From the perspective of a European, it seems unbelievable that Aerosmith debuted 45 years ago. They did though and among 70s bands, they smashed the 90s like no one else. They compete with the likes Eagles, Metallica and Bon Jovi for the title of most successful American band ever. Where do they stand then?
It all started very slow. When the band issued its eponymous debut in 1973, it peaked at #166 inside the US Billboard Top 200. The biggest single, Dream On, went no further than #59. In 1974, the improvement wasn’t obvious. The album Get Your Wings peaked at #100 and its singles failed to enter the Hot 100. Their first hit came the following year with Sweet Emotion. Although it peaked only at #36, it fueled the album Toys In The Attic to #11 and led their first 2 LPs to re-peak at the bottom of the Top 100.
Thanks to the increase of the band’s profile, Dream On was reissued in early 1976. It climbed as high as #6. From March to June 1976, albums Aerosmith (#21), Toys In The Attic (#18) and the new effort Rocks (#3) sold strongly. After this peak, their albums went down, until being mostly irrelevant by 1985. By then, their albums were struggling to hit the Top 40. Their singles weren’t reaching the Hot 100. Notably, during all these years they never managed to confirm their American success abroad.
Surprisingly, the band started to smash again from 1987. Maybe even more impressively, they also became a global force during the 90s. This unique trajectory is a real case of study. What’s their career peak, the American blockbuster Toys in the Attic or global success Get A Grip? During which frame they sell the most, mid-70s or early 90s? On which markets they never managed to break over?
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge their results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all Aerosmith‘s albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming. In fact, it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.
This is actually disappointing numbers! I wonder if the Doors could hava a higher CSPC?
Aerosmiths in Japan have sold 7,065,000 o 7,565,000 units ?
Hi MJD, like total album (all types) Kiss, Van Halen and Def Leppard have exceeded 100 million?
Hi Jsak!
In terms of pure album sales, Van Halen will be close, they should land somewhere in the 90 to 100 million range. Both Kiss and Def Leppard are nowhere near that figure though, more like low 70 million to date at best!
Yes thank you MJD, I guess I was trying to manipulate the truth in order to give them more sales. 😊
Who sold more in japan: Bon Jovi, Aerosmith or U2? =/
Hi Lorrane! To answer your question, the order would be Bon Jovi, then Aerosmith then U2 in terms of album sales in Japan. Interestingly, while U2 is the bigger band globally with 200m EAS, they didn’t quite break through the Japanese market like the other 2 bands. U2’s biggest studio album, The Joshua Tree, sold a relatively small 400K there, while Bon Jovi had a pair of million sellers there. Aerosmith is not as big as Bon Jovi was in Japan at their respective peaks, but they’ve accumulated a solid total of 7m there, mainly thanks to the success of… Read more »
I love Aerosmith. I’m now confused if my favorite rock band is Aerosmith or Linkin Park.
But it’s not a bad thing because they’re both awesome bands.
I didn’t know Aerosmith started in the 70’s. And to know that it was in the 90s that they become very popular. And I can’t believe they only have 1 #1 song in the us billboard hot 100. I’m glad Celine refused to record the song “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” so that Aerosmith could get a #1 song.
You all really do a great job. Can you do Creedence sometime? Thanks!
I’m very surprised that Rocks and Get Your Wings are so low.
Hi Donald!
Anthony and I had the exact same though when we saw final results. Interestingly, there is tiny indicators which still point out that ‘Rocks’ is rated high. It ships much more units nowadays than their remaining 70s albums bar TITA in Italy, Japan and Brazil for example. Actualy, it slightly out-performs TITA there. All that happens at fairly low levels though, so at the end of the day their US results / sales of their compilations dictate most of the final table!
Great work, thank you. I’m a bit miffed that Bon Jovi outsold them as well but hey. ‘I don’t want to miss a thing’, was actually on the ‘Nine lives’ album, sorry if I missed that, a year or so after its original release, I don’t know if that counts.
Hi Jules!
We could have added it to Nine Lives if it had sold most of its copies as a catalog item thanks to the song. Say an album is released in 1969, sells 1m, then add 10m following a 1971 reissue with a big hit. That’s not the case of Nine Lives though which sold the huge majority of its copies during its first months, so it would distort the reality to add I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing into it!
I was driving and pulled over just to read the analysis, lol.
Honestly, disappointing bottom line. Can’t believe they’re outsold by Bon Jovi.