Latest Billboard chart with both Hot Rocks and Honk on the Top 200 (Honk reached 100k sold in the U.S.)

Hot Rocks is amazing. ABKCO's finest hour, eh?
Clearly the label (at low cost) have made huge profits from the record.But what about the musicians? Presumably as the group were out of contract when the record was released, they will not be on the same royalty rates as for the period 1965/70.
Any thoughts?

There are a few surprises in that listing ...

...but how the heck did Jump Back get in there at number 8 with nearly 7m ?

What boosted its sales ?

The VL tour ? The later release in the USA ten years later ?

I'm puzzled by that one .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-13 11:46 by Spud.

Let us continue a bit with sales statistics. Here comes the single sales. For a starter, to get this shit going on, I just list the singles selling over 0,1 million copies (by the measure I use that - 0,1 m - that means 50 000 or more copies) in a good old physical format. The digital and streaming sales will follow later.

1. Satisfaction 5,2
2. Honky Tonk Women 3,9
3. Angie 3,8
4. Miss You 3,4
5. Paint It Black 3,3
6. Get Off of My Cloud 3,3
7. Jumpin' Jack Flash 2,8
8. The Last Time 2,8
9. 19th Nervous Breakdown 2,8
10. Brown Sugar 2,7

11. Start Me Up 2,6
12. We Love You 2,4
13. Emotional Rescue 2,4
14. Let's Spend The Night Together 1,4
15. It's All Over Now 1,4
16. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby? 1,3
17. As Tears Go By 1,3
18. Tumbling Dice 1,3
19. Mother's Little Helper 1,1
20. Undercover of The Night 1,1

21. Harlem Shuffle 1,1
22. Time Is On mY Side 1,0
23. Fool To Cry 1,0
24. Little Red Rooster 1,0
25. Tell Me 1,0
26. Not Fade Away 1,0
27. Wild Horses 1,0
28. She's A Rainbow 1,0
29. Waiting on A Friend 0,9
30. It's Only Rock'n'Roll 0,8

31. Street Fighting Man 0,8
32. Mixed Emotions 0,8
33. Beast of Burden 0,7
34. She's So Cold 0,7
35. Going To A Go-Go 0,7
36. I Wanna Be Your Man 0,6
37. Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) 0,6
38. Dandelion 0,6
39. Hear of Stone 0,5
40. Aint't Too Proud to Beg 0,5

41. Hang Fire 0,5
42. Happy 0,4
43. One Hit (To The Body) 0,4
44. Highwire 0,3
45. She Was Hot 0,3
46. Respectable 0,3
47. Shattered 0,3
48. Love Is Strong 0,3
49. Rock and a Hard Place 0,3
50. Out of Tears 0,3

51. Come On 0,3
52. Like A Rolling Stone 0,3
53. YOu Can't Always Get What You Want 0,3
54. I Don't Know Why 0,3
55. Out of Time 0,2
56. Anybody Seen My Baby? 0,2
57. Saint of Me 0,2
58. Almost Hear You Sigh 0,2
59. You Got Me Rocking 0,2
60. Streets of Love 0,2

61. Sympathy For The Devil 0,2
62. Little Queenie 0,2
63. Out of Control 0.1
64. Under The Boardwalk 0,1
65. Don't Stop 0,1
66. I Go Wild 0,1
67. 2000 Light Years From Home 0,1

The rest: c. 0,5

Total: about 72,8 million physical singles sold


Some notes: the sale numbers are based on chartmasters.org (by 2016) - and like always there are mistakes and things open for interpretation. No time to reflect that further, but what strikes me is the absence of "Ruby Tuesday". Only the b-side (relaesed as A-side in many markets, such as UK) "Let's Spend The Night Together" is listed. The latter sold 1,4 million copies, but I highly suspect that it includes the sales of "Ruby Tuesday" (which hitted #1 in US market). For example, clearly less charting "We Love You" sold a million copies more worldwide. Like with albums I have used 0,1 million as a measure.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-13 15:30 by Doxa.

<by the measure I use that - 0,1 m - that means 50 000 or more copies) in a good old physical format>

You mean that 0,05 m is rounded up to 0,1 m, and put in the same bag? Just to make sure I understood that

I was going to say something about the physical sales - which reflect the initial success of single cuts at their hey-day - but I jump right over to digital sales. Those tell quite a different story, and about the hit power of the songs in the long run. Roughly, that's how the Stones legacy was viewed from the late 90's to mid 10's between the eras of physical singles and streaming. Talking again in terms of millions here.

