CSPC: Fleetwood Mac Popularity Analysis

0004 - Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Fleetwood Mac may not be as universally well-known as the Beatles, ABBA or even Police. They did get a couple of things none of those bands never had.

The first achievement they managed is a super mega blockbuster album like Rumours is. Just think in the US this album sold as much as Beatles smashes Abbey Road and Revolver combined. Resuming the band to Rumours would be a huge mistake yet. One argument Fleetwood Mac can claim more than any other group in music history is the capacity to successfully comeback.

During late 60s, they had a string of hits in their native UK, hitting #1 with Albatross. They achieved a decent success in European continent as well. After tough years, they realized a breakthrough as impressive as unexpected with their 1975 eponymous LP in the US. In 1977, they dropped Rumours, possibly the second most successful album ever in English-speaking countries. After back to back flops, 1987 record Tango In The Night was massive. Disappearing from the map again, 1997 live album The Dance was huge and even their 2003 effort was a very good seller compared to its predecessor. Currently recording a new album, their history show it can bomb as well as it can smash. In the meantime, we will be checking really how big or weak the band discography is.

As a reminder for users who are not yet familiar with the CSPC idea you do not need to worry, it is quite simple as it only consists in merging every format sales an artist has been getting and attributing them to respective studio albums. We will start by focusing on raw data, setting how much each Fleetwood Mac album sold. Then, we will check sales of each track from those albums on each format – physical, digital and streaming – and weight them to value those figures on a par with album sales. To complete the study, we will study sales of the all compilations, live albums and music videos they dropped. Once all the raw data is set, we will only need to apply appropriate weighting to get the overall picture of the classic rock band career results.

Let’s go!

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Clockingbell

Hi! Numbers of Fleetwood Mac and REM aren’t updated after a search. Cheers!

TapestryCK

hey mjd,please give us Total Album (all types) Sales per Country

Mike

My first time on this site. Not arguing, just curious. How is it most lists I view online have Rumours at 50M copies, and this list is well under 40M?

Martin

Because none of those lists have actually dissected Rumours sales, to see if it actually could have sold 50m, they just regurgitate record company press releases, which are always overstated, either due to their wording being misleading or using dubious and undehanded counting methods.

Last edited 2 years ago by Martin
jeff

Hi MJD,
Guardians of the Galaxy has propelled Chains to popularity and the volume 2 mix tape album is still selling great. Just wondering how u going to credit it to Fleetwood? Like if e album sells 500k, how much album eq u gg to credit to them?

Sinny

I was wondering where you got some of this sales data. Some albums, like Fleetwood Mac (1968), Penguin, Heroes are Hard to Find, Fleetwood Mac (1975), Tusk, and Mirage seem to have higher sales than expected. You list Heroes at 1,000,000 units in the US, yet it hasn’t received a certification.

Anthony Blanchard

Hi Guillaume!
Can you please post the detail per country for Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Hits?
Thank you very much in advance!
Tony

James

This is fantastic and very accurate. Can this be done for Stevie Nicks please?

DiegoCou

Hi. Can You do one of Stevie Nicks? Please

Teresa Turner

Not as well known as Abba or The Police? Lol!!!!!! Be real!!!

Teresa Turner

Highly unlikely? Well, what is your study based on? Lol! I’m not putting down Abba or The Police but cmon? I don’t even know the names of the people in Abba! I bet all these countries have heard of let’s say for instance, STEVIE NICKS? Just saying. Then they would of course associate her with the band Fleetwood Mac.

Innocent Eyes

Errr I’m also from France and most people definately don’t know who Fleetwood Mac are, let alone Stevie Nicks. Everybody knows Abba and The Police though.

Teresa Turner

OK Thank You 😁

Gus

I am from Argentina. ABBA was super massive here. My mother was a big fan in the 70s (she bought some albums)… If I ask her about Fleedwood Mac… she would say: “What is that?”
MJD is completely right about that.

Drewwwwww

I have to admit, ABBA is more famous worldwide than Fleetwod Mac is.

anthony

Hi dear MJD !!!

Your articles and your detailed analysis are always fantastic, even for Fleetwood Mac, really compliments, I visit your site every day to see if there are new artists analyzed, I hope you analyze as soon as the Fab Four (The Beatles), I’m a big fan of the four legendary musicians from Liverpool !!!

anthony

Hi dear MJD !!! Thank you for answering me. I also believe that The Beatles are still the first artists to have sold more records than all, in fact, in your old website that was “fan of music” you show in your graph that six albums of The Beatles were present in the top 100 best-selling albums of all time. Albums that were present The Beatles 1, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, 1962-1966 (The Red Album), 1967-1970 (The Blue Album), The Beatles (White Album). I hope that by the end of October you realize CSPC analysis of… Read more »

Raffi

Nice work again MJD! Quite a big number for a band who is often considered a one-album wonder!

By the way, MJD, you made a slight (probably irrelevant) mistakes on page 20. Firstly, the release year for Tango in the Night says 1977, but it should be 1987. Moreover, on Orphan albums, those singles add up to 4,3m, so the album equivalent should be 1,29m, 60K less than what you’ve typed.

Looking forward for your next post!