where pure light music is inferior) - probably until Cloud Nine and the Wilburys. And to add insult to injury (at least in the USA), the Discovery videos were incredibly cheesy (a dancing hot dog, for instance) and featured the soon to be fired string section that did not even play on the album. And Don Arden was worried about misrepresentation? (that is the reference to the Greatest Hits article in another post) In all the years since, the Discovery videos have never been released in modern day (2010 - present) hi def video and audio. So, yes, Discovery is a good pop album, but then the group reached the bottom in 1980 with the roller disco songs.
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Post by LoserGoneWild on Mar 21, 2024 16:47:08 GMT
In short, no. At least not on this side of the pond.
Over here Xanadu went platinum and reached #2 and stayed there for several weeks. The single made #1. Just over a year later Time reached #1 in the album charts and the lead single reached number 4 and sold well. And the time gigs all sold out with extra dates added in.
For me any decline in popularity was more to do with the paucity of album ELO releases and Jeff’s tiring of the project as a whole. They’d gone from releasing an album a year to one every three or four years. Some of it may be down to changing musical landscapes but that that didn’t seem to harm a number of ELO’s peers (Queen, Elton John. Status Quo etc etc) whose output remained pretty constant. So for me it was more a case of them not being at the forefront as they once were. And a whole new generation of record buyers were simply unaware of them - music being the fickle business it is.
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Post by moon on Mar 22, 2024 19:49:47 GMT
Well, I think Jeff thought it could be a good idea at that time. ELO was one of the most important bands of the moment, and Olivia Newton-John was one of the most popular an successful actresses and singers of the moment. What could be wrong??
As lawrev said, after OOTB all the next ELO works were less successful, one by one (not in quality terms, only in sales). And even when Discovery was a great work too, the challenge was to collaborate for the first time in a movie. Probably was a good idea, but after the fail of the film, Olivia increased her playlist with songs like Magic, while ELO did not. After the Time tour, ELO (or Jeff) never played again those songs, so the Xanadu chapter was well buried until the appereance of ELO Part II and the Lynne's re-recording of the main song.
So, don't know if it started the fall of the band, but was a very important piece for that. In fact, when you ask for the ELO's discography, not everyone will include Xanadu as part of that, just because it's an OST, so it jumps from Discovery to Time, with nothing in the middle.
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Post by lawrev on Mar 22, 2024 23:06:11 GMT
Well, I think Jeff thought it could be a good idea at that time. ELO was one of the most important bands of the moment, and Olivia Newton-John was one of the most popular an successful actresses and singers of the moment. What could be wrong??
As lawrev said, after OOTB all the next ELO works were less successful, one by one (not in quality terms, only in sales). And even when Discovery was a great work too, the challenge was to collaborate for the first time in a movie. Probably was a good idea, but after the fail of the film, Olivia increased her playlist with songs like Magic, while ELO did not. After the Time tour, ELO (or Jeff) never played again those songs, so the Xanadu chapter was well buried until the appereance of ELO Part II and the Lynne's re-recording of the main song.
So, don't know if it started the fall of the band, but was a very important piece for that. In fact, when you ask for the ELO's discography, not everyone will include Xanadu as part of that, just because it's an OST, so it jumps from Discovery to Time, with nothing in the middle.
I'm curious to know if Jeff asked Bev whether writing for a roller disco movie was a good idea - we've never heard yes. If the project was originally for Jeff Lynne - branded songs rather than ELO songs, Jeff may not have asked Bev for his opinion before getting involved.
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Post by lawrev on Mar 22, 2024 23:09:48 GMT
In short, no. At least not on this side of the pond. Over here Xanadu went platinum and reached #2 and stayed there for several weeks. The single made #1. Just over a year later Time reached #1 in the album charts and the lead single reached number 4 and sold well. And the time gigs all sold out with extra dates added in. For me any decline in popularity was more to do with the paucity of album ELO releases and Jeff’s tiring of the project as a whole. They’d gone from releasing an album a year to one every three or four years. Some of it may be down to changing musical landscapes but that that didn’t seem to harm a number of ELO’s peers (Queen, Elton John. Status Quo etc etc) whose output remained pretty constant. So for me it was more a case of them not being at the forefront as they once were. And a whole new generation of record buyers were simply unaware of them - music being the fickle business it is. Platinum in the UK means 1/2 the record sales in the USA. 500,000 vs. 1,000,000.
Would Xanadu the single go to #1 in the UK without ONJ singing lead? That's the question for the ages.
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