Talking Heads’ ‘Stop Making Sense’ Hits Top 10 on Album Sales Chart After Reissue

Keith Caulfield
·5 min read
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Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense surges into the top 10 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Sept. 2) for the first time, debuting at No. 9 following the soundtrack’s expanded 40th anniversary reissue on Aug. 18. The album is the companion piece to the concert film of the same name directed by Jonathan Demme. Both the album and film were released in 1984, and the concert itself was filmed over three shows in December 1983 at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. Among the songs performed on the album and in the film are such Billboard Hot 100 hits as “Psycho Killer,” the band’s cover “Take Me to the River” and Talking Heads’ only top 10 Hot 100 hit, “Burning Down the House.”

The reissue of Stop Making Sense includes the complete concert for the first time, including two previously unreleased songs from the Pantages’ shows.

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The expanded album was issued via digital download and vinyl LP. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes. In total in the week ending Aug. 24, Stop Making Sense sold 12,000 copies (up from a negligible sum the previous week) in the U.S. – the act’s best sales week for an album since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991.

Of the album’s sales for the week, 95% came from vinyl sales – about 11,000 copies. That, too, is the band’s best sales week on vinyl in the Luminate era. On the Vinyl Albums chart, Stop Making Sense debuts at No. 4.

The album reissue is timed to the concert film’s return to movie theaters beginning on Sept. 11 with a TIFF World Premiere and Global IMAX Live event. Then, beginning on Sept. 22, the movie will play a one-week exclusive engagement in IMAX theaters, and then goes into wide release on Sept. 29.

Stop Making Sense is Talking Heads’ longest-charting album on the Billboard 200 — of a dozen charting titles — having now spent a total 119 weeks on the list. (It re-enters the latest chart at No. 73, its first week on the tally since 1986. The album peaked at No. 41 in 1984.)

Elsewhere in the top 10 of the new the Top Album Sales chart, the latest albums from Hozier, JIHYO, Russ, NCT Dream and Renee Rapp all debut in the region, while J-Hope’s 2022 release Jack In the Box returns to the top 10 (re-entering at No. 2) after its arrival on the CD format.

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.

At No. 1 on Top Album Sales is Travis Scott’s Utopia, which spends a fourth consecutive week in the lead (92,000 sold; down 7%).

J-Hope’s Jack In the Box re-enters at No. 2 with 47,000 (up from a few hundred sold the previous week) after its release on CD. The album was originally released on July 15, 2022, and debuted and first peaked at No. 5 on the July 30, 2022, chart. It was reissued with additional bonus tracks — and on CD for the first time — on Aug. 19, 2023. The set initially was released only as a digital download album and through streaming services. The CD edition of the album was available in four collectible editions, including exclusive versions for Target and Walmart, all containing assorted branded merchandise (some of which was randomized).

Hozier’s new studio set Unreal Unearth starts at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 39,000 copies sold — with 23,000 of that sum from vinyl LP sales. The album was released in five different vinyl iterations, including exclusive color variants for Amazon, independent record stores and Hozier’s official webstore.

TWICE’s JIHYO bows at No. 4 on Top Album Sales with her debut solo album Zone, selling 37,000 copies sold. Of that sum 36,000 were from CD sales. Similar to Jack In the Box, there are multiple collectible CD iterations of Zone – 13 in all – including exclusive editions sold via Target and Walmart.

Russ’ new studio release Santiago starts at No. 5 with 32,000 copies sold — with 17,000 of that sum from vinyl LP sales. NCT Dream’s ISTJ: The 3rd Album, launches at No. 6 with 25,000 sold. Like JIHYO’s album, the NCT Dream set was also issued in 13 collectible CD packages. NewJeans’ former No. 1 2nd EP ‘Get Up’ falls 3-7 with 16,000 sold (down 21%) and Taylor’s Swift’s chart-topping Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) tumbles 2-8 with 16,000 (down 31%).

Rounding out the top 10 is Renee Rapp’s new album Snow Angel, which debuts at No. 10 with 12,000 sold.

In the week ending Aug. 24, there were 1.907 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 7.7% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.573 million (up 9.1%) and digital albums comprised 333,000 (up 1.3%).

There were 680,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Aug. 24 (up 16% week-over-week) and 885,000 vinyl albums sold (up 4.5%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 22.728 million (up 2.4% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 30.365 million (up 20.7%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 65.522 million (up 7.2% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 53.442 million (up 12%) and digital album sales total 12.080 million (down 10%).

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