1. Paint It Black 4,3
2. Gimme Shelter 3,3
3, Sympathy For The Devil 3,2
4. Satisfaction 2,7
5. Start Me Up 2,4
6. Beast of Burden 1,9
7. Brown Sugar 1,6
8. Angie 1,6
9. Wild Horses 1,5
10. You Can't Always Get What You Want 1,2

11. Honky Tonk Women 1,0
12. Jumpin' Jack Flash 0,9
13. Under My Thumb 0,9
14. Miss You 0,5
15. Tumbling Dice 0,5
16. Can't You Hear Me Knocking? 0,5
17. Ruby Tuesday 0,4
18. Street Fighting Man 0,4
19. Time Is On my Side 0,4
20. She's A Rainbow 0,4

21. The Last Time 0,3
22. Get Off of My Cloud 0,3
23. Let's Spend The Night Together 0,3
24. Play With Fire 0,3
25. Little Red Rooster 0,3
26. As Tears Go By 0,3
27. Streets of Love 0,3
28. It's All Over Now 0,2
29. Not Fade Away 0,2
30. Route 66 0,2

31. Anybody Seen My Baby? 0,2
32. It's Only Rock'n'Roll 0,2
33. Fool to Cry 0,2
34. Sweet Black Angel 0,2
35. Rocks Off 0,2
36. Happy 0,2
37. Heart of Stone 0,1
38. Lady Jane 0,1
39. Emotional Rescue 0,1

40. She's So Cold 0,1
41. She Was Hot
42. Harlem Shuffle 0,1
43. Mixed Emotions 0,1
44. Rock and A Hard Place 0,1
45. Love is Strong 0,1

Note: there must be some minor errors at the end of the list; some strong selling albums most likely contain some individual tracks making the list (especially LET IT BLEED and STICKY FINGERS), but I only used the tracks mentioned in my source (chartmasters.org). Of the 'war horses' section there is one strong cut missing: "Midnight Rambler". If we leave "Gimme Shelter" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" out (and oddily "Honky Tonk Women"/"Country Honk"), there remains 700 000 sales left between 6 six songs. "19th Nervous Breakdown", a top ten seller physical single, disappeared altogether, but I guess that's due it not being included in any studio album (of those, only "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was mentioned, but there are still 2 million sales left of non-album tracks).

- Doxa



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-13 17:23 by Doxa.

Quote
DandelionPowderman


You mean that 0,05 m is rounded up to 0,1 m, and put in the same bag? Just to make sure I understood that

Indeed. Sorry If I sounded vague.

- Doxa

Quote
Doxa

Quote
DandelionPowderman


You mean that 0,05 m is rounded up to 0,1 m, and put in the same bag? Just to make sure I understood that

Indeed. Sorry If I sounded vague.

- Doxa

Not at all! I've had my coffee now

Quote
Doxa
I was going to say something about the physical sales - which reflect the initial success of single cuts at their hey-day - but I jump right over to digital sales. Those tell quite a different story, and about the hit power of the songs in the long run. Roughly, that's how the Stones legacy was viewed from the late 90's to mid 10's between the eras of physical singles and streaming. Talking again in terms of millions here.

1. Paint It Black 4,3
2. Gimme Shelter 3,3
3, Sympathy For The Devil 3,2
4. Satisfaction 2,7
5. Start Me Up 2,4
6. Beast of Burden 1,9
7. Brown Sugar 1,6
8. Angie 1,6
9. Wild Horses 1,5
10. You Can't Always Get What You Want 1,2

11. Honky Tonk Women 1,0
12. Jumpin' Jack Flash 0,9
13. Under My Thumb 0,9
14. Miss You 0,5
15. Tumbling Dice 0,5
16. Can't You Hear Me Knocking? 0,5
17. Ruby Tuesday 0,4
18. Street Fighting Man 0,4
19. Time Is On my Side 0,4
20. She's A Rainbow 0,4

21. The Last Time 0,3
22. Get Off of My Cloud 0,3
23. Let's Spend The Night Together 0,3
24. Play With Fire 0,3
25. Little Red Rooster 0,3
26. As Tears Go By 0,3
27. Streets of Love 0,3
28. It's All Over Now 0,2
29. Not Fade Away 0,2
30. Route 66 0,2

31. Anybody Seen My Baby? 0,2
32. It's Only Rock'n'Roll 0,2
33. Fool to Cry 0,2
34. Sweet Black Angel 0,2
35. Rocks Off 0,2
36. Happy 0,2
37. Heart of Stone 0,1
38. Lady Jane 0,1
39. Emotional Rescue 0,1

40. She's So Cold 0,1
41. She Was Hot
42. Harlem Shuffle 0,1
43. Mixed Emotions 0,1
44. Rock and A Hard Place 0,1
45. Love is Strong 0,1

