CSPC: Eagles Popularity Analysis
40 years ago the success of the Eagles‘ fifth album titled Hotel California was so massive that the industry was looking for new words to define it. Along with Stevie Wonder‘s Songs In The Key of Life, Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours and Frampton Comes Alive!, it sold over6 million units during its first year. While the RIAA had introduced the Platinum Award some months earlier, these industry gorillas opened the door for multi-Platinum discs that would arrive in 1984 for the first time.
By then the Eagles had already split although they only released one more studio album, 1979’s The Long Run, since their global breakthrough. Their former members Joe Walsh, Don Henley and Glenn Frey were successfully going solo. This brief period of success shouldn’t be enough to make this band one of the all-time greats. The Eagles are inevitable in every Classic Rock bands list though. The song Hotel California is an absolute classic, but in various countries there is nothing else from them that is popular. Just one song doesn’t transform an average act into a giant rock band, the Animals and Derek & the Dominos can confirm that. What’s the truth then? How does Hotel California stand against the biggest albums of all-time? How many units has Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 sold, the album that was long the front runner in terms of Platinum awards in the US?
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 Eagles‘ albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but 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.
Hello MJD and team.
I’m not sure if this has been clarified/investigated yet (I see there has been some discussion in the comments). I was just wondering if the huge increase in the ‘Greatest Hits 1971-1975’ and ‘Hotel California’ album certification by the RIAA was considered legitimate by this website and if so how it might affect EAS/ASR for The Eagles?
I’m not a particularly big Eagles fan do I don’t have a ‘dog in the fight’ as it were. Just curious as to what your views/intentions were regarding this is all!?!
Thanks!
There are the facts and numbers, and yes, the RIAA agenda. Read the previous comments! Just compare this, some fake “methodology” from RIAA and how they have forgotten the album “Grease”, this article is dated to 2006: https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/60098/ask-billboard You see, it’s not just about Michael Jackson, but that reminds me how Thriller between 1984 and 1990 have supposed to have sold just one million copy according the RIAA, the same thing now for “Grease”, fans of the soundtrack if I refer to wikipedia, add 8 millions from RIAA and 6 millions from Soundscan to have 14 millions for the USA,… Read more »
Eagles and RIAA should come clear why they are clearly faking numbers to ovetake Thriller. Soundscan does not support these outlandish numbers. Nor does streaming on the big streaming platform. They cannot explain how they found 9 million copies since 2006 when Eagles was not even in the Top 50 on the year end catalog charts. Now would you explain how the Eagles could sell 9 million between 2006 and 2018 without constantly being in the top 20-30 on Billboard 200 and leading the catalog chart more than just once during that period? Thriller 25 sold about 668 000 in… Read more »
And the people and media are ignoring the facts and spreading FAKE NEWS… The Eagles: Greatest Hits 71-75 by RIAA: February 1976 (1,000,000 (US) albums sold) 1976 – August 1990 (US) 11,000,000 more sales!!!??? (800,000 (US) sales each year!!!!????) 12 million (US) albums sold!!!??? 1990 – December 1993 (US) 2,000,000 more sales!!!??? (666,666 (US) sales each year!!!!????) 14 million (US) albums sold!!!??? 1993 – June 1995 (US) 8,000,000 more sales!!!?? (5,052,000 (US) sales each year!!!!???? (19 Months!!!)) 22 million (US) albums sold!!!??? REAL sales (Soundscan) between December 1993 – June 1995 was 919.000 sales (515,000 (US) sales each year!!!!???? (19… Read more »
Hi Brandon,
Charts & sales is a jigsaw much harder to understand that it seems. You haven’t prove a thing there – your message is full of notable inaccuracies. When we rant about spreading fake news, the least we can do is check the real facts and report them correctly. These elements about music clubs would be a great start.
How can you explain this, the FACT: the Eagles Greatest Hits Soundscan sales from the last 11 Years: 2007, May 5,054,548 2007, November 5,125,000 2007, December 8 5,149,433 2008, January 26 5,199,012 2010, June 6 5,374,694 2010, October 3 5,392,833 2010, November 6 5,395,835 2012, September 1 5,510,310 2012, October 27 5,517,347 2013, March 2 5,537,129 2013, March 16 5,543,596 2013, March 30 5,554,416 2013, June 15 5,585,933 2013, July 13 5,595,541 2014, April 5,690,000 2014, November 1 5,749,765 2016, October 29 6,103,000 2017, January 7 6,124,000 2017, January 14 6,132,000 2017, June 3 6,174,000 2017, August 12 6,194,000 2017,… Read more »
Hi Brandon!
