“Abbey Road” Tops The Beatles’ Chart

noah | September 16, 2009 11:00 am

First-week sales figures for the just-released Beatles remasters are in, and while none of the individual records broke the six-figure sales mark—the closest to come to that point was Abbey Road, which moved 89,000 copies last week—the total number of albums sold by the Fab Four numbered 626,000. . The Beatles’ full first-week sales tally after the jump. Abbey Road (89,000) Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (74,000) The White Album (60,000) Rubber Soul (58,000) Revolver (46,000) Help! (39,000) Let It Be (32,000) Past Masters Vols. I and II (31,000) Magical Mystery Tour (30,000) A Hard Day’s Night (29,000), The Beatles in Stereo (26,000) Please Please Me (23,000) With the Beatles (22,000) Beatles For Sale (21,000) Yellow Submarine (14,000) The Beatles in Mono (12,000) I asked my Beatles-aficionado pal (and Idolator’s The Beatles: Rock Band reviewer) Dan Rivkin why Abbey Road came in as No. 1, and he had this to say:

I wasn’t surprised. You have in that album the two most memorable George Harrison songs [“Here Comes The Sun” and “Something”]. You have one of the great John Lennon-penned songs in ‘Come Together,’ which starts off the album and which has also been used in the The Beatles: Rock Band ads. You have Paul at his most—I don’t know if ‘creative’ is the right word, but he has the whole side-two medley. You have an iconic image on the cover. You have them hitting on all cylinders and being their most different. Revolver may be just as good an album—you can’t quantify these things with the Beatles, they’re all classics—but they’re all clean-shaven, short haircut. You look at Abbey Road and you see these four dynamic personalities creating iconic songs. I think that The White Album would give it something of a run for its money as far as creative output—it sprawls every kind of music, from experimental to country to pop to blues—and Abbey Road also covers a lot of ground, but it’s six bucks cheaper. Also, there were a couple of albums that weren’t in the mono box. Abbey Road was one of them. I have the mono box so I’m probably going to buy Abbey Road. If you’re hardcore enough to buy the mono box, you’ll probably buy Abbey Road too. It may even come down to something old-fashioned: Abbey Road just sounds like rock and roll. They’re all enduring rock songs that don’t date themselves with specific instrumentation, or a sound.

It’s also worth noting that the mono box sold out its first pressing, and there are more coming soon. It’ll still be available in “limited” quantities, though. Beatles, Jay-Z Dominate Billboard Charts [Billboard]

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