Note: there must be some minor errors at the end of the list; some strong selling albums most likely contain some individual tracks making the list (especially LET IT BLEED and STICKY FINGERS), but I only used the tracks mentioned in my source (chartmasters.org). Of the 'war horses' section there is one strong cut missing: "Midnight Rambler". If we leave "Gimme Shelter" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" out (and oddily "Honky Tonk Women"/"Country Honk"), there remains 700 000 sales left between 6 six songs. "19th Nervous Breakdown", a top ten seller physical single, disappeared altogether, but I guess that's due it not being included in any studio album (of those, only "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was mentioned, but there are still 2 million sales left of non-album tracks).

- Doxa

Do we have any stats on streams from Spotify?

Quote
tiffanyblu



Do we have any stats on streams from Spotify?

Yep. But unfortunately the stats are a bit old now in this hectic business. This is how teh things looked like by the end of 2015. It's not exactly Spotify but all streaming platforms ("comprehensive streaming" as it is called by using Spotify stats as a base to multiply on). Talking in terms of millions.

So here is TOP 100 Rolling Stones Streams:

1. Paint it Black 294,7
2. Gimme Shelter 229,0
3. Sympathy For The Devil 221,0
4. Satisfaction 203,9
5. Start Me Up 174,0
6. Beast of Burden 132,1
7. Angie 112,5
8. Brown Sugar 108,2
9. Wild Horses 104,7
10. You Can't Always Get What You Want 85,6

11. Honky Tonk Women 68,3
12. Under My Thumb 62,1
13. Jumpin' Jack Flash 59,3
14. Can't You Hear Me Knocking? 34,8
15. Tumbling Dice 33,3
16. Ruby Tuesday 30,6
17. Miss You 25,2
18. She's A Rainbow 25,1
19. Time is On My Side 24,1
20. Gunface Anybody Seen My Baby? 24,1

21. Street Fighting Man 23,7
22. Let's Spend the Night Together 20,5
23. Get Off of My Cloud 18,7
24. Dead Flowers 18,0
25. Little Red Rooster 17,3
26. Play With Fire 18,0
27. As Tears Go By 16,8
28. Bitch 16,6
29. Waiting On A Friend 15,4
30. It's Only Rock'n'Roll 15,3

31. Rocks Off 15,2
32. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love 14,1
33. The Last Time 13,6
34. Sweet Virginia 13,4
35. Shine A Light 13,4
36. Happy 12,7
37. Midnight Rambler 12,5
38. Loving Cup 12,0
39. Not Fade Away 11,5
40. Mother's Little Helper 11,1

41. Anybody Seen My Baby? Some mysterious BRIDGES TO BABYLON track 11,1
42. Monkey Man 10,6
43. Fool To Cry 10,5
44. LOve In Vain 10,3
45. Emotional Rescue 10,1
46. It's All Over Now 10,0
47. Shattered 10,0
48. 19th Nervous Breakdown 9,8
49. Let It Bleed 9,0
50. Moonlight Mile 8,9

51. Route 66 8,8
52. Live With Me 8,7
53. Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) 8,6
54. Sway 8,3
55. Heart of Stone 8,3
56. All Down The Line 7,9
57. Rip This Joint 7,7
58. Doom & Gloom 7,6
59. LOve is Strong 7,5
60. Mixed Emotions 7,4

61. You Got the silver 7,3
62. Shake Your Hips 7,1
63. Sister Morphine 6,9
64. Harlem Shuffle 6,9
65. Stray Cat Blues 6,7
66. You Gotta Move 6,7
67. I'm Free 6,6
68. She's So Cold 6,6
69. Come On 6,5
70. Let It Loose 6,3

71. Faraway Eyes 6,3
72. I Got The Blues 6,2
73. Heaven 6,2
74. Some Girls 6,2
75. No Expectations 6,1
76. Respectable 6,1
77. Pain In My Heart 5,9
78. My Imagination 5,9
79. Torn And Frayed 5,9
80. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby? 5,8

81. Sweet Black Angel 5,8
82. Lady Jane 5,8
83. Ventilator Blues 5,7
84. She Was Hot 5,7
85. We Love You 5,6
86. Off The Hook 5,3
87. Rock And A Hard Place 5,2
88. Down The Road Apiece 5,0
89. Out of Time 4,9
90.Casino Boogie 4,9

91. Like A Rolling Stone 4,8
92. I'm Alright 4,7
93. Little T&A 4,6
94. When The Whip Comes Down 4,4
95. Soul Survivor 4,3
96. Laugh I Nearly Died 3,9
97. The Spider And The Fly 3,9
98. Factory Girl 3,8
99. Turd On The Run 3,8
100. Paying The Cost to Be The Boss 3,8


Bubbling under: Undercover of The Night 3,6

So BLUE & LONESOME is not covered yet. Lots of observations could be made, but I leave those later.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-14 16:33 by Doxa.

