Lucky 'Sevens' holds at No. 1
Brooks brings latest good news to resurgent music biz
It was the second-longest run atop the nation's album sales charts for 1997, behind No Doubt's "Tragic Kingdom," which spent six consecutive weeks at No. 1 during the calendar year.
More than 683,000 copies of Brooks' Capitol Nashville disc were sold during the period, compared with the previous week's seven-day tally of 678,000 copies, according to sales data released Wednesday. The disc's tally is nearly 4 million units in just five weeks on sale.
The healthy sales action of Brooks' disc is indicative of the brisk pace sustained throughout the record indus-try in 1997, which resulted in the industry growing 6% over 1996, signaling the end to two years of relatively flat sales.
More than 651.9 million albums were sold as of Dec. 28, compared with the 616.6 million disc tally logged through Dec. 30, 1996.
Good bump
"Considering last year's growth was less than half a percent, 6% is a significant increase," said Mike Shal-lett, CEO of SoundScan.
Industry insiders credited the diversity of the albums available during the year, and the high number of big-selling discs, which helped drive consumers into stores, where they frequently made additional purchases.
Volume for the seven-day period was up 17% from the same week in 1996. More than 34 million album units were sold in the time frame, compared with the 29 million tally registered during the comparable period in 1996.
The previous week's 31.5 million unit tally -- logged during one of the year's biggest shopping weeks -- was also bested.
The top 10 list changed little for the week ended Dec. 28 from the previous survey period.
Many industry insiders are expecting the Christmas glow to continue to drive sales in the first quarter of 1998. Many congloms have big-gun releases set to bow in the next few months.
As expected, WEA closed the year as the leading distributor among the Big Six music congloms with a healthy market share of 18.86%.
The tally, which included current albums and catalog, was more than five percentage points above Sony's 13.69%. Polygram checked in at 13.04%, EMI's EMD arm was at 12.55%, Universal hit 12.13% and BMG was at 11.8%.
When catalog is removed from the equation, WEA earned a 17.62% share; BMG nabbed 14.21%, EMD and Sony logged 13.68% and 13.04%, respectively; and Polygram registered an 11.88% current album market share.
Sony posts place numbers
Sony Music closed the year in the place post of weekly current album market share, with three of the industry's top 10 albums.
Sony's 16.87% share was less than a point behind WEA's 17.45% and ahead of BMG's 14.58% and EMD's 14.15% for the seven-day period ended Dec. 28.
Polygram and Universal rounded out the list of Big Six congloms with 12.67% and 12.28%, respectively. Indie distribs owned 12.01% of the market share for the week, according to SoundScan.
The Atlantic Records Group led the market share charge for the year among labels with 8.16% of albums sold through Dec. 28. The group houses the Atlantic, Rhino and Curb labels, among others.
Mercury Records Group, which counts Mercury, Motown and Def Jam in the tally, landed at No. 2 with its 6.91% share. It was followed by Columbia's 6.77% and Warner Bros. Records' 6.37%.
Epic Records Group (Epic, 550 and Work Group) logged a 5.76% tally and MCA Records checked in at 5.18%. Arista Records, which has LaFace and Bad Boy in its portfolio, logged a 4.99% share.
Building on 'Love'
On the weekly sales chart action, Celine Dion's "Let's Talk About Love" logged its fourth consecutive week at No. 2 and the third week in a row that sales registered an uptick from the previous week. More than 623,000 discs went home with fans, a 50,000-unit boost from the last listing.
The 550/Epic Records disc posted sales of more than 221,000 copies over conglom mate Barbra Streisand's Columbia Records disc "Higher Ground," which racked up 402,000 units in sales, and remained at No. 3 for the fourth week in a row.
The seemingly ubiquitous LeAnn Rimes -- with a network telefilm showing and reruns of her Disney Channel spec among her numerous appearances -- saw the tallies of her "You Light Up My Life" disc top 367,000 copies. It earned the Curb Records offering the chart's No. 4 spot.
Chumbawamba's "Tubthumper" remained steady at No. 5 for the second week on sales of 361,000 copies. The Universal Records act joined Streisand and the Spice Girls as the owners of the only three albums in the top 10 to post smaller totals than the previous week.
At No. 6 for the second week was Shania Twain's Mercury Records offering "Come on Over." The disc went home with more than 316,000 devotees, which was a slight increase over the previous week's 285,000 tally.
'Butterfly' floats
Metallica's Elektra Records disc "Re-Load" and Mariah Carey's Columbia Records disc "Butterfly" each rose two notches to land at No. 7 and No. 8, respectively.
The two-disc movement pushed the Spice Girls to No. 9 and allowed the entry of Mase into the No. 10 spot. Hanson's three consecutive weeks in the top 10 with its disc of holiday music also ended.
Nearly 286,000 copies of "Re-Load" were sold, topping Carey's 282,000-unit tally.
More than 274,000 copies of "SpiceWorld" were sold during the survey period, representing a 9,000-unit fall from the previous week. But the sales were sufficient to put the disc at 1.4 million copies sold in eight weeks of release.
Other notable chart displays included a pair of Will Smith vehicles posting sizable increases and the soundtrack to the Paramount/Fox film "Titanic" jumping 41 spots.
Smith's Columbia Records disc "Big Willie Style" jumped four posts to No. 20 on sales of 202,000 units, while the soundtrack to "Men in Black" rose five notches to No. 21 on sales of 148,000 copies. Both discs were aided by the numerous ads touting the homevid availability of the pic.
The "Titanic" disc, from Sony Classics, logged 122,000 copies sold during the survey period. Dion's disc also boasts the pic's theme song.
Best Spice is revenge
Perhaps proving that there's no such thing as bad publicity, the oft-maligned Spice Girls can lay claim to owning the bestselling album of 1997.
The U.K. group's Virgin Records bow "Spice" led the list of bestselling albums of 1997, as more than 5.3 million copies of the album were sold during the year. Jewel's Atlantic Records debut "Pieces of You" was No. 2 with 4.3 million copies sold through to consumers.
At No. 3 for the year as a whole was Puff Daddy's Bad Boy/Arista Records debut "No Way Out," which sold more than 3.4 million units during the calendar year.
Brooks' "Sevens" checked in at No. 4 with 3.39 million units being grabbed by fans. Had the singer's disc bowed in August as originally planned, it easily could have been the year's bestseller, presuming the pace established after its Nov. 25 bow were sustained to the end of the year.
Teen trio Hanson owned the No. 5 spot, as its "Middle of Nowhere" bow from Mercury went home with 3.2 million fans.
Notorious B.I.G.'s "Life After Death" album -- which was purchased by more than 3.15 million fans -- closed the year at No. 6 and was the second-biggest-selling rap album of the year.
"Bringing Down the Horse," the Interscope Records disc from newcomers the Wallflowers, was the seventh-bestselling disc of 1997 with 3.1 million copies sold.
Dion's Columbia Records disc "Falling Into You" checked in at No. 8 on sales of 3 million copies and the Warner Bros. soundtrack to "Space Jam" was No. 9 on sales of 2.99 million units.
Rimes closed the top 10 list with her Curb Records disc "You Light Up My Life" logging 2.97 million in sales for the year.
