Both these are from decades ago

 

In 1990 Madonna released her 'The Immaculate Collection' album two weeks ahead of 'Justify My Love'.

 

Even further back, in 1977, Donna Summer released her album 'I Remember Yesterday' a month before lead single 'I Feel Love' was released. I believe this was because the UK label didn't agree with with its US counterpart on the choice of lead single ('Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)', a slow song) which had 'I Feel Love' as the B side. Once the US label realised the first single was flopping yet the B side was very popular they promoted 'I Feel Love' to the A side and that's when the single was released in the UK.

 

Even as far back as then it was quite a rarity for an album to be released ahead of the lead single.

Misery Business by Paramore was released in July 2007, a month after they released Riot!

Misery Business by Paramore was released in July 2007, a month after they released Riot!

Misery Business was released before Riot in the UK though, it also charted in June!

Girls Aloud's Call The Shots (November 26th 2007) was released 10 days after Tangled Up (November 16th 2007). I wonder would it have peaked higher than #3 if released prior to the album.

Surely Sexy No No No was the lead single from Tangled Up?

Surely Sexy No No No was the lead single from Tangled Up?

It definitely was!

Girls Aloud's Call The Shots (November 26th 2007) was released 10 days after Tangled Up (November 16th 2007). I wonder would it have peaked higher than #3 if released prior to the album.

 

That was peculiar, same with Chemistry and 'See The Day' (although arguably that perhaps shouldn't have even been released at all)

I think this was just the third single from the album here, after When You Believe and It's Not Right But It's Ok, rather than being the lead.

 

I meant MLIYL the album, not the track! When You Believe was released in the UK afterwards, right?

Edited September 16, 20222 yr by N-S

I meant MLIYL the album, not the track! When You Believe was released in the UK afterwards, right?

 

Yes Aly cleared it up a little later in the thread, an interesting example. Wasn't this song on Mariah's #1s album too? So presumably it appeared on two different albums as a lead single before being issued as a single in its own right, which must be pretty unique.

 

That was peculiar, same with Chemistry and 'See The Day' (although arguably that perhaps shouldn't have even been released at all)

 

How did that work on iTunes, presumably the track wasn't available to cherry pick for the first week and a half? I can't remember now.

Re: Girls Aloud - Tangled Up:

 

(All of this is totally off topic, but I'm definitely taking this opportunity to talk about Girls Aloud :kink: )

 

16th November was Tangled Up's Irish release date (a Friday). It came out on Monday 19th November in the UK. Both being the usual days for releases in Ireland and the UK back then.

 

 

Call the Shots - Midweeks (Week 1) (This week's sales were downloads of the song from the album):

20th Nov: #44 - 920 sales (Tuesday)

21st Nov: #18 - 4,209 sales (Wednesday)

22nd Nov: #14 - 7,141 sales (Thursday)

23rd Nov: #11 - 9,687 sales (Friday)

25th Nov: #9 - 15,807 sales (Sunday chart)

 

Looking back at the discussions from that week, there was an iTunes glitch that lasted a few days which for some reason resulted in Call the Shots not showing up in the iTunes charts - and it didn't appear until 24th November, when it was finally revealed to be #2. Considering that lack of visibility on iTunes, it did really well!

 

Call the Shots ending up being in the Top 10 contributed to a bit of a chart upset! Spice Girls - Headlines had been Top 10 in the midweeks all week, but it ended up at #11 in the chart. Sugababes - About You Now was also responsible for denying the Spice Girls a Top 10 peak. I had such conflicting emotions that week! :lol: Thrilled for Girls Aloud, upset about the Spice Girls and a bit annoyed at Sugababes considering that their song was many weeks old at that point, haha.

 

Spice Girls vs Sugababes - Midweeks

20th Nov: #10 - 5,278 sales [spice Girls] | #11 - 4,939 sales [sugababes] (Tuesday)

21st Nov: #9 - 7,616 sales [spice Girls] | #11 - 7,031 sales [sugababes] (Wednesday)

22nd Nov: #9 - 9,557 sales [spice Girls] | #10 - 8,819 sales [sugababes] (Thursday)

23rd Nov: #9 - 11,209 sales [spice Girls] | #10 - 10,625 sales [sugababes] (Friday)

25th Nov: #11 - 14,941 sales [spice Girls] | #10 - 15,386 sales [sugababes] (Sunday chart)

 

~

 

The Call the Shots CD singles were released on Monday 26th November (a week after the album). That was quite an unusual scheduling decision.

 

Call the Shots climbed from #9 to #3. Rather frustratingly it had been midweek #2 all week:

 

Call the Shots - Midweeks (Week 2)

27th Nov: #2 - 10,745 sales (Tuesday) [#1: Leona - 12,901 sales | #3: T2 - 9,597 sales]

28th Nov: #2 - 15,507 sales (Wednesday) [#1: Leona - 18,109 sales | #3: T2 - 14,068 sales]

29th Nov: #2 - 19,224 sales (Thursday) [#1: Leona - 22,778 sales | #3: T2 - 17,854 sales]

30th Nov: #2 - 22,403 sales (Friday) [#1: Leona - 27,238 sales | #3: T2 - 21,413 sales]

2nd Dec: #3 - 31,457 sales (Sunday chart) [#1: Leona - 40,530 sales | #2: T2 - 31,768 sales]

 

<_< So annoying!

 

Interestingly it was physicals that helped T2 place at #2 in that week. T2 were also the #2 best selling physical single of the week... Girls Aloud were only at #4. Whereas Girls Aloud were #2 in the downloads chart and T2 were at #3. I suppose this shows that GA releasing their CD singles a week after Tangled Up was somewhat detrimental.

 

In week 3, Call the Shots stayed put at midweek #3 all week and ended up at #3.