Gunface at #20 can't be right?

Quote
Doxa

Quote
tiffanyblu



Do we have any stats on streams from Spotify?

Yep. But unfortunately the stats are a bit old now in this hectic business. This is how teh things looked like by the end of 2015. It's not exactly Spotify but all streaming platforms ("comprehensive streaming" as it is called by using Spotify stats as a base to multiply on). Talking in terms of millions.

So here is TOP 100 Rolling Stones Streams:

1. Paint it Black 294,7
2. Gimme Shelter 229,0
3. Sympathy For The Devil 221,0
4. Satisfaction 203,9
5. Start Me Up 174,0
6. Beast of Burden 132,1
7. Angie 112,5
8. Brown Sugar 108,2
9. Wild Horses 104,7
10. You Can't Always Get What You Want 85,6

11. Honky Tonk Women 68,3
12. Under My Thumb 62,1
13. Jumpin' Jack Flash 59,3
14. Can't You Hear Me Knocking? 34,8
15. Tumbling Dice 33,3
16. Ruby Tuesday 30,6
17. Miss You 25,2
18. She's A Rainbow 25,1
19. Time is On My Side 24,1
20. Gunface 24,1

21. Street Fighting Man 23,7
22. Let's Spend the Night Together 20,5
23. Get Off of My Cloud 18,7
24. Dead Flowers 18,0
25. Little Red Rooster 17,3
26. Play With Fire 18,0
27. As Tears Go By 16,8
28. Bitch 16,6
29. Waiting On A Friend 15,4
30. It's Only Rock'n'Roll 15,3

31. Rocks Off 15,2
32. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love 14,1
33. The Last Time 13,6
34. Sweet Virginia 13,4
35. Shine A Light 13,4
36. Happy 12,7
37. Midnight Rambler 12,5
38. Loving Cup 12,0
39. Not Fade Away 11,5
40. Mother's Little Helper 11,1

41. Anybody Seen My Baby? 11,1
42. Monkey Man 10,6
43. Fool To Cry 10,5
44. LOve In Vain 10,3
45. Emotional Rescue 10,1
46. It's All Over Now 10,0
47. Shattered 10,0
48. 19th Nervous Breakdown 9,8
49. Let It Bleed 9,0
50. Moonlight Mile 8,9

51. Route 66 8,8
52. Live With Me 8,7
53. Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) 8,6
54. Sway 8,3
55. Heart of Stone 8,3
56. All Down The Line 7,9
57. Rip This Joint 7,7
58. Doom & Gloom 7,6
59. LOve is Strong 7,5
60. Mixed Emotions 7,4

61. You Got the silver 7,3
62. Shake Your Hips 7,1
63. Sister Morphine 6,9
64. Harlem Shuffle 6,9
65. Stray Cat Blues 6,7
66. You Gotta Move 6,7
67. I'm Free 6,6
68. She's So Cold 6,6
69. Come On 6,5
70. Let It Loose 6,3

71. Faraway Eyes 6,3
72. I Got The Blues 6,2
73. Heaven 6,2
74. Some Girls 6,2
75. No Expectations 6,1
76. Respectable 6,1
77. Pain In My Heart 5,9
78. My Imagination 5,9
79. Torn And Frayed 5,9
80. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby? 5,8

81. Sweet Black Angel 5,8
82. Lady Jane 5,8
83. Ventilator Blues 5,7
84. She Was Hot 5,7
85. We Love You 5,6
86. Off The Hook 5,3
87. Rock And A Hard Place 5,2
88. Down The Road Apiece 5,0
89. Out of Time 4,9
90.Casino Boogie 4,9

91. Like A Rolling Stone 4,8
92. I'm Alright 4,7
93. Little T&A 4,6
94. When The Whip Comes Down 4,4
95. Soul Survivor 4,3
96. Laugh I Nearly Died 3,9
97. The Spider And The Fly 3,9
98. Factory Girl 3,8
99. Turd On The Run 3,8
100. Paying The Cost to Be The Boss 3,8


Bubbling under: Undercover of The Night 3,6

So BLUE & LONESOME is not covered yet. Lots of observations could be made, but I leave those later.

- Doxa

Very, very interesting Doxa, seems to be the same top songs today on Spotify. Would be cool to se an updated list!

