Pet Shop Boys - Chart History

[Undertaker]

When all is said and done in a couple of years, I'm sure Yes will eventually get close to the total of fundamental. But sales of pop art and discography are much higher now than in the Fundamental era, and maybe more to come as the tour returns to the uk arenas. So all in all, not bad.

I reckon it's already pretty close. Here is the info for Fundamental ;-


Fundamental | 2006
USA: 167-OUT
Brésil: 15.500
Japon: 25.000
Australie: 25-OUT VENTES: 5.000

EUROPE: 280.000
-United Kingdom: 5-22-47-73-144-OUT-190-OUT-169-176-161-196-OUT VENTES: 100.000
-Allemagne: 4-19-24-38-OUT VENTES: 60.000
-France: 74-105-119-185-OUT VENTES: 10.000
-Italie: 19-OUT VENTES: 15.000
-Espagne: 9-29-46-62-74-OUT
-VENTES: 15.000
-Suède: 6-16-21-32-37-42-OUT VENTES: 10.000
-Suisse: 7-13-32-48-59-83-OUT VENTES: 10.000
-Pays-Bas: 42-55-86-97-97-OUT VENTES: 5.000
-Autriche: 23-30-OUT VENTES: 5.000

Finlande: 9-14-14-21-25-22-OUT
Irlande: 24-64-OUT
Norvège: 23-29-39-OUT
Belgique (Flandres): 43-33-46-70-77-89-OUT
Belgique (Wallone): 34-26-44-67-88-OUT
Danemark: 7-21-23-OUT
World: 18-23-OUT

Worldwide Estimations: 450.000

I still think the 450,000 are units shipped. Album sales won't be that much different for a group like PSB and if you look at the chart runs, 'Yes' has done much better. The German chart being the obvious one. Four weeks for Fundamental and already near on 20 weeks for Yes.

[NJTom]

I think you may well be right, as more sales data comes in, fundamental looks worse and worse, latest estimate:

Pet Shop Boys Fundamental 362000 38915

It seems that sales figures for fundamental were over-estimated a lot, and if these turn out to be true, Yes will easily outsell it.

[Undertaker]

I think you may well be right, as more sales data comes in, fundamental looks worse and worse, latest estimate:

Pet Shop Boys Fundamental 362000 38915

It seems that sales figures for fundamental were over-estimated a lot, and if these turn out to be true, Yes will easily outsell it.

I don't think the sales have been over estimated for Fundamental. The problem is that the figures we get are usually that of units shipped. i.e how many copies have been ordered. It's only natural for everyone to think that the 450,000 is how many copies they have sold, although the actual sales figures wont be far off that because no high street retailer would order millions of PSB records.

I'd say that figure of 362,000 you have posted above, is probably correct.

[NJTom]

Yeah over time this guys model becomes less about estimates and shipments, and more real sales data, hence the number dropping a lot. These days you can get accurate weekly sales just about everywhere that matters, so I would expect the Yes numbers to be a lot more accurate.

I'd say it is probable that Rhino over shipped in the US for Fundamental, given the relative success of Release.

[Ramzy]

Is there not a bit of a problem around chart ineligible record shops, though? A large number of independent shops don't electronically record what you buy when you buy it (Jumbo in Leeds, for instance, which is probably the biggest record shop in the city). I'd have thought that variables such as this mean that the actual 'copies sold' figure would be, if anything, an underestimate. Or is the figure of registered sales (from, e.g., HMV) added to the total number of units shipped to indie stores? Or, in fact, does the 'total number of copies sold' figure obtain its data from a larger number of shops than the British chart placement does? If it were to allow non-electronic sales records, i.e. those generated without the use of barcode scanning, indie shops could be feeding back what they've physically sold with the use of a pencil and a piece of paper.

Does anyone know?

[NJTom]

I'm sorry, I misread the website, he did not adjust fundamental down, that figure above was for end of 2006, he still has ...

Pet Shop Boys Fundamental 584000 60612

which does seem a little optimistic given the sales figures we do know for sure.

