Last updated on January 14th, 1999 at 10:30 AM ET . "1999" on the chartsEric Colley reports that he "works at an adult contemporary radio station and we received our promo copy of '1999' from Warner Bros. It's just a purple CD sleeve with 'Prince/1999' on it. It contains the album version and the single edit. The copyright is 1998 and 1982. Also, for anyone who didn't know this, Billboard is changing their Hot 100 charts starting Thursday, for the Dec. 5 issue. 'Betcha By Golly Wow' and 'The Holy River' didn't make the chart because they weren't commercially released as singles in America, but the new chart allows airplay-only songs to chart. So watch for '1999' to do well on the charts next year." Indeed, bcuz of this new chart system, "1999" was able 2 re-enter the US charts even though a commercial single hasn't been released in the States yet. "1999" re-enters Billboard's Hot 100 at #40 for the week dated January 16th. Also, the The Hits 1 album enters the "Pop Catalog" charts at #3, while 1999 enters the same chart at #6. Kelli Strawbridge adds that, according 2 Billboard, the 1999 album has 3 million copies 2 date and The Hits 1 has sold over a million copies. SonicNet has a short article about "1999" re-entering the charts. Click here 2 access the article directly. Several people also reported on January 4th that "1999" (original version) entered the UK Top 40 single charts at #10 during the 1st week of 1999. Camille now reports on January 13th that "1999" has dropped 10 spots 2 #20 in its second week on the UK charts. Peter James also reports on January 13th that the "1999" single entered the irish charts on January 7th. It peaked at no.22 on the Irish top 30 charts. Sales figures are currently unavailable. Newpower Soul on the chartsNewpower Soul was on the US Billboard charts:
SoundScan reported that 89,000 copies of the album had been sold in the States as of July 29th. Eric Benchimol also reports that Newpower Soul was "featured in the editorial of the Internet Album Charts as the 'climbing very fast' album of the week. It jumped from #35 to #25 on the album charts in its fourth week on the charts. People can vote for it by going to http://www.worldcharts.com/aindex.html." Eric Benchimol notes that, "according to SoundScan, Newpower Soul was the #1 independent album of the week" in its first week. Kristofer Kebbon reports that the album debuted on #57 on the Swedish pop chart. Cristiano Loschi reports that Newpower Soul entered the charts in Italy this week at number 36. It dropped out the charts the next week. The video 'The One' is played every day in MTV ITALY and in other music channels here in Italy." Jens Koenig reports that "Newpower Soul entered the German charts at #34 on Monday, 20th." Mathias Steckner also reports that the album entered the UK charts at #38. Sylvain Siclier also reports from France that top local record stores FNAC and Virgin Megastore seemed to be willing to push the release a lot. European stores pre-ordered close to 200,000 copies of the album from BMG in the three days following the announcement by BMG International. France started with an initial total of 25,000 copies and another order is currently in process. BMG France is still announcing a single release but they don't know whether it's going to be a 2-song or 4-song single including remixes. Sylvain published his own article about the release along with a picture in the July 4th issue of the national French newspaper Le Monde. "The One" on the chartsEric Benchimol reports that "The One" is the smash hit single (of the week) on the Internet Single Charts. It debuts this week at #81. People can vote for it by going to http://www.worldcharts.com/sindex.html." There's no commercial release for the "The One" single off Newpower Soul as of yet (a single release is expected in Europe soon), but the song has been getting a fair bit of airplay. The song is currently on both the Billboard R&B airplay chart and the Radio & Records Urban AC chart:
Eric Benchimol explains that "for the July 17/98 Radio & Records charts, The One dropped one to #12 on the Urban AC charts, although it still has a bullet next to it, indicating that it was played more often this week." In a side note, Hato reports an interesting tidbit from Japan on September 11th: the current (as of September 5th) #1 song on the "SUZUKI InterTOP 30" on Inter-FM, one of the major FM radio stations in Japan, is none other than... "Funky Music" off Newpower Soul. (Click here to view the chart.) Hato explains that the reason for this is that, because of the track-numbering mistake on the Newpower Soul CD, Inter-FM's producer mistakingly started playing "Funky Music" as a single instead of "The One", believing that "Funky Music" was "The One" and even actually introducing it as "The One"... Of course, people liked the song a lot and now they can't stop playing it! So there you have it: "Funky Music" is a hit on Japanese radio without having even been mentioned as a single anywhere else :). Crystal Ball on the chartsHere are the chart positions of the Crystal Ball album on the US Billboard pop chart and R&B chart following its release in US stores.