 

Call the Shots - Midweeks (Week 3)

4th Dec: #3 - 7,042 sales (Tuesday) [#1: Leona - 9,671 sales | #2: T2 - 7,514 sales]

5th Dec: #3 - 9,830 sales [#1: Leona - 13,478 sales | #2: T2 - 10,570 sales]

6th Dec: #3 - 12,548 sales [#1: Leona - 17,025 sales | #2: T2 - 13,607 sales]

7th Dec: #3 - (No sales were shared)

9th Dec: #3 - 22,135 sales [#1: Leona - 29,616 sales | #2: T2 - 22,902 sales]

 

In week 4, Call the Shots fell two places to #5 (18,455 sales). T2 fell from #2 to #9 (17,844 sales - quite a closely packed together chart, with it being just 611 sales behind Girls Aloud). Typical!

 

----

 

As for the Chemistry era, the closeness between the release dates of their singles Biology and See the Day was unusual too, only 5 weeks apart.

 

Release dates:

 

14th November 2005 - Biology

5th December 2005 - Chemistry [3 weeks after Biology]

19th December 2005 - See the Day [5 weeks after Biology, 2 weeks after Chemistry]

 

I've written so much already that I'd better stop, but Chemistry peaking at #11... I'll never get over it :kink:

Staind's album 'Break The Cycle' charted at #1 in September 2001, 2 weeks before their first UK single 'It's Been Awhile' was released (it charted at #15).

 

 

Wu-Tang Clan had a #1 album in June 1997, with its only single (#46 hit 'Triumph') being released 9 weeks later.

 

Evanescence's album 'Fallen' debuted in the top 20, 5 weeks before the lead single 'Bring Me To Life' debuted (ignoring its previous charting as an import) at #1.

 

Eminem's 'The Marshall Mathers LP' debuted at #2, 5 weeks before the lead single 'The Real Slim Shady' debuted at #1, and he did it again in 2005 when 'Curtain Call' was released 3 weeks before its lead single 'When I'm Gone' - which, despite debuting on the chart dated week ending 31 December 2005, managed to place higher on the 2005 EOY than the 2006 EOY, which is an extreme contrast to what would happen now.

 

Alicia Keys' debut album 'Songs In A Minor' was charting in the top 100 for 7 weeks before the lead single "Fallin'" entered at #3, and her 2nd album 'The Diary Of Alicia Keys' was also released a week before its lead single 'You Don't Know My Name'.

 

There are probably quite a few more among American artists, I expect.

I had a feeling there was an Eminem one somehwere as I expect When I'm Gone would have charted higher if not for being released after the album.

 

Had no recollection of The Real Slim Shady coming out that much later, wow, impressed that it still got to No.1!

I think whether or not something is available on an album or not at the time it's been pushed has little significance in the streaming era or at least nothing compared to what it did in the paid for sales era when you had to own a copy of an individual song or album and people would be less inclined to buy something they already had. Then you've got album bombs and songs that aren't the intended single overshadowing because of some trend or because people simply like listening to them more. It's not really comparing apples with apples with the physical era when as releasing an album and then releasing the lead single afterwards would have been an oddity.

 

that makes sense actually to me because before you would own the particular track physically and the only way you could listen to it would be if you bought the whole album...

 

I feel like Mariah did this release with 'Don't Forget ABout Us' (the lead single from her re-release of Emancipation). I sort of remember that not being available to buy for ages.

Another couple of examples have come to light recently.

 

Meat Loaf’s I Would Do Anything For Love was pushed as the lead single some weeks after the album had peaked at No.1, making its own 7 weeks at No.1 even more impressive.

 

Also, seeing Backstreet Boys live the other day reminded me that the only single from that, Drowning, which got to No.4 in Jan 2002, came about two months after the parent hits album was released here. A very curious strategy, although the music video may well have been circulating on the music channels months in advance to help promote the album.

Edited November 10, 20222 yr by gooddelta

The first one that came to mind was The Prodigy's album 'Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned' which was released the week before lead single 'Girls' got its full release - you could argue a very limited edition of 'Girls / Memphis Bells' had been released earlier.

 

I do recall The White Stripes album 'Elephant' was released before lead single 'Seven Nation Army'. (Previous album 'White Blood Cells' charted well ahead of the release of its lead single 'Hotel Yorba'.)

It was quite common in the late 60s and early 70s as singles were often not on albums and albums were regarded as a whole work - or they waited to see which tracks radio picked up on. Paul McCartney & Wings' Band On The Run was the classic one for me as I was desperate to buy Jet, the album came out in late 1973, Jet got airplay as the album topped the charts - and then it was Spring before the first single was released - Jet! The title track didnt come out till summer '74.

 

John Lennon's Imagine...album 1971, first single 1975!! Bear in mind all you could do in those days if you couldnt afford albums was to buy a single or record off the radio, so I recorded off the radio mostly and bought singles when they hit the bargain bins.

 

ELO's debut album came out late 1971, 10538 Overture the first single about 5 or 6 months later.

 

Happily things started to change into the 70's as singles stopped being stand-alone and more album-promo, which was where the big money was...

Pink Floyd were always considered an albums act and had a pretty scarce policy when releasing singles so I thought they'd have cases and indeed they do.

'The Final Cut' album was released 21/3/1983 but only single (although 'When the tigers broke free' was belatedly added to the re-issue) 'Not Now John' was released 3/5/1983.

'Momentary lapse of Reason' released 7/9/1987 'Learning to Fly' single released 14/9/1987

'The Division Bell' released 28/3/1994 'Take It Back' single released 16/5/1994, somewhat surprisingly as 'Keep Talking' was played on the radio a bit at the time of the album release.

Edited November 20, 20222 yr by Smint