The Rolling Stones’ ‘GRRR Live!’ Makes Top 10 Debut on Album Sales Chart

Keith Caulfield
·4 min read
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The Rolling Stones’ new concert album, GRRR Live!, debuts at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Feb. 25), marking the fifth consecutive year the band has placed a top 10-charting set on the tally.

The new live effort was recorded on Dec. 15, 2012, at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, as part of the group’s 50th anniversary trek, dubbed the 50 & Counting Tour. The show was originally broadcast live as a pay-per-view event titled One More Shot, but was not released in a home video or audio format until its GRRR Live! bow on Feb. 10. For its album release, the show was re-edited and remixed.

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The GRRR Live! album features a robust lineup of guest stars in The Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr., Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Bruce Springsteen and former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor. The set was released in multiple configurations, including a 24-track digital album, a limited edition red-colored $80 three-vinyl-LP set, and variants that housed the concert on either blu-ray or DVD alongside two CDs.

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.

Elsewhere on the new Top Album Sales chart, Paramore debuts atop the list with its latest studio album, This Is Why, launching with 47,000 copies sold. It’s the second leader for the band, which also led the tally with 2013’s self-titled set.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER’S The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION falls to No. 2 after spending its first two weeks at No. 1. It sold 28,000 in its third week, down 34%.

Pierce the Veil logs its highest charting effort yet on Top Album Sales as the rock band’s latest release The Jaws of Life starts at No. 3 with 18,000 sold. Taylor Swift’s former leader Midnights dips 3-4 with 17,000 (up 11%). Harry Styles’ chart-topping Harry’s House falls 4-5 with 9,000 sold (down 6%).

Rock band In Flames scores its first top 10 on Top Album Sales as Foregone bows at No. 6 with nearly 9,000 sold. It’s the ninth charting effort for the act, who had previously gone as high as No. 20 with I, the Mask in 2019.

Veteran alternative act Yo La Tengo hits the top 10 on Top Album Sales for the first time as This Stupid World bows at No. 8 with 6,000 sold. The band’s peak until the new chart was No. 26 in 2013 with Fade.

Closing out the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart are Tyler, the Creator’s former leader IGOR, rising 17-9 with just over 6,000 (after the set was reissued in physical formats) and Shania Twain’s Queen of Me falls 2-10 in its second week with 6,000 (down 82%).

In the week ending Feb. 16, there were 1.884 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 6% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.552 million (up 9.8%) and digital albums comprised 332,000 (down 8.7%).

There were 622,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Feb. 16 (up 2.7% week-over-week) and 919,000 vinyl albums sold (up 14.7%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 4.281 million (down 0.1% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 6.218 million (up 25.6%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 12.922 million (up 6.3% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 10.560 million (up 13.7%) and digital album sales total 2.361 million (down 17.7%).

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