Quote
DandelionPowderman
Gunface at #20 can't be right?

That's a total anomaly indeed! Clearly the most streamed song since "Start Me Up"... If it is not a clear mistake, I wonder what might explain its success. Was is used in some television series or something? Sopranos?

- Doxa

Quote
Doxa

Quote
DandelionPowderman
Gunface at #20 can't be right?

That's a total anomaly indeed! Clearly the most streamed song since "Start Me Up"... If it is not a clear mistake, I wonder what might explain its success. Was is used in some television series or something? Sopranos?

- Doxa

Agreed, it's a good song though. Was for instance played as intro music (video intro) for my local hockey team Djurgården one season around 15 years ago

Look at the songs it is supposed to have knocked out, streaming-wise! No way

Yeah, watching those digital and streaming sales - which are almost identical - it starts to be clear what are the songs that constitute the Rolling Stones legacy; the songs they are most remembered for. Not exactly any big surprises, but still some interesting features. Some quick remarks.

1. "Paint It Black" is nowadays their most popular song. It's always been a classic and one of their most well-known songs, but for years and decades like a 'hidden 60's gem' behind signatures like "Satisfaction" and "Brown Sugar", the band didn't play, etc. but now its status is established. Don't ask why it is a war horse now. Of course they need to play it.

2. For decades album cuts "Gimme Shelter" and "Sympathy For The Devil" have been estimated their biggest artistic hours by critics, but now those era-defining anthems are also favourites of big public. Familiar from movies, tv series, documentaries covering the 60's etc. Their 'war horses' status is granted. No wonder no Stones show without them.

3. "Beast of Burden" belongs clearly to their most memorable songs nowadays. A minor single hit back in 1978, but now their most popular 'ballad' (slightly above "Angie" and "Wild Horses"). It is streamed over five times more than the huge single hit of SOME GIRLS, "Miss You"(by comparison, back in 1978 "Miss You" sold 3,4 m against 0,7m of "Beast of Burden). Interesting that they don't play it that much, but have cemented the status of "Miss You". But yeah, they don't want to play ballads that often, but circulate them.

4. "Start Me Up" clearly belongs to the class of their signature riffage songs, only "Satisfaction" winning it in popularity. It is clearly more popular than its iconic forerunners it took inspiration and model from: "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Honky Tonk" and "Brown Sugar". Did we see that happen? And as a massive hit back then (1981) it has maintained its popularity, if not even gathering some more. By contrast, all of their other single hits since "Angie" have almost forgotten, some almost dramatically (see "Fool To Cry", Emotional Rescue", "Undercover of the Night").

5. What has happened to huge single hits and concert pleasers "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women"? Surely they still are very popular, but that of not making any longer top ten, and being far from the popularity of their actual top songs, is a bit surprising. "Honky Tonk" is even outstreamed by its (once) b-side "You Can't AlWays Get What You Want".

6. The emergence of 'big' album cuts. "Shelter" and "Sympathy" being the tip of the ice berg, and equally epic rally song "Can't Always Get What You Want" following them, but that of "Under My Thumb" competing in popularity with "Flash" and "Honk" sounds interesting. And "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" not lurking far behind. I kinda estimated the success of "Under My Thumb" but the success of 'deep album cut' like "Knocking" was a big surprise, leaving behind many iconic hit songs ("Tumbling Dice", "Ruby Tuesday", "Street Fighting Man", "Miss You", etc).

7. People don't care a shit about any Stones song released after TATTOO YOU (except "Anybody Seen My Baby?"). We knew that, but the statistics are even more cruel. Yeah, the albums were always good sellers at the time, but the songs forgotten now (almost the same, but not so dramatically, can be said of many of their 60's single hits, such as "19th Nervous Breakdown", "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby"and We Love You").

8. If you want a memorable song, don't let Keith sing it. Only three made the top 100, his signature "Happy", once a minor single hit, being the best (#36). The tales of his solo spots being a piss break get some support from streaming stats.

- Doxa



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-14 16:35 by Doxa.

Quote
DandelionPowderman
Gunface at #20 can't be right?

It's wrong, Anybody Seen My Baby is the correct song, that site (Chartmasters) made a mistake there.
It's the Stones' song with the most streams since Start Me Up.

Quote
georgelicks

Quote
DandelionPowderman
Gunface at #20 can't be right?

It's wrong, Anybody Seen My Baby is the correct song, that site (Chartmasters) made a mistake there.
It's the Stones' song with the most streams since Start Me Up.

Alright! That makes sense. But what about those mentioned (nice) streams of 11,1m initially claimed for "Anybody Seen My Baby"? They cannot belong to "Gunface" either...? Closest are "Out of Control" (3,1m) and "Saint of Me" (2,7m), the rest of the tracks making around 1m.

