That album sold that little?

[Chip Z'Hoy]

Kiss - Hot in the Shade

At the time, I thought this was a huge album. I would've guessed multi-platinum, based on how much "Forever" was played on MTV.

They had Slaughter and Winger opening when they played my hometown, both really big bands in 1990.

It went gold! That's it. And it went gold BEFORE "Forever" was a single. Somehow it got tons of play on MTV and it still didn't carry them to platinum.

For perspective, Passion and Warfare sold 850K. Saleswise, Kiss was neck-and-neck with a Steve Vai instrumental album.

[Sleek]

I would bet the Ramones sold more t-shirts than albums!

Two of their albums went gold at least...the KINGS of high t-shirt sales-to-no-album-sales have to be these guys:

[EuroJR]

Painkiller is mostly shit. It’s a parody of Judas Priest, they’re being so over the top heavy it’s just silly. There’s no nuance it’s just screaming and that horrible constant double kick from Scott “I have no groove” Travis. Horrible.

Hammer and the Anvil is okay and Touch of Evil (which sounds nothing like anything else on the album) are the only good songs.

Sadly they’ve done nothing but try to replicate Painkiller for the last thirty-five years. Why don’t they try to replicate Screaming For Vengeance? It sold four times what Painkiller did. Halford is so stuck in the groove it’s not funny. The same guy sang Chains and You Got Another Thing Coming and Angel and Desert Plains, he’s really good when he’s not screaming. There’s no screaming on the classic albums, he’s actually singing.

It’s not Cookie Monster it’s like a high pitched whiny Cookie Monster, what would you describe that as? Heavy Metal Elmo or something.

All Guns Blazing intro is nails on chalkboard stuff.

THIS!!!!

JP with Travis = not my JP
Screaming For Vengeance is their best album. Defenders being 2nd. Even Turbo and Ram had the moments but the over-the-top-priest is not for me.

[Van Ailin']

That song, "Look Away", along with "The Flame", were then offered to Cheap Trick, who were told they got first pick of the two, and which ever one they didn't pick would go to the band Chicago.

Both are bad songs. As is "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing."

[Van Ailin']

I would bet the Ramones sold more t-shirts than albums!

Two of their albums went gold at least...the KINGS of high t-shirt sales-to-no-album-sales have to be these guys:

The Che Guevara of rock.

[Mister Freeze]

I remember thinking Bon Jovi's Keep The Faith was a triple-platinum album. Sure, it was a tough time for the genre, but they were coming off two huge albums and still toughed it out with some hit songs.

But looking back on the discography, nope. It sold 1.5 million, certified double-platinum.

[dweezil]

Duran Duran.
A lot of hit singles and mtv favourites in the early and mid 80s, but their biggest selling albums are not huge sellers like i would expect.
I guess their albums didn't really have staying power and were not big sellers in the years after they were released. I guess there are only so many teenage girls to buy your product. See also KISS in the 70s but replace teenage girls with teenage boys.

Duran Duran is the picture perfect definition of a singles band.
Their albums are a slog to get through, but the singles are A grade pop masterpieces. Even now, while they don't hit the singles charts anymore, every album has at least 3 great pop songs on them.

I remember thinking Bon Jovi's Keep The Faith was a triple-platinum album. Sure, it was a tough time for the genre, but they were coming off two huge albums and still toughed it out with some hit songs.
But looking back on the discography, nope. It sold 1.5 million, certified double-platinum.

I remember Keep The Faith initially being touted as a "big comeback" record. Big MTV and press coverage. The "Keep The Faith" single was only a moderate hit, and "In Your Arms" didn't do any better.
The "Bed Of Roses" single saved that record from being a total flop. The power ballads are the only thing that kept Bon Jovi relevant as the 90s went on.
There's a reason they only released 2 records in the 90s.
Then again, that was the beginning of JBJ's mindset of "I need to be taken very seriously" and obsessing over writing the best Springsteen song that Springsteen hadn't written yet.

That album was the turning point where the rest of the world took more notice than the US.

[Love_Industry]

The Prisoners in Paradise story is a funny one. After Out of This World, the band went into the studio to record a follow up.

The band was offered a Dianne Warren song for the album, but they refused to use outside writers.

That song, "Look Away", along with "The Flame", were then offered to Cheap Trick, who were told they got first pick of the two, and which ever one they didn't pick would go to the band Chicago.

They chose "The Flame", Chicago get's" Look Away".

BOTH songs end up at #1 on the US Billboard charts.

Europe's "we don't need outside writers" album (Seventh Sign)? It got REJECTED by the label!

Your timeline is a bit off. Europe were offered "Look Away" for Out of this World, not Prisoners in Paradise. Ron Nevison brought the song and he also produced the Chicago album it was on.

Chicago got to #1 with it in December 1988. Two years before Europe started working on Prisoners.

[HoldenSSV]

Autograph's Sign In Please only went gold. It's a good hard rock album that I guessed would have squeezed out a platinum distinction.

