Physical Singles Sales
As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.
Dirty Dancing (1987) – 1,275,000 equivalent albums
(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life – 2,300,000
She’s Like the Wind – 1,070,000
Hungry Eyes – 710,000
Yes – 170,000
More Dirty Dancing (1988) – 0 equivalent albums
No single released
Dirty Dancing 2 (2004) – 0 equivalent albums
No single released
Orphan – 0 equivalent albums
No single released
All of the physical singles takes us back to the first and most successful soundtrack of the three available. Four singles were released in physical form, with a clear winner emerging from this pack and an obvious one, (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life, with sales at 2,3 million. She’s Like The Wind provided this whole project with another million selling single.
This deserves some explanation. By the end of the 80s physical singles were no longer at their peak suffering from a dramatic decline in Latin America, Africa and much of Europe, including formerly big markets like Italy. Sales in the traditionally big market were comparatively better but they also had a major drop, which explains why Dirty Dancing didn’t have the same type of massive sales that Grease or Saturday Night Fever achieved during the last part of the 70s, when it wasn’t uncommon for massive singles to sell hundreds of thousands even in non-traditional markets.
Considering the above, it was quite an achievement to achieve two million sellers in such a negative context for physical singles. Hungry Eyes and Yes added a combined 880,000, resulting in a cumulative 4.2 million physical singles overall and, therefore, 1,275,000 equivalent album sales.
Titanic Soundtrack next please.
Just a question: If Dirty Dancing soundtrack album is included at the “Artists Ranking – CSPC – Overall sales” list, then why not include e.g Grease soundtrack album at the list as well ?
Hi Daydreamer!
You are right, Dirty Dancing and High School Musical are not “real” artists, so I will remove them of the list “Artists Ranking – CSPC – Overall sales”.
However, I will create in the coming days a ranking about the most successful soundtracks, it will certainly make more sense!
I would like to see ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, ‘Hair’ and ‘Mamma Mia!’ (ABBA) as well.
Oh i almost forgot.Is that true The Sound of Music soundtrack sold more than 40 million?What’s the real numbers from this album 10-20 million or less?Thanx
So best selling soundtracks are
1-The bodyguard
2-Grease
3-Saturday night fever
4-Dirty dancing
5-Titanic
I would like to see Titanic,Top Gun,Footlose,The Lion King,Flashdance and The Purple Rain as well.
Impressive numbers. I’d like to see the CSPC analysis for the two other dance-crazy classics…….FLASHHDANCE and FOOTLOOSE.
Wow, really smash successsful and digital sales for a 1987 singles! I cant wait to read the analysis for the queen of Soundtracks- Barbra
Wow, this album is so massive. I never realized this album before.