One more chart note for you, from way down at the bottom of the Billboard Biz round-up:
• The use of Journey’s single “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” in the June 10 finale of “The Sopranos” — followed by oodles of media attention for the band and the show — yields big returns on the charts this week. The 1981 track re-enters Hot Digital Songs at No. 21 with 41,000 paid downloads. It’s up 371% in sales compared with the previous week. Concurrently, Journey’s “Greatest Hits” album sold nearly 11,000 units this week — a 111% gain — pushing the set 17-2 with Greatest Gainer honors on the Top Pop Catalog albums chart. It’s the biggest sales week for the album since Christmas 2005, when it shifted 19,000
The song is also holding steady at the No. 1 spot on iTunes’ Rock tracks list, where it is surrounded by sheer crap from all corners (Jack Johnson covering John Lennon, and two Nickelback songs). Come on already, Steve! Make it happen!
Toby Keith’s the ‘Big Dog’ of the Charts [Billboard.biz]
All these years and I never knew what the single cover looked like. That is prime.
That was a sweet Christmas, ’05. I remember opening up my stocking and finding Santa left me 19,000 copies of Journey’s Greatest Hits. I assumed it was a clerical error, but who am I to question Santa?
Not to burst the bubble, since Journey is awesome and all, but 41,000 downloads of Don’t Stop Believing on Itunes equals $40,950. I know, in the current music industry that’s a huge success, but…
And if the former Journey frontman hasn’t been on his knees worshipping Chase’s junk in the aftermath of The Sopranos’ finale, he oughta give it some thought.
Steve Perry makes an appearance on Symphony of Voices, the new record from Guff (Go-Kart Records). He apparently heard them while at a studio and offered them an unreleased Journey song to cover. He ended up singing back-ups and producing the track.