Anyway, I correct the title in my list.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-14 16:31 by Doxa.

Quote
Doxa
Yeah, watching those digital and streaming sales - which are almost identical - it starts to be clear what are the songs that constitute the Rolling Stones legacy; the songs they are most remembered for. Not exactly any big surprises, but still some interesting features. Some quick remarks.

1. "Paint It Black" is nowadays their most popular song. It's always been a classic and one of their most well-known songs, but for years and decades like a 'hidden 60's gem' behind signatures like "Satisfaction" and "Brown Sugar", the band didn't play, etc. but now its status is established. Don't ask why it is a war horse now. Of course they need to play it.

2. For decades album cuts "Gimme Shelter" and "Sympathy For The Devil" have been estimated their biggest artistic hours by critics, but now those era-defining anthems are also favourites of big public. Familiar from movies, tv series, documentaries covering the 60's etc. Their 'war horses' status is granted. No wonder no Stones show without them.

3. "Beast of Burden" belongs clearly to their most memorable songs nowadays. A minor single hit back in 1978, but now their most popular 'ballad' (slightly above "Angie" and "Wild Horses"). It is streamed over five times more than the huge single hit of SOME GIRLS, "Miss You"(by comparison, back in 1978 "Miss You" sold 3,4 m against 0,7m of "Beast of Burden). Interesting that they don't play it that much, but have cemented the status of "Miss You". But yeah, they don't want to play ballads that often, but circulate them.

4. "Start Me Up" clearly belongs to the class of their signature riffage songs, only "Satisfaction" winning it in popularity. It is clearly more popular than its iconic forerunners it took inspiration and model from: "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Honky Tonk" and "Brown Sugar". Did we see that happen? And as a massive hit back then (1981) it has maintained its popularity, if not even gathering some more. By contrast, all of their other single hits since "Angie" have almost forgotten, some almost dramatically (see "Fool To Cry", Emotional Rescue", "Undercover of the Night").

5. What has happened to huge single hits and concert pleasers "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women"? Surely they still are very popular, but that of not making any longer top ten, and being far from the popularity of their actual top songs, is a bit surprising. "Honky Tonk" is even outstreamed by its (once) b-side "You Can't AlWays Get What You Want".

6. The emergence of 'big' album cuts. "Shelter" and "Sympathy" being the tip of the ice berg, and equally epic rally song "Can't Always Get What You Want" following them, but that of "Under My Thumb" competing in popularity with "Flash" and "Honk" sounds interesting. And "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" not lurking far behind. I kinda estimated the success of "Under My Thumb" but the success of 'deep album cut' like "Knocking" was a big surprise, leaving behind many iconic hit songs ("Tumbling Dice", "Ruby Tuesday", "Street Fighting Man", "Miss You", etc).

7. People don't care a shit about any Stones song released after TATTOO YOU (except "Anybody Seen My Baby?"). We knew that, but the statistics are even more cruel. Yeah, the albums were always good sellers at the time, but the songs forgotten now (almost the same, but not so dramatically, can be said of many of their 60's single hits, such as "19th Nervous Breakdown", "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby"and We Love You").

8. If you want a memorable song, don't let Keith sing it. Only three made the top 100, his signature "Happy", once a minor single hit, being the best (#36). The tales of his solo spots being a piss break get some support from streaming stats.

- Doxa

Interesting analysis. Been thinking in the same terms:

* Paint it black is growing fast especially this summer when it comes to streams. In late may it was at around 290 million streams on spotify and are now at 337 million streams - still growing much faster then the other in the top 10. It might be there most "recognized" song nowadays. I am guessing that playlists is an important source.

Beast of Burden is from time to time on their top 5 most streamed. Should absolutely be played more often om concerts, could do with a bit faster tempo.

One question about Jumpin' Jack Flash: wonder how they calculate that one, think it suffered from that for instance on spotify it was stated as both "Jumping" and "Jumpin" which probably has an effect.

One other think: IORR has very low figures. Not a number one at the time, but hey it's played all the time at concerts, should draw some traffic.. Might be that the album don't have huge streams which affects streams on the single as well.

Quote
georgelicks

Quote
DandelionPowderman
Gunface at #20 can't be right?

It's wrong, Anybody Seen My Baby is the correct song, that site (Chartmasters) made a mistake there.
It's the Stones' song with the most streams since Start Me Up.