Please e-mail me if you have additional chart info. Keep in mind that these figures do not include sales through 1-800-NEW-FUNK. Sylvain Siclier reports from France in early May 1998 that he has more information about the distribution deal struck between The Artist and French distributor Night and Day (see related story), including the fact that, as of the signature of the contract, 10,000 units of the US-imported set have been sold in France (mostly in larger cities). Night and Day is taking over in France and is banking on an additional 10,000, which is considered an excellent result for this type of product. The newly distributed set is already largely available in many stores at a lower price (approx. 300 FF). Benoit De Fleurac also reports that CB entered the UK indie charts at #13. Paul reports this it is now [as of April 9th] at number 22, down from #17 last week. David Islas also reports on March 26th that "it appears that many stores are selling out. All of the disignated stores that sold CB here in the Phoenix area have only but a couple of copies, if any, on the shelves." Similarly, Ronny says on March 30th that he "bought 2 copies of CB in Washinton last week, as well as my 5 disc version, and the cashier asked me if the set was any good or not. I asked him why, and he said that it was selling out , this Best Buy was on their 3rd shipment of CB. All gone." Gareth Edwards also reports [on March 24th] that Crystal Ball has entered the UK Album Chart at the position of 144. Chris Heidelberger reports that the Billboard web site currently has a short article about Crystal Ball sales which demonstrates a total lack of perspective and is inconsistent with second week sales (sharp increase), but you might want to read it just the same :). The Addicted To Noise web site also has a small blurb about the sharp increase in the second week of sales. It also has another blurb about Week #3 and #4 positions. "EMANCIPATION" on the chartsHere are the chart positions of the EMANCIPATION album on the US Billboard pop chart and R&B chart during the first 25 weeks following its release. Momy also reports that Emancipation re-entered the Top 100 R & B charts on the September 20th week at #99, probably due to the success of the Jam of the Year tour. The album dropped out of the chart again the following week.
If you can provide us with more information or corrections about album charts, please contact us as soon as possible. After 21 weeks on Billboard's Top 200 pop album charts, Emancipation has dropped out of the charts. On the SoundScan charts (used for BillBoard's charts) Emancipation has topped the 400,000 unit mark, with total sales of 483,774 units as of April 31st. According to Billboard, the album reached platinum status on January 31st, 1997 (meaning that it sold more than 333,333 copies, because each copy of the album sold counts as three). Reuters also issued a press release in March 1997 about album sales for the month of February stating, among other things, that:
It thus appears that, according to the RIAA, which relies on independently obtained statistics, the Emancipation has reached double-platinum status (i.e. sales of more than 666,666 units) in the USA alone. Indeed, The Artist and EMI recently held a "double-platinum" party in New York City (see our news for the months of February and March) to celebrate the fact that the album has gone double-platinum. The album entered the UK charts at #8 with a total of about 20,000 units sold. It dropped out of the Top 40 the following week. It entered the Swiss charts directly at #1 during its first week (Nov. 30th). It entered the Portuguese charts at #4. It entered the Australian charts at #8. The Emancipation album is still going strongly on the Internet Top 100 Albums chart. "The Holy River" and "Somebody's Somebody" on the air play chartsBoth of The Artist's new singles were the most added singles in their respective formats during their first week, which made The Artist the first artist ever to debut singles at the highest spot in 5 different radio formats simultaneously. The singles are still climbing up the air play charts. "Somebody's Somebody" entered the Billboard Hot R&B Airplay chart at #57 (highest debut) and is now at #15. It is also at #3 on Radio & Records' Urban Chart (#1 last week) and at #2 on the Urban A/C Chart (#4 last week). This is The Artist's second consecutive R&B #1 on the R&R urban charts. "The Holy River" entered at #71 (highest debut) and reached #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart. It is now out of the Top 100. It is out of the Top 20 on the Radio & Records' CHR/Pop chart. "Betcha By Golly Wow" peaked at #16. According to NewPowerSoul, "The Holy River" has also entered the Radio One UK Top 40 at #19 on March 2nd, 1997, but dropped to #35 on its second week. It is also currently #21 on the Rick Dees Top 40 (#16 last week). Nir Mamon and Shai Navon also report that "Somebody's Somebody" is still at #2 on the Israeli R&B Charts (after 5 weeks on the charts). Tolly C. reports that, according to HITMAKERS online, 'Somebody's Somebody is #8 on the monitor and crossover is building steadily. Emancipation has been certified double platinum and the video is blowing up on VH1 and the Box. Jump on the freedom train now.' This information is a quote by a writer named Rezner. Also, the radio programmer at WJHM has been playing Friend/Lover/Sister/Mother/Wife. I don't know how he's able to this since his station is formatted." If you can provide us with more information or corrections about singles airplay, please contact us as soon as possible. "Face Down" on the chartsEven though the official release date was June 30 in the States, the single started to get played on radio stations earlier in June. Here's some info courtesy of the Endorphinmachine:
David Reyes also reports that he first saw the Face Down video on BET. It was on at about 8:05pm EDT Friday June 27. They played it on the Top 20 Planet Groove Countdown. It was number nineteen that week. David now reports that the BET Planet Groove chart had Face Down at #12 this week (July 11th). He saw it at 8:50pm EDT on July 11. Keith Thoms reports on June 28th that "Face Down is on the 'Next in Line' list for Casey's Top 40 which is based on Radio and Records." "The Good Life" re-release in the UKThe maxi single of 'The Goodlife' and most importantley the 'Dancing Divaz' remix has developed such a cult status as a dance tune that it was re-released on the 22nd of June in the UK. Ever since its original release it has had a lot of club play over here but a lack of markiting has meant no chart success. One of the leading commercial radio stations Rock FM is currentley doing all the PR work. The video of the original version of the song is currently on the play list of VH-1 UK and SKY 1 (European satellite station). The Dancing Eagle reports that the single entered the UK chart directly at #15 in its first week. |