CSPC: Bee Gees Popularity Analysis
Physical Singles Sales – Part 3
Trafalgar (1971) – 723,000 equivalent albums
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart – 2,220,000
Don’t Wanna Live Inside Myself – 180,000
Israel – 10,000
To Whom It May Concern (1972) – 363,000 equivalent albums
Run to Me – 840,000
Alive – 370,000
Life in a Tin Can (1973) – 12,000 equivalent albums
Saw a New Morning – 40,000
The early 70s is really when the band’s popularity decelerated. How Can You Mend a Broken Heart was a huge global hit, selling an impressive 2,22 million units, although it wasn’t even issued in key markets like the UK, Germany, France or Japan.
Then Run To Me was not that big, but still an OK seller. The tough flop of the album Life in a Tin Can was validated on the singles front too with virtually no sales whatsoever.
MJD, is there any particular reason why disco acts like Bee Gees or ABBA has pretty strong streamings yet somebody who is known as the biggest Disco singer of that era like Donna Summer seems to have very weak streams. I always wonder.
Hi Jazz!
It depends on where you are from. Donna Summer was huge in the US, while ABBA weren’t. Globally though, there have been no match even during the disco era, the Bee Gees and ABBA were simply way, way bigger than her. US media tag lines (like the “Disco Queen”) often disturb the perception of the reality in the long run.
Thank you MJD. I guess it make sense. Often times this Queen Of… makes you think they are bigger than people thought they are when it is not always the case.
PLEASE ,one more time ,again and again, the BEE GEES are NOT a disco group ,they are talented songwriters and performers , they wrote more than 1040 songs for them as a group and solo efforts ,their brother Andy Gibb and other artists ( Warwick ,Dion , Streisand , Kenny Rodgers and Dolly Parton ,Ross , and hundred of artists covering their songs from Presley to Al Green ,Bolton, ,Bubble ,etc… etc…) , their dance oriented period and style ( in fact rnb blue eyed soul ) was from 75 to 79 , the Fever soundtrack contains only 5 new… Read more »
Great job!
Any chance to also include solo albums from Barry and Robin?
For sure they sell lesser than Bee Gees album, but I have never seen any estimation.
The Top 100 Most Streamed Songs, By Decade in the USA
Stayin Alive the most Streamed song of the 70s in the US.
1950s Mack The Knife, Bobby Darin 24.03 M
1960s Hey Jude. The Beatles 84.74 M
1970s Stayin Alive The Bee Gees 244.37 M
1980s Billie Jean Michael Jackson 450.72 M
1990s I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston 315.17 M
Source: On- Demand U.S Streams (Audio and video combined) According to Nielsen Music
Stayin Alive has reached over 400 million views on YouTube since 2009
Collecting all the potential “feat” instances will be quite a task, so I will not expect it. You’ve already done a lot. Starters would be the Barry and Robin solo albums at least. Most of the “feat” I can think of would be just 1 or 2 brothers, so whether that counts as Bee Gees, I am just not sure. You have to draw a line somewhere. One thing I would have put in are the pre-1967 Australian albums, but since they were almost exclusive to Aus and sales were not much, they would not make much difference in what… Read more »