That sounds more like it, thanks

Hi Georgelicks, what would be the reason a record company wouldn't want to get an album recertified? Hot Rocks has been 12x platinum for quite a while so I'm sure it would be at least 13x by now? How much does RIAA charge a record company to get this done?
I've always wondered why Warner Bros hasn't gotten Van Halen's catalog recertified. I'm sure VH1 and 1984 have sold a lot since the last certifications.

Royalties is the answer one would suspect.

Doxa, it would be interesting to see how The Beatles streams are, in comparison, of course.

Here is what may very well be the last Rolling Stones hits comp, HEY!, released while they're alive, based on, well...

1. Paint it Black 294,7
2. Gimme Shelter 229,0
3. Sympathy For The Devil 221,0
4. Satisfaction 203,9
5. Start Me Up 174,0
6. Beast of Burden 132,1
7. Angie 112,5
8. Brown Sugar 108,2
9. Wild Horses 104,7
10. You Can't Always Get What You Want 85,6

11. Honky Tonk Women 68,3
12. Under My Thumb 62,1
13. Jumpin' Jack Flash 59,3
14. Can't You Hear Me Knocking? 34,8
15. Tumbling Dice 33,3
16. Ruby Tuesday 30,6
17. Miss You 25,2
18. She's A Rainbow 25,1
19. Time is On My Side 24,1
20. Anybody Seen My Baby? 24,1

21. Street Fighting Man 23,7
22. Let's Spend the Night Together 20,5
23. Get Off of My Cloud 18,7
24. Dead Flowers 18,0
25. Little Red Rooster 17,3
26. Play With Fire 18,0
27. As Tears Go By 16,8
28. Bitch 16,6
29. Waiting On A Friend 15,4
30. It's Only Rock'n'Roll 15,3

31. Rocks Off 15,2

Paint It Black, Gimme Shelter, and Sympathy all make a lot of sense...

- They've been used in movies and TV shows repeatedly over the decades, particularly horror, thriller, and crime films.
- They've been licensed to several HUGE video games, and the influence video games have on youth today is beyond what most people can comprehend.
- They have an eerie, grim, "evil" (for lack of a better word) sound to them, which makes them popular with younger men.

Someone wrote in Brian Jones thread that all the things prior "Flash" and BEGGARS were 'pre-history', footnote-like stuff. Well, if someone takes the artistic merit of pop music so seriously and marries it with anachronism, let it be so. But reading just the cold statistics, and thereby getting an idea of their popularity, the early years were simply phenomenal.

Basically as recording artists the Stones started as a 'singles band' - single being the heart of record business. Your existence as pop star was that of having a hot radio hit every four months or so. And shit, the Stones did well. Although album wasn't such an important thing yet, the Stones already did surprisingly well in that department also straight from the beginning.

To get the right perspective to understand their huge early success, I will discuss the early recordings in terms of years.

In 1963 they realesed (just in UK) two singles, not quite top ten caliber yet, but still selling almost one million together (0,9 m).

The things got hot in 1964. During that year they had five million seller singles (from "Not Fade Away" via "Tell Me" and "It''s All Over Now" to "Time Is On My Side" and "Little Red Rooster"), and sold altogether 6,1 m singles. Along that they released two albums (first & 12x5) that today (by 2016) have together sold around 4,2 m copies. That's a respectable number for any individual Stones studio album (from the 'albums era' when releasing a new album about once a year was the norm and the heart of record business).

But you ain't seen nothing yet. 1965 was a monster year, their peak year as a singles band for sure. Three multi-million sellers ("The Last Time", "Satisfaction", "Get Off of My Cloud") and when added with US-based "As Tears Go By" that made altogether incredible amount of 12,6 m sold singles. Behind that success they released four albums (N0 2, NOW, OUT OF OUR HEADS, DECEMBER'S CHILDREN) that have sold about 6,5 m units by now. That's about the same as the biggest selling latter-day album VOODOO LOUNGE has done, and only 5 individual studio albums have sold more in their catalogue.

In 1966 the incredible success continued in singles sales. Four major releases (including a monster hit "Paint It Black") that sold together 8,5 m copies. But the album section exploded: AFTERMATH alone has sold almost 4 m, but put together with two other album releases fromthe same year (BIG HITS and GOT LIVE IF YOU WANT IT) that makes 12,4 m! We are here talking about SOME GIRLS/HOT ROCKS like numbers.

In 1967 the things started to slow down a bit. The singles sold 'barely' 4,9 m, and three albums (BETWEEN THE BUTTONS, FLOWERS, SATANIC MAJESTIES) have sold 6,2 m by now.

By the end of 1967, having been recording artists for a four and a half years, they had sold about 33 million singles (6 UK Chart toppers, 4 US ones), which is almost a half of their all-time single sales. Plus they had released a bunch of albums that have sold about 28 million copies - that's a number, which doesn't shy much with the 'albums era' figures (in four years cycles, the tops being 1969-73 and 1978-82).

