What zappa album is currently selling the most ?

jimmy the hindu · **Posted:** Mon May 26, 2008 5:43 am

Where can you found out this information ?

calvin2hikers · **Joined:** Sun Aug 31, 2003 2:41 pm **Posts:** 14131

jimmy "the hindu&q wrote:

Where can you found out this information ?

According to Billboard, his last charted album was The Yellow Shark in Classical Crossover Albums.

cleon · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2008 2:41 am

Don't know which is the best selling
On the back cover of music in reviews dvd say's Zappa sold 60 Million albums worldwide solo and with the mothers.If true some thing useful came out of the whole dvd :evil:

Nack Blapkin · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2008 6:53 am

I'd like to know this also. As well as how much better his albums sell now (with ZPZ having a couple of tours under it's belt) compared to a few years ago.

I for one hope that the ZPZ band is making the ZFT lots of money.

Jakeobs · **Joined:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 2:23 pm **Posts:** 1803

Currently, only Apostrophe (') and Over-Nite Sensation have received Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) gold status certification (500,000 units shipped).

A thread I started about this topic a few months ago.

cleon · **Posted:** Tue May 27, 2008 10:00 am

Album chart reached

AF no 41 us

WOIFTM 32 uk 30 us

Uncle Meat us

Hot rats 9uk

Burnt weeny sandwhich 17uk 94us

Weasels ripped my flesh 28uk

Chunga's revenge 43uk

Fillmore east-june 1971 us38

200 motels (live studio soundtrack) us59

Just another band from L.A. us85

Overnite sensation us32

Apostrophe us10

Don't eat the yellow snow./Cosmik debris us86

Roxy & Elsewhere (live + unreleased) us27

One size fits it all us26

Bongo Fury (live + 2 studio) us66

Zoot allures us61

Zappa in new york (live 1976) uk55 us57

Sheik yerbouti uk32 us21

Dancin' fool./Baby snakes us45

Joe's garage Act 1 uk62 us27

Act 11 & 111 uk75 us53

Tinseltown rebellion (live) uk55 us66

You are what you is uk51 us93

Ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch uk61 us23

Valley girl./you are what you is us32

The man from utopia uk87

Them or us uk53

guitar uk82

strictly commercial (the best of frank zappa) uk45

slime.oofytv.set · **Joined:** Sun Feb 16, 2003 7:29 pm **Posts:** 9243

didn't bobby brown make the euro-charts ¿

Help, I'm a Rock · **Joined:** Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:37 pm **Posts:** 1786

WOW!

Boogety Boogety by Ray Stevens, what a classic.

:roll:

Some other goodies there, as well.

cleon · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2008 5:59 am

slime.oofytv.set wrote:

didn't bobby brown make the euro-charts ¿

I'am sure i heard Frank in a interview say that Bobby Brown was a hit in Holland and up Scandinavia way

pbuzby · **Joined:** Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:55 am **Posts:** 893

FZ mentioned in the Matt Groening/Don Menn interview from circa '92 that Sheik Yerbouti was his best-selling album, largely because "Bobby Brown" kept becoming a hit in different European countries.

Lumpy Gravy · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2008 5:05 pm

slime.oofytv.set wrote:

didn't bobby brown make the euro-charts ¿

cleon wrote:

I'am sure i heard Frank in a interview say that Bobby Brown was a hit in Holland and up Scandinavia way

pbuzby wrote:

FZ mentioned in the Matt Groening/Don Menn interview from circa '92 that Sheik Yerbouti was his best-selling album, largely because "Bobby Brown" kept becoming a hit in different European countries.

Quote:

MG: what's your best-selling album?

FZ: 'sheik yerbouti.'

MG: without re-issues? did anything significantly outsell...

FZ: I don't think anything has outsold 'sheik yerbouti,' partly because "bobby brown goes down" keeps becoming a hit every ten years.

MG: do you understand why?

FZ: no. last year in austria it was number one. it was top ten in germany, and I think it was back on the charts again in norway. for no apparent reason, it was back. for those of you who are ever interested in odd things that will happen in the future, we just got a request from sweden to do a swedish translation of "penis dimension" to be sung by a girl. we're going to let them go ahead and do it. the idea of a swedish cover on that is pretty fascinating. the Swedes are odd in terms of the things that they choose to cover. some jazz performer there in the '70s wrote words to "toads of the short forest" and recorded it.

matt groening & frank zappa 1992

Nack Blapkin · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2008 11:45 am

Lumpy Gravy wrote:

matt groening & frank zappa 1992

Just scanned through that interview again. It's a good one. Found this interesting also:

MG: You said it was a surprise how much musical material you have. Have you listened to everything you've recorded?

FZ: No. I've got reels of tape in the vault that still have the original silver gaffer's tape from the night that they were stuck in the box at the end of a gig and haven't even been opened. Virtually the entire 1980 tour, which was recorded eight-track, is untouched by human hinds. The '73-'74 tour with Ruth, and Chester, and George Duke, the bulk of those tapes from the United States and Europe, they're all four tracks, are untouched.

