Understanding: Music Clubs #2 – The Eagles, Mariah Carey

Remaining Studio Albums

Incredibly, remaining Eagles studio albums include one for which we have pretty much the only information ever about Columbia House sales. On book International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 69 (1998) by Jeffrey Covell, we can read following sentence:

“Columbia Record Club celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1975 having surpassed the three-million-member mark. The company, generating millions of dollars in sales from albums such as Simon and Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water and The Eagles One of These Nights“

This confirms the Eagles have been an ever-favourite among Columbia House choices and that it wasn’t limited to their best sellers. RIAA certifications confirm this fact.

#22 album in 1972, 50 weeks charted, some 50,000 Soundscan sales
EAGLES 01/22/74 G
EAGLES 03/20/01 P

#41 album in 1973, 70 weeks charted, some 50,000 Soundscan sales
DESPERADO 09/23/74 G
DESPERADO 03/20/01 P
DESPERADO 03/20/01 M (2)

#17 album in 1974, 87 weeks charted, over 250,000 Soundscan sales
ON THE BORDER 06/05/74 G
ON THE BORDER 03/20/01 P
ON THE BORDER 03/20/01 M (2)

#1 (x5) album in 1975, 56 weeks charted, over 300,000 Soundscan sales
ONE OF THESE NIGHTS 06/30/75 G
ONE OF THESE NIGHTS 03/20/01 P
ONE OF THESE NIGHTS 03/20/01 M (4)

#1 (x9) album in 1979, 57 weeks charted, some 650,000 Soundscan sales
THE LONG RUN 02/01/80 G
THE LONG RUN 02/01/80 P
THE LONG RUN 08/14/90 M (4)
THE LONG RUN 03/20/01 M (7)

As only The Long Run was certified in the multi-platinum era before the eligibility of all Club sales, it is impossible to deduce the Retailers vs Clubs split for all other albums. There is still several strong elements to learn from those awards.

First is that certifications are far from automatic. You know it already, labels must request them. You also know that it isn’t because a fresh new album is certified that the artist all previous albums got audited as well. Here, it is even more than that. Even doing major audits due to rules change for its best sellers like Hotel California and both Greatest Hits sets in 1995, Elektra completely ignored remaining Eagles albums until 2001. To fully understand certifications, it is key to always ask yourself what was the scope of the audit.

A second lesson learned from previous list of awards is about the date of awards. When an album goes 3xP, we assume it reached 3 million units. This is true on a case of an album being regularly updated, what pretty much never happen. Instead, a 3xP award means the album is anywhere from 3 to 4 million. Guess what? There is ways to know more precisely where the album stands. In total, the Eagles had eight different albums certified on March 20 2001. Obviously, they haven’t all reached the new criteria the same day, some were just over the mark, others were already close to the next one. Here is a clear example:

#41 album in 1973, 70 weeks charted, some 50,000 Soundscan sales
DESPERADO 09/23/74 G
DESPERADO 03/20/01 P
DESPERADO 03/20/01 M (2)

#17 album in 1974, 87 weeks charted, over 250,000 Soundscan sales
ON THE BORDER 06/05/74 G
ON THE BORDER 03/20/01 P
ON THE BORDER 03/20/01 M (2)

Those two back to back albums went 2xP in March 2001 after being awarded Gold in 1974. On The Border peaked higher (#17 to #41), lasted longer on charts (87 to 70 weeks), sold faster (2 to 17 months to reach Gold) and sold better as a catalog album (1 to 5 on Soundscan sales). Both albums were available at Columbia House so no reason to see a different pattern there.

All those evidences tend to highlight a notable difference between those two records, possibly close to 1 million units overall. In other words, 2001 certifications prove not only that On The Border was certainly close to 3 million, but also that Desperado was just over 2 million. In the same way, Eagles debut album was also most likely close to 2 million units as it went Gold before Desperado and sold as much as that one after 1976.

A small additional word before concluding on estimates, if you would like to search for some ads containing Eagles albums to know when they were available at Columbia House, below is the list of their catalog number on that club.

286948 : $16.98 : EAGLES : HOTEL CALIFORNIA
287003 : $14.98 : EAGLES : THEIR GREATEST HITS 1971-1975
291328 : $14.98 : EAGLES : ON THE BORDER
291336 : $14.98 : EAGLES : DESPERADO
298596 : $14.98 : EAGLES : THE LONG RUN
299792 : $14.98 : EAGLES : ONE OF THESE NIGHTS
317768 : $16.98 : EAGLES : EAGLES GREATEST HITS VOLUME 11
361253 : $14.98 : EAGLES : EAGLES
400713 : $24.98 : EAGLES : LIVE

Putting all the data together, rather than outdated and not date specific certifications, we can conclude on much more precise below numbers with a high level of reliability.

Eagles – 1,900,000
Desperado – 2,150,000
On The Border – 2,900,000
One Of These Nights – 4,500,000
Hotel California – 16,750,000
The Long Run – 7,500,000

Greatest Hits 1971-1975 – 30,150,000
Greatest Hits Volume II – 11,750,000