Turn Up The Radio was a hit, they toured with Van Halen, and songs were used in movies.

[Tenacious_Dio]

As great as it is, the first Montrose album kinda flopped on release.

It eventually went platinum, but that didn't happen until after Sammy joined VH - 13 years later.

[Anthrax442]

As great as it is, the first Montrose album kinda flopped on release.

It eventually went platinum, but that didn't happen until after Sammy joined VH - 13 years later.

That's a good one. I dunno if I ever heard Montrose on terrestrial radio in the 80s and 90s, but started hearing a few of those songs on Sirius after that, but makes total sense they might have some sales by association.

[DonJuanDeMarco]

I remember thinking Bon Jovi's Keep The Faith was a triple-platinum album. Sure, it was a tough time for the genre, but they were coming off two huge albums and still toughed it out with some hit songs.

But looking back on the discography, nope. It sold 1.5 million, certified double-platinum.

Did Bon Jovi really sell 100 million records? 130 million now? Looking at Wiki it doesn't even come close. 'Platinum" in other countries is not 1 million.

Like for example, Platinum in Finland is only 20,000 copies. Australia is 70,000.

This happened once when Sebastian Bach said he sold 24 million records and CEO called him out on that saying he may have 24 "platinum" records but did not sell 24 million. Is that the case with Bon Jovi too?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Jovi_discography

[Ziggy Sawdust]

Bowie’s albums

[TREVERLAST]

Europe - Prisoners in Paradise. After two multiplatinum albums and still on the same major, this album didn't even chart in the US. And there was no demand for a tour.

Judas Priest - Painkller. Ram It Down went gold and was considered a bomb. Painkiller is now hailed as one of their classics, but didn't sell much more than RID at the time and is still only gold.

Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid. Was shocked when I found out here what a bomb that was. At the time it seemed bigger with the first two singles on MTV and well attended arena shows.

Crazy to me that Trash only went Platinum. Hey Stoopid didn't even go Gold

[Rocker4Real]

It's usually bands that were played a lot on MTV that people think were bigger than they were. King's X and Babylon AD never went Gold and many assume they did.

[sunshinehead]

I listened to Lords Of The New Church earlier, they should have sold a bazillion records.

[Anthrax442]

It's usually bands that were played a lot on MTV that people think were bigger than they were. King's X and Babylon AD never went Gold and many assume they did.

King's X not having at least one gold record is a bit baffling, but it makes sense. Faith Hope Love broke the band, but it was the only song on the album that did anything, and then Black Flag from S/T did nothing except get made fun of on Beavis and Butthead.

I would have thought Dogman and their appearance at Woodstock 94 would have pushed them over the edge, but they just couldn't quite get there, and the ship had sailed by the time Ear Candy came out.

[Wiseacre]

Screaming For Vengeance is their best album. Defenders being 2nd. Even Turbo and Ram had the moments but the over-the-top-priest is not for me.

Top 3:

Sad Wings
Stained Class
SFV

Defenders is great, but not #2, c’mon. It’s got 2-3 excellent songs…Freewheel Burning, Sentinel and Jawbreaker. Great solos on that album though. Even KK upped his game considerably. I’ll call it one of their best guitar albums.

Hot take: British Steel kinda sucks. Zero amazing Rob vocals, boring drums and mostly elementary solos. Yes, they were trying to be AC/DC, but they aren’t AC/DC so that’s just dumb. I saw the tour when they played the whole thing and it really dawned on me how little “Priest” is actually on that album. The 2 “popular” songs are about as boring as Rock and Roll All Nite compared to their catalog. “The Rage” is the best song on that one. Why did they never go after Crue for stealing “You Don’t Have To Be Old…”?

[Rocker4Real]

It's usually bands that were played a lot on MTV that people think were bigger than they were. King's X and Babylon AD never went Gold and many assume they did.

King's X not having at least one gold record is a bit baffling, but it makes sense. Faith Hope Love broke the band, but it was the only song on the album that did anything, and then Black Flag from S/T did nothing except get made fun of on Beavis and Butthead.

I would have thought Dogman and their appearance at Woodstock 94 would have pushed them over the edge, but they just couldn't quite get there, and the ship had sailed by the time Ear Candy came out.

That's what made Warner Music Group give up on King's X. The album sales after Woodstock didn't increase even in the New York area.

[EuroJR]

Hot take: British Steel kinda sucks. Zero amazing Rob vocals, boring drums and mostly elementary solos. Yes, they were trying to be AC/DC, but they aren’t AC/DC so that’s just dumb. I saw the tour when they played the whole thing and it really dawned on me how little “Priest” is actually on that album. The 2 “popular” songs are about as boring as Rock and Roll All Nite compared to their catalog. “The Rage” is the best song on that one. Why did they never go after Crue for stealing “You Don’t Have To Be Old…”?

Good album that hasn't stood the time.
The videos are un-watchable nowdays.

