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Those three albums haven't been certified gold-and probably never will.
Total cumulative sales are : Ticket To Ride- Approximately 400,000
Passage -Approximately 450,000
Made In America- Approximately 500,000
Your statement doesn't make sense-can you elaborate?And people complain that Karen's solo album hasn't sold all that well, when these efforts were released to the masses two decades or more earlier!
Your statement doesn't make sense-can you elaborate?
We don't want to turn this into a discussion on Karen's solo album,but Karen's album sold less than 100,000 in the US and went out-of-print less than ten years after its release.Sure . What I mean is that the solo album was shelved as the label didn't believe it would be a success, but albums like Passage and Made In America were deemed fit for release and have been out there for far longer, yet haven't really achieved that much more in terms of sales (relatively speaking) than the solo album.
I don't mean for this thread to be another 'KC solo LP' discussion. It just struck me reading the above sales figures that if what I'm led to believe is true, Karen's album has sold in the region of a couple of hundred thousand copies in less than half the time that these albums have been in the public domain. That's not bad going for an album deemed unworthy of release, compared to the performance of Carpenters albums that were released around the same time as it was recorded.
I appreciate the reference to U.S. sales, but that still doesn't nail it down. We all know that the Carpenters' worldwide audience was different animal than their U.S. audience, and it was international sales that bolstered their albums, some of which didn't do so well in the U.S. So it's reasonable to assume that Karen's solo album potentially sold very well in the international market. But that's the problem. We're going by assumptions, and it would be really, really nice if this could be verified objectively.We don't want to turn this into a discussion on Karen's solo album,but Karen's album sold less than 100,000 in the US and went out-of-print less than ten years after its release.
The discussion on this thread is about US sales.We don't generally talk about international sales because there is no way to accurately verify sales from every international market-and it would be a daunting task to even try.I appreciate the reference to U.S. sales, but that still doesn't nail it down. We all know that the Carpenters' worldwide audience was different animal than their U.S. audience, and it was international sales that bolstered their albums, some of which didn't do so well in the U.S. So it's reasonable to assume that Karen's solo album potentially sold very well in the international market. But that's the problem. We're going by assumptions, and it would be really, really nice if this could be verified objectively.
GARY-you tend to get a little melodramatic with your posts,and it would help if you paid more attention to the factual information being offered.Many of your questions would be answered by simply L I S T E N I N G.As we all know, "Offering" had initial sales of 18,000 copies (Coleman) and was
later re-packaged as "Ticket To Ride", wherein sales reached roughly 230,000 copies.
(I have to dig up the reference for that last sales figure, an interview, I believe.)
Unfortunately, I am unable to locate any current sales figures pertaining to the trilogy .
Given the initial impetus to 'dump' Carpenters from A&M's artist roster, after the dismal sales of that first album,
obviously the view that "every Carpenters' album did well in the USA" is a slight exaggeration.
Seems as if Richard Carpenter would be overjoyed if he ever attains a Gold Record Award for his first conceived musical album.
(And, if that album was "inconsequential", why go to the expense of reissuing the material, anyway?)
Too many other issues (besides the music) go into this mystery of sales figures:
the promotional interviews Richard Carpenter did for "Voice of The Heart" (even then, its sales only did moderately well)
the overall sales increase after the airing of the CBS Movie (which did not help sales of Richard Carpenter's "Time")
an increase in sales due to the Tribute Album which, accounted for subsequent release of Karen's solo album (Schmidt, The Reader).
Always, more questions than answers.
Where did you get the idea that the overall success of an album is affected by International sales? If a US album sells well in the US,then it is a successful album-regardless of how well it sold Internationally.K&R were American recording artists,and we live in the US-what's going on with International record sales is just an afterthought.But the overall success of an album IS affected by international sales. That's why it would be interesting to know. I'm sure there's a way. We just need to figure out how to do it.
You may believe that international sales are an "afterthought" Mr. J., but there were at least two people who didn't share your opinion... Richard and Karen Carpenter! If they weren't concerned with international sales, then why did they tour and do promotions in Japan, the UK, continental Europe, Canada, Australia, Brazil...? International sales meant money in their pockets, and after all, they were in the music "business". Oh, and I doubt that R&K ever considered their foreign fans an afterthought either.Where did you get the idea that the overall success of an album is affected by International sales? If a US album sells well in the US,then it is a successful album-regardless of how well it sold Internationally.K&R were American recording artists,and we live in the US-what's going on with International record sales is just an afterthought.
The discussion on this thread is about US sales.We don't generally talk about international sales because there is no way to accurately verify sales from every international market-and it would be a daunting task to even try.
Every Carpenters albums did well in the US-and what was happening with International sales had absolutely no effect on K&R's US market.
Where did you get the idea that the overall success of an album is affected by International sales? If a US album sells well in the US,then it is a successful album-regardless of how well it sold Internationally.K&R were American recording artists,and we live in the US-what's going on with International record sales is just an afterthought.