That’s a fact – it scanned 1,2 million since its previous RIAA cert. It doesn’t go beyond that though. New sales are only one way of achieving new RIAA certs, the other two being newly eligible sales and previously unaudited units. Nobody stated the album moved 9 million units since 2007. It’s a given that it hasn’t, which doesn’t necessarily mean the new cert isn’t legit.
I’m completely bemused by those two most recent Eagles certifications and the sheer scale of the rises. When Warners applied for those huge shipment rises in the 1990’s Eagles – Eagles Greatest Hits: 14m (14/12/93) to 22m (05/06/95) Eagles – Hotel California: 10m (12/08/94) to 14m (05/06/95) Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV: 11m (18/12/92) to 16m (26/01/96) Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV: 17m (25/11/97) to 21m (15/11/99) AC/DC – Back In Black: 12m (26/01/96) to 16m (12/11/97) it seemed a mixture of soundscans, clubs, the allowance of freebies, military bases etc and “found/lost” shipments, was the answer. This… Read more »
But how could they just miss millions of units through repeated certification and suddenly find them?
And why is that happening to Rhino albums? Greatest Hits was certified many times before 2006. Missing 7+ million units doesn’t sound too plausible.
That is the mystery of these awards!
If those music club “sales” were in fact free and dirt cheap copies, which is why RIAA didn’t include them before 1994 and why SoundScan still doesn’t include them, can we call them sales?
Hi Vulcan! It’s not true that all these sales were free/dirt cheap. The subscription offer was ridiculously cheap (often 12 CDs for $1) but then you were forced to buy 2 albums per month during at least 1 year at prices often higher than on regular retailers (as high as $18 per album in the 90s). If you do the maths, at the end of the subscription period that’s 36 CDs for 1+15 (to be conservative) * 24 = $361 => $10 per album. Columbia House alone peaked at over $1 billion gross you they obviously haven’t made that much… Read more »
The facts are coming… Fake news exposed! Digging deeper into the realm of RIAA magic, consider the treatment afforded the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975. Originally certified in 1976 as part of the promotional thrust around Platinum designation, 1971–1975 was inexplicably re-certified twelve times platinum in 1990, and in 1995, an inconceivable twenty-two times. This ballooned to twenty-six times in 1999, with a final certification of twenty-nine times platinum in 2006 — a broadly publicized crest, as it meant the compilation had overtaken Michael Jackson’s Thriller as the best-selling album of all time. According to the RIAA, Their Greatest Hits… Read more »
Hi guys! I have seen the RIAA updates as well as your comments. I may post an article about these awards, but here are some points that need to be clarified: – there is no bias or so on RIAA certifications, they are legit as far as their rules are concerned – obviously, Hotel California and GH 1971-1975 haven’t got that high thanks to streaming and downloads, at best they gained 1 Plat each from there – ‘new’ sales can only come from older units first audited / allowed now – Cracked Rear View already gained 5xP a few months… Read more »
Not saying you are wrong but why do you think RIAA cannot be biased?
Because they are an industry, an official organisation financed by all music labels, why would they be biased for one specific artist / label? It’s key to understand that artists are paid their royalties as per sales. If Rhino made up these sales and certified these near 20m (combined) sales without grossing a peny, they would still need to pay at least $100 million to band members, producers, etc, of copies that do not even exist. The only possible way is to sign an agreement with everyone involved saying “hey guys, let’s invent these sales for marketing purpose, sign these… Read more »
It would seem like the real reason “Their Greatest Hits” went from 29 million to 38 million may mostly be due to sales that weren’t accounted for since they last audited in 2006 (as far as I know), though in this site, they have “Greatest Hits” selling the same amount of albums in the U.S. as “Thriller” (30.2 million to Thriller’s 30.4 million). Also there is no “Hotel California” in “Greatest Hits” so I don’t know if there were that many single sales based off “Take It to the Limit” and “One of These Nights” and as mentioned, their streaming… Read more »