Funnily, their great 'comeback' year of 1968, the beginning of 'Golden Era', was commmercially their worst year since 1963: singles sold 'just' 3,6 m and albums (BEGGARS alone) 4,0....

Side note: the sales of singles represent rather closely the actual amounts they did at their hey-day. Supposedly not much catalogue sales for them. With the albums that's different. It is pretty hard to know or even estimate how much did the album actually sell at the time.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-15 16:48 by Doxa.

The next batch of Billboard Boxscores were out last week. Not sure how to post the link here. New Orleans "sold out" with 35023 attendance. Philly 51115, Houston 45958 and Jacksonvile 50358. All listed as sold out.

Quote
Doxa
Let us continue a bit with sales statistics. Here comes the single sales. For a starter, to get this shit going on, I just list the singles selling over 0,1 million copies (by the measure I use that - 0,1 m - that means 50 000 or more copies) in a good old physical format. The digital and streaming sales will follow later.

1. Satisfaction 5,2
2. Honky Tonk Women 3,9
3. Angie 3,8
4. Miss You 3,4
5. Paint It Black 3,3
6. Get Off of My Cloud 3,3
7. Jumpin' Jack Flash 2,8
8. The Last Time 2,8
9. 19th Nervous Breakdown 2,8
10. Brown Sugar 2,7

11. Start Me Up 2,6
12. We Love You 2,4
13. Emotional Rescue 2,4
14. Let's Spend The Night Together 1,4
15. It's All Over Now 1,4
16. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby? 1,3
17. As Tears Go By 1,3
18. Tumbling Dice 1,3
19. Mother's Little Helper 1,1
20. Undercover of The Night 1,1

21. Harlem Shuffle 1,1
22. Time Is On mY Side 1,0
23. Fool To Cry 1,0
24. Little Red Rooster 1,0
25. Tell Me 1,0
26. Not Fade Away 1,0
27. Wild Horses 1,0
28. She's A Rainbow 1,0
29. Waiting on A Friend 0,9
30. It's Only Rock'n'Roll 0,8

31. Street Fighting Man 0,8
32. Mixed Emotions 0,8
33. Beast of Burden 0,7
34. She's So Cold 0,7
35. Going To A Go-Go 0,7
36. I Wanna Be Your Man 0,6
37. Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) 0,6
38. Dandelion 0,6
39. Hear of Stone 0,5
40. Aint't Too Proud to Beg 0,5

41. Hang Fire 0,5
42. Happy 0,4
43. One Hit (To The Body) 0,4
44. Highwire 0,3
45. She Was Hot 0,3
46. Respectable 0,3
47. Shattered 0,3
48. Love Is Strong 0,3
49. Rock and a Hard Place 0,3
50. Out of Tears 0,3

51. Come On 0,3
52. Like A Rolling Stone 0,3
53. YOu Can't Always Get What You Want 0,3
54. I Don't Know Why 0,3
55. Out of Time 0,2
56. Anybody Seen My Baby? 0,2
57. Saint of Me 0,2
58. Almost Hear You Sigh 0,2
59. You Got Me Rocking 0,2
60. Streets of Love 0,2

61. Sympathy For The Devil 0,2
62. Little Queenie 0,2
63. Out of Control 0.1
64. Under The Boardwalk 0,1
65. Don't Stop 0,1
66. I Go Wild 0,1
67. 2000 Light Years From Home 0,1

The rest: c. 0,5

Total: about 72,8 million physical singles sold


Some notes: the sale numbers are based on chartmasters.org (by 2016) - and like always there are mistakes and things open for interpretation. No time to reflect that further, but what strikes me is the absence of "Ruby Tuesday". Only the b-side (relaesed as A-side in many markets, such as UK) "Let's Spend The Night Together" is listed. The latter sold 1,4 million copies, but I highly suspect that it includes the sales of "Ruby Tuesday" (which hitted #1 in US market). For example, clearly less charting "We Love You" sold a million copies more worldwide. Like with albums I have used 0,1 million as a measure.

- Doxa

Many years ago I saw a listing of the top 5, which is identical to what you've listed, but had Ruby Tuesday/Let's Spend at number 2 behind Satisfaction, then HTW, Angie and Miss You to round out the top 5. I think there may be a gap in their somewhere.

Where is HAVANNA MOON? Missing in the list?

Quote
deardoctor
Where is HAVANNA MOON? Missing in the list?

Apparently hardly anyone bought it!

We humans are very odd.