CSPC: Aerosmith Popularity Analysis

Physical Singles Sales – Part 3

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.

Permanent Vacation (1987) – 528,000 equivalent albums

Dude (Looks Like a Lady) – 530,000
Angel – 850,000
Rag Doll – 380,000

Pump (1989) – 507,000 equivalent albums

Going Down/Love in an Elevator – 670,000
Water Song/Janie’s Got a Gun – 490,000
Dulcimer Stomp/The Other Side – 130,000
What It Takes – 400,000

Get a Grip (1993) – 732,000 equivalent albums

Eat the Rich – 50,000
Livin’ on the Edge – 410,000
Shut Up and Dance – 30,000
Cryin’ – 1,050,000
Crazy – 470,000
Amazing – 430,000

Nine Lives (1997) – 345,000 equivalent albums

Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees) – 680,000
Hole in My Soul – 150,000
Pink – 320,000

At half a million units, Dude wasn’t a ground-breaking smash. It was the song that put them back into the map though. One year earlier, the Run DMC altered Walk This Way made the band cool again. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a given at all that new material was going to do well until Dude. Angel followed that way, hitting #3 in the US, their highest charting single up to that point. These songs were also their first to make the UK charts.

For the next 10 years the band was going to do well. All their singles did well. None got truly massive, but they all sold decently and supported greatly their parent albums. The era Get a Grip remains their most productive singles-wise with more than 2,4 million sales.