Physical Singles Sales
As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.
Alanis (1991) – 1,000 equivalent albums
All singles – 3,000
Now Is the Time (1992) – 0 equivalent album
All singles – 1,000
Jagged Little Pill (1995) – 690,000 equivalent albums
You Oughta Know – 600,000
Hand in My Pocket – 120,000
Ironic – 1,270,000
You Learn – 90,000
Head over Feet – 190,000
All I Really Want – 30,000
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998) – 162,000 equivalent albums
Thank U – 410,000
That I Would Be Good – 5,000
Unsent – 5,000
So Pure – 20,000
Joining You – 100,000
Under Rug Swept (2002) – 54,000 equivalent albums
Hands Clean – 160,000
Precious Illusions – 20,000
So-Called Chaos (2004) – 80,000 equivalent albums
Eight Easy Steps – 5,000
Out Is Through – 10,000
Everything – 250,000
Flavors of Entanglement (2008) – 3,000 equivalent albums
Underneath – 10,000
Havoc and Bright Lights (2012) – 3,000 equivalent albums
Guardian – 10,000
Orphan – 9,000 equivalent albums
Crazy – 30,000
Singles from Jagged Little Pill were incredibly successful in supporting the album. Nevertheless, they weren’t as huge in physical single format. Ironic still sold well past a million thanks to 650,000 US sales and over half a million in Europe. You Oughta Know, paired with You Learn in the US, was the only other CD single released in that market. The remaining singles relied almost exclusively on sales from Europe and Australia.
Ironically, while they had limited lasting appeal, singles Thank U and Hands Clean sold decently upon release. As a general note, physical singles remain a low format for Morissette who sold 3,3 million copies through this avenue.
Great article! It’s a shame Alanis hasn’t seen much success after Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, it’s also very curious and impressive how much Jagged Little Pill still stands up the test of time. I’m curious to see if her new album will, at least, generate higher numbers than Havoc and Bright Lights. I’d love to, it’s a very good album!
On a sidenote: can you analyze Nelly Furtado’s career? Considering she went indie a few years ago I think it’d be an interesting study case.
2020 is the year Alanis will release her first studio album in 8 years. It also marks the 25th anniversary of her breakthrough smash album “Jagged Little Pill”. Looking at Spotify the album still holds up well: All I Really Want – 16.8M You Oughta Know – 99.2M Perfect – 9.0M Hand In My Pocket – 78.8M Right Through You – 9.4M Forgiven – 7.1M You Learn – 61.3M Head Over Feet – 51.5M Mary Jane – 7.0M Ironic – 205.9M Not the Doctor – 7.3M Wake Up – 5.1M Your House – 7.2M Total – 565.7M The big one… Read more »
Alanis Morissette announces new album. ‘Such Pretty Forks in the Road’ will be released on May 1, 2020′. I would really like to see a major turnaround happening for Alanis.
Hi MJD
According to Korea’s local magazine, JLP shipped 150k in 1996 (article in 11/12/1996). Although catalog sales may be tiny, it would also end up a bit higher than 150k, right? Also, Falling Into you (Korean name: Because You Loved Me) shipped 300k in 1996 according the the same article, and Let’s Talk About Love shipped 310k in 1998 (article in 11/12/1998). Maybe you already have some of these figures, what is your eventual estimates for these albums there?
Music Box by Mariah Carey actually reached 1 million in South Korea by 11/12/1996.The same article that onfirmed Daydream sold 600k, Because You Love Me sold 300k, JLP sold 150k, etc. Other articles also can be found on chosun.com.
http://m.chosun.com/svc/article.html?sname=news&contid=1996121170222
No doubt higher than 150k then! On their communication listing all her sales awards, it was shown as Platinum in SK, so anything from 100k to 200k, while Supposed missed Gold the status, so 150k was the safest estimate to avoid large errors, but it seems that it sold a bit more.
[…] femininas mais bem sucedidas da História, tendo o seu álbum de estreia internacional movido mais de 40 milhões de unidades equivalentes a álbuns. Tais números tornaram Jagged Little Pill num dos maiores e mais bem sucedidos títulos de sempre. […]
It would be great to seeTina Turner “chartmasters” analys.
The sales of Now is the Time are different on page 5 and 12, which one is the correct?
Hi Jorge!
It’s the one on page 12, the typo is now fixed, thanks!