[Undertaker]

I'm sorry, I misread the website, he did not adjust fundamental down, that figure above was for end of 2006, he still has ...

Pet Shop Boys Fundamental 584000 60612

which does seem a little optimistic given the sales figures we do know for sure.

That figure is units shipped, i reckon. No way did Fundamental sell 200,000 in 2 years.

[Minimalizm]

It's hardly surprising that Discography still outsells PopArt. I imagine that The Immaculate Collection outsells GHV2 too.

It may be probably due to the title of the albums. Discography boasts to be the "complete singles" album, probably making people not into the Boys or new fans think that this is the ultimate album that one should start with. I don't think new PSB fans would know imperial times/ non-imperial times of Boys.

[NJTom]

You could lop off the entire second half of discography and it probably wouldn't affect sales in the USA. They only buy it for the first six or seven tracks. It still sells well because it consistently sells, and therefore gets re-ordered by the larger music stores and chains, most of which wouldn't even consider stocking a new album.

So expect to see the Discography tour in September. And if they do get a prime time tv appearance, expect It's a Sin, not Love etc.

[XTZ1969]

[whateverman42]

It would be weird if Yes doesn't exceed Fundamental in sales. It had amazing promotion comparatively, and it seems to be nationally considered in Britain as their renaissance; a return to the spotlight. But it would probably speak more about cd's continuing decline than PSB specifically.

[Lucy]

It's hardly surprising that Discography still outsells PopArt. I imagine that The Immaculate Collection outsells GHV2 too.

It may be probably due to the title of the albums. Discography boasts to be the "complete singles" album, probably making people not into the Boys or new fans think that this is the ultimate album that one should start with. I don't think new PSB fans would know imperial times/ non-imperial times of Boys.

Pop Art was the first album I bought by them, dont think I noticed Discography. But I would've chose Pop Art anyway as it has more songs on it.

[Flaffer]

It would be weird if Yes doesn't exceed Fundamental in sales. It had amazing promotion comparatively,

If anything I'd say Fundamental had more promotion. Granted it didn't have the Brits thing going on, but that largely helped Greatest Hits albums. Fundamental had A Life In Pop, Concrete concert and IIRC far more newspaper and magazine coverage. The I'm with stupid stupid Little Britain connection also garnered a lot of coverage.

[Undertaker]

It would be weird if Yes doesn't exceed Fundamental in sales. It had amazing promotion comparatively,

If anything I'd say Fundamental had more promotion. Granted it didn't have the Brits thing going on, but that largely helped Greatest Hits albums. Fundamental had A Life In Pop, Concrete concert and IIRC far more newspaper and magazine coverage. The I'm with stupid stupid Little Britain connection also garnered a lot of coverage.

Agree with that.

The 'Yes' era, with the help of the Brits, has brought us all these concerts at proper Arena's. I doubt anyone would have predicted these last 4 or 5 years.

[whateverman42]

It would be weird if Yes doesn't exceed Fundamental in sales. It had amazing promotion comparatively,

If anything I'd say Fundamental had more promotion. Granted it didn't have the Brits thing going on, but that largely helped Greatest Hits albums. Fundamental had A Life In Pop, Concrete concert and IIRC far more newspaper and magazine coverage. The I'm with stupid stupid Little Britain connection also garnered a lot of coverage.

Sure, well I don't live in Britain so its a bit rough for me to judge the climate anyways. But it seemed the Brits was as big as it got for new album exposure to me (it was aired repeatedly in Canada even). Plus the free cd in the paper, and the Xenomania/Girls Aloud connection. And ultimately the overall sound was fresh and in the moment compared to a darker Fundamental, aping the sombre Behaviour to poptastic Very years before. It seemed Fundamental was a necessary step to widespread exposure for their next album. Such as Brandon Flowers more publicly praising their influence, Lady Gaga, the exuberance of the Brits hosts; it had very much a 'we forgot about PSB! How silly of us!' feel, even if there were more album reviews in 2006. But again, that's an outsiders perspective. I know where I live when I meet new people more seem aware of who Pet Shop Boys are, compared to 5 years ago when I, nor many others, had heard of them.