It is possible that Zappa never listened to the tape of the Buffalo concert.

just plain doug · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2008 12:02 pm

Nack Blapkin wrote:

FZ: No. I've got reels of tape in the vault that still have the original silver gaffer's tape from the night that they were stuck in the box at the end of a gig and haven't even been opened. Virtually the entire 1980 tour, which was recorded eight-track, is untouched by human hinds...
[/b]

Untouched by human hinds?! :wink:

Flea · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2008 12:36 pm

it would be cool if gail would be so kind and tell us cca how many copies Zappa sold until this year :roll:

and top 5 albums :roll:

Jakeobs · **Joined:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 2:23 pm **Posts:** 1803

Why on earth wouldn't Sheik Yerbouti have received an RIAA certification in the 29 years since it's release then???

pbuzby · **Joined:** Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:55 am **Posts:** 893

Jakeobs wrote:

Why on earth wouldn't Sheik Yerbouti have received an RIAA certification in the 29 years since it's release then???

Possibly because most of the sales were outside the U.S. (also, it was out of print in the U.S. between the end of FZ's record deal with Mercury in the early 80's and the 1990 Ryko reissue).

Lumpy Gravy · **Posted:** Fri May 30, 2008 8:30 pm

Jakeobs wrote:

Why on earth wouldn't Sheik Yerbouti have received an RIAA certification in the 29 years since it's release then???

pbuzby wrote:

Possibly because most of the sales were outside the U.S. (also, it was out of print in the U.S. between the end of FZ's record deal with Mercury in the early 80's and the 1990 Ryko reissue).

...there's a world outside the u.s?!...

Jakeobs · **Joined:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 2:23 pm **Posts:** 1803

Lumpy Gravy wrote:

Jakeobs wrote:

Why on earth wouldn't Sheik Yerbouti have received an RIAA certification in the 29 years since it's release then???

pbuzby wrote:

Possibly because most of the sales were outside the U.S. (also, it was out of print in the U.S. between the end of FZ's record deal with Mercury in the early 80's and the 1990 Ryko reissue).

...there's a world outside the u.s?!...

Ha ha ha.

I just figured that since "Bobby Brown" and "Dancin' Fool" are so popular with non-Zappaphile Zappa fans, surely it's at least shipped gold or close to platinum in the U.S. at this point.

Disco Boy · **Posted:** Sat May 31, 2008 12:42 pm

Jakeobs wrote:

I just figured that since "Bobby Brown" and "Dancin' Fool" are so popular with non-Zappaphile Zappa fans, surely it's at least shipped gold or close to platinum in the U.S. at this point.

I'm 100% positive it has. But the RIAA has yet to certify it.

Help, I'm a Rock · **Joined:** Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:37 pm **Posts:** 1786

Two of my least favorite Zappa tunes.

Bill · **Joined:** Thu Sep 05, 2002 6:21 am **Posts:** 207

cleon wrote:

Don't know which is the best selling
On the back cover of music in reviews dvd say's Zappa sold 60 Million albums worldwide solo and with the mothers.If true some thing useful came out of the whole dvd :evil:

I'm inclined to think this sales figure is not true.
Let's say his five most popular albums have sold 3 million units each.
That leaves 45 million units for the remaining 75 albums.
I would guess Joe's Corsaga series have sold fewer than 20K each => 60 K.
I would guess Wazoo, Buffalo, Mofo, ID, Q, H, OZ, EIHN. FZPTMOFZ, CPIII have sold fewer than 50K each => 500K
I would guess LSO I & II, The Perfect Stranger, Francesco have sold fewer than 100K each => 400K
So that now leaves roughly 44 million units for 58 remaining albums.

I would guess that Frank sold more units before than since his death - his presence was his own best marketing. But to be fair, let's suppose that his catalog (not counting the albums I have already counted) have sold a million units per year (I know, anyone working for Ryko past and present would consider this delusional, but bear with me) since his death.

That leaves 29 million units to be sold between 1966 and 1993.
That would imply to me that the albums not in his 5 top-selling would have had to have sold on average ~500K units each - during his lifetime.
I think this is not likely.

slime.oofytv.set · **Joined:** Sun Feb 16, 2003 7:29 pm **Posts:** 9243

hot rats was released in over 20 countries, it's gotta be hi on the list

pbuzby · **Joined:** Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:55 am **Posts:** 893

Here's an FZ quote from 1987 (from Paul Zollo's interview collection Songwriters On Songwriting):

"The only album I ever had that was in the million plus category was Sheik Yerbouti and the only reason that it sold that much is because the song "Bobby Brown Goes Down" which could never be played in the U.S., was a hit all over Europe. The bulk of those sales were outside the U.S. so it was an unpredictable fluke. Usually my record sales are in the 50,000 to 300,000 range depending on what the content of the album is."

TonyF · **Posted:** Sat May 31, 2008 7:44 pm

I may be wrong, but I think the record company has to approach the RIAA and pay a fee to have them certify albums. Just because it's not certified doesn't mean it didn't sell far more than the qualifying number of units to be considered gold +. That being said, I doubt the RIAA has even looked at the sales figures in the past 25 years. When you also consider that double albums count as two (and triple as three) it is very possible that Zappa's music, at least on paper, sold much better than you'd think.

slime.oofytv.set · **Joined:** Sun Feb 16, 2003 7:29 pm **Posts:** 9243

tonyf wrote:

I may be wrong, but I think the record company has to approach the RIAA and pay a fee to have them certify albums...

maybe true but zappa was his own record company for the most of the albums so the numbers were probably more accurate than the typical artist who doesn't control sales as closely; they probably double-count lp's, cd's, etc. ... first you buy the lp, then the 8-track for the auto, then the lp again after the original gets trashed from overuse, the quadraphonic reel-to-reel, the original cd, the old masters lp's, the remix cd, the mini-lp cd, the dvd... 9 units sold per person

Zappa.com

What zappa album is currently selling the most ?

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