Bee Gees’ Album Sales Jump 339% Following Robin Gibb’s Death
Billboard‘s new Top 200 album chart shows the first full effects of sales of Bee Gees LPs following the death of member Robin Gibb on May 20. (Gibb passed away on a Sunday, which is the day Billboard uses as the cut-off for weekly chart data.) The publication noted yesterday that the Bee Gees sold 27,000 albums in the past week, which is a 339% leap from the 6,000 the trio moved the seven days prior.
The band’s top sellers proved to be 2009 compilation The Ultimate Bee Gees, which re-enters the Top 200 at #49 this week on the strength of 9,000 copies sold, 2004 hits set Number Ones, back in at #70 (7,000), and the 1977 soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever (#168, 3,000), which features the Gibb brothers’ classics “Stayin’ Alive”, “More Than A Woman”, “Night Fever” and “How Deep Is Your Love”.
And speaking of “Stayin’ Alive” and “How Deep Is Your Love”, those two tracks proved to be the top-selling digital tunes by the Bee Gees over the past week. In fact, the band posted a higher jump in sales for individual songs — 379% (a total of 102,000 downloads) — than albums.
Earlier this week it was reported that Robin Gibb will be laid to rest in June during a private service near his home in Thame, Oxfordshire, in England. Following that, the singer will be honored with a public memorial at St Paul’s Cathedral in London in September.