Digital Singles Sales – Part 1

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between albums and digital singles.

Madonna (1983) – 364,000 equivalent albums

Everybody – 180,000
Burning Up – 230,000
Holiday – 925,000
Lucky Star – 470,000
Borderline – 520,000
Remaining tracks – 100,000

Like A Virgin (1984) – 523,000 equivalent albums

Like A Virgin – 1,050,000
Material Girl – 1,050,000
Angel – 100,000
Into The Groove – 725,000
Dress You Up – 310,000
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore – 100,000
Remaining tracks – 150,000

True Blue (1986) – 421,000 equivalent albums

Live To Tell – 420,000
Papa Don’t Preach – 625,000
True Blue – 310,000
Open Your Heart – 360,000
La Isla Bonita – 940,000
Remaining tracks – 150,000

Nearly all songs from those 3 albums were hit singles back in the day. A few of them faced the time better than the others. Holiday, Like A Virgin, Material Girl and La Isla Bonita are at roughly 1 million downloads and ringtones each. While good, these figures are nowhere near the big hits from Michael Jackson, Guns N’ Roses or Queen from the same era.

Some songs are more disappointing. Into The Groove and Papa Don’t Preach, two of the very biggest hits from 1985/1986 Worldwide, lost a lot of momentum since.