France Best Selling Albums Ever: Update Part 4
80s ALIVE Records
Francis Cabrel – Fragile (1980) : 1 305 000
On surface, there isn’t much activity to notice about Fragile album by Francis Cabrel. Under the water, there is two all-time classics – La Dame de Haute-Savoie and L’Encre de tes Yeux – getting consistent recurrent airplay, there is also the widely praised artist catalog by both Medias and critics as well as the very special love and respect shown by the public for the artist since nearly 40 years. All those reasons push his weakest albums to pretty decent sales even in relatively calm years.
Jean-Jacques Goldman – Minoritaire (1982) : 1 135 000
Even if Johnny Hallyday and Michel Sardou are the two greatest selling artists of all-time in France, among male singers Francis Cabrel and Jean-Jacques Goldman really reached a league of their own. In terms of catalog value, they are untouchable. Each of their releases appealed to mass audience, each contain cult songs and all of them keep on selling well. Minoritaire owns two such classics, Quand La Musique Est Bonne as well as Au Bout de Mes Rêves. Obviously, gigantic catalog sales of Singulier compilation prevent the original albums to move large amounts, but all those albums are still purchased quite often.
Jean-Jacques Goldman – Positif (1984) : 1 345 000
The follow up of Minoritaire, Positif on its side has a track list which features songs as well known as Envole-Moi and Encore Un Matin. If it has never charted on his own since the introduction of the comprehensive chart in 2011, a 2CD box of it paired with Non Homologué album went Top 200 for as many as 7 weeks during 2015 fourth quarter. If the activity was softer this year, Jean-Jacques Goldman albums always sell their share of units every year.
Phil Collins – …But Seriously (1989) : 1 305 000
From the 80s international Pop scene, we mostly remember two names – Michael Jackson and Madonna. This is a wrong picture as a third artist was at least as big as the latter one, Phil Collins. His last ground breaking studio album …But Seriously, pushed by the classic lead single Another Day in Paradise, was a tremendous seller all over Europe and France was no exception. In terms of catalog sales, the British singer isn’t as popular as he used to be in spite of remaining a strong force in recurrent airplay. This is why …But Seriously is the lowest album on this ranking that still made it to the overall weekly Top 200 chart in 2016. Charted at #144 for a week in June, this was achieved on the back of the 2-discs remastered edition new release. This position reveals poor results more than anything else as re-entering for one week only that low with a fully new version released means the album is selling way behind the ranking numbers in remaining weeks. Almost half of its yearly sales refer to units sold of the reissue during its first month.