The best song is obviously Metal Gods (you must have forgotten how good this is)

[Wiseacre]

Hot take: British Steel kinda sucks. Zero amazing Rob vocals, boring drums and mostly elementary solos. Yes, they were trying to be AC/DC, but they aren’t AC/DC so that’s just dumb. I saw the tour when they played the whole thing and it really dawned on me how little “Priest” is actually on that album. The 2 “popular” songs are about as boring as Rock and Roll All Nite compared to their catalog. “The Rage” is the best song on that one. Why did they never go after Crue for stealing “You Don’t Have To Be Old…”?

Good album that hasn't stood the time.
The videos are un-watchable nowdays.

The best song is obviously Metal Gods (you must have forgotten how good this is)

Always better live. I wish Rob had done the melody like the live version. The chorus on the album just lies there. I never like the album much. I didn’t know that band until SFV, but then going backwards, it always seemed pretty one-dimensional compared to their other stuff.

[Love_Industry]

Hot take: British Steel kinda sucks. Zero amazing Rob vocals, boring drums and mostly elementary solos.

Hot take indeed. I get where that's coming from, BS isn't the band that gave us SWOD and SC but I still love it. Maybe because a tape of BS nd PoE was what got me into Priest and metal in general. Sure, the singles are overplayed and like Kiss songs but... they're still good.

Defenders blew me away when I first heard it but it hasn’t held up. I still like it but it doesn't make their top 5 anymore. I even know a couple of Priest fans who hate Defenders and think it's like Ram It Down.

[Love_Industry]

Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid. Was shocked when I found out here what a bomb that was. At the time it seemed bigger with the first two singles on MTV and well attended arena shows.

Crazy to me that Trash only went Platinum. Hey Stoopid didn't even go Gold

Trash fits the subject too. Only Platinum and at the time it seemed it was Leppard / Jovi / Dr Feelgood huge. Coop really was everywhere and cool in 89-91.

EEAS and Skyscraper are also platinum only and seemed huge at the time, certainly bigger than the Dio or Kiss albums going platinum around the same time. Maybe they weren't recertified, or they stopped selling after an initial peak?

[ijwthstd]

Europe - Prisoners in Paradise. After two multiplatinum albums and still on the same major, this album didn't even chart in the US. And there was no demand for a tour.

Judas Priest - Painkller. Ram It Down went gold and was considered a bomb. Painkiller is now hailed as one of their classics, but didn't sell much more than RID at the time and is still only gold.

Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid. Was shocked when I found out here what a bomb that was. At the time it seemed bigger with the first two singles on MTV and well attended arena shows.

You must be in Europe because the tour here was considered the biggest flop of 1991

[ParaDime77]

I created a thread about Slaughter “Stick It To Ya” a while back. Selling only 2 million off of the huge MTV push absolutely baffles me. In my mind it should have been 2-3 times that number.

[War_in_D]

I created a thread about Slaughter “Stick It To Ya” a while back. Selling only 2 million off of the huge MTV push absolutely baffles me. In my mind it should have been 2-3 times that number.

Three million would have been a fair number.

Come 1990-1990, were any hair metal type bands doing Bon Jovi and Def Leppard numbers like they had in 1987-1989?

[Tenacious_Dio]

Hot take: British Steel kinda sucks. Zero amazing Rob vocals, boring drums and mostly elementary solos. Yes, they were trying to be AC/DC, but they aren’t AC/DC so that’s just dumb. I saw the tour when they played the whole thing and it really dawned on me how little “Priest” is actually on that album.

British Steel is the album Saxon always wanted to make.

[pieceofme]

I created a thread about Slaughter “Stick It To Ya” a while back. Selling only 2 million off of the huge MTV push absolutely baffles me. In my mind it should have been 2-3 times that number.

As I recall you're the only one who really thought that. Or certainly to that extent.

6 million for a Slaughter album. With that singer! Damn. I'm impressed they got 2 million. And I like Slaughter!

[Love_Industry]

Judas Priest - Painkller. Ram It Down went gold and was considered a bomb. Painkiller is now hailed as one of their classics, but didn't sell much more than RID at the time and is still only gold.

Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid. Was shocked when I found out here what a bomb that was. At the time it seemed bigger with the first two singles on MTV and well attended arena shows.

You must be in Europe because the tour here was considered the biggest flop of 1991

I am in Europe, and forgot that Priest and Coop did Operation Rock'n'Roll to milk those albums to the max and that bombed. That never made it here but I saw both early on their own arena tours.

[Mister Freeze]

EEAS and Skyscraper are also platinum only and seemed huge at the time, certainly bigger than the Dio or Kiss albums going platinum around the same time. Maybe they weren't recertified, or they stopped selling after an initial peak?

EEAS is the best answer on this thread. Top 5. Peak Dave coming off peak Van Halen and in the middle of a cultural icon moment. Went top-5 and it was the follow-up to "California Girls" and "Just a Gigolo," which were EVERYWHERE (and that album/EP "only" went platinum too).

Seems weird that it's certified at the same level as a random Ratt album like Reach For the Sky.