Paul McCartney & Wings’ ‘Band on the Run’ Returns to Charts After 50th Anniversary Reissue

Keith Caulfield
·4 min read
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Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run stages a return to Billboard’s charts (dated Feb. 17) following the set’s 50th anniversary reissue on Feb. 2. The album re-enters the Top Album Sales chart at No. 5, debuts at No. 7 on the Vinyl Albums tally, re-enters at No. 6 on Tastemaker Albums and debuts at No. 37 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums. On the overall Billboard 200 chart, where the album logged four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 1974, the set re-enters at No. 156 – its first appearance on the chart since Jan. 1, 2011.

Band on the Run was reissued in a variety of formats, including a single-LP vinyl release cut at half-speed, a double-LP vinyl set at half-speed with a bonus “underdubbed” version of the album, and as a double-CD set (also with the underdubbed mixes). The 50th anniversary reissues are combined with the original album for sales tracking and charting purposes.

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Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Top Rock & Alternative Albums ranks the week’s most popular rock and alternative albums by equivalent album units. Vinyl Album tallies the week’s top-selling vinyl releases. Tastemaker Albums measures the top-selling titles at independent and small chain record stores.

Band on the Run sold 8,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 8 (up 14,681%) according to Luminate.

Elsewhere on Top Album Sales, Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) returns to No. 1 for a seventh nonconsecutive week, climbing two spots with 12,000 copies sold (up 18%). Swift has a clean sweep of the top three, as former No. 1 Midnights bolts 8-2 (11,000; up 91%) following its double win at the Grammy Awards (Feb. 4) for album of the year and best pop vocal album, plus Swift’s chart-topping Lover rises 4-3 with nearly 11,000 sold (up 51%).

Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits re-enters at No. 4 on Top Album Sales with nearly 11,000 sold (up 3,251%) following his death on Feb. 5 of stomach cancer.

Phish’s Round Room, originally released in 2002, re-enters at No. 6 with 6,000 sold (up 2,789%) following its release on vinyl on Feb. 2.

Stray Kids’ chart-topping ROCK-STAR is steady at No. 7 with 6,000 (down 1%).

The soundtrack to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes debuts at No. 8 with 6,000 sold following its release on CD and vinyl on Feb. 2. The album was initially released via digital download and streaming services on Nov. 17, 2023.

Rounding out the top 10 is Green Day’s former leader Saviors, slipping 5-9 with nearly 6,000 (down 20%) and Swift’s chart-topping Folklore, rising 15-10 with almost 6,000 (up 48%).

In the week ending Feb. 8, there were 1.168 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 4.5% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 829,000 (up 0.2%) and digital albums comprised 339,000 (up 16.6%).

There were 391,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Feb. 8 (down 3.2% week-over-week) and 433,000 vinyl albums sold (up 3.6%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 2.499 million (down 31.7% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 2.847 million (down 46.3%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 7.082 million (down 35.8% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 5.373 million (down 40.4%) and digital album sales total 1.709 million (down 15.8%).

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