Meat's Album Sales
 

Does anyone know how many copies each of Meat's albums have sold?

I know Bat1 has sold around 40m ish and Bat2 around 20m ish. Anyone know about the others, particularly Dead Ringer? Everyone says it was not a success (again, I think, due to marketing, or at least a certain management team) but I am very curious!

Thanks for the assistance!

There is limited info. on this subject. His 'other' albums have all done well certainly in the UK charts but don't appear to have done well enought to get individual merit.

Indeed it might be worth considering that when a Meat Loaf album gets sold it might simply get added to the sales total of a Bat 1 or 2 albums sales totals for ease of administration.

Fireball is the one who may know but I would dare to suggest that in reality for ease of administration the true sales figure for each album isn't really known.

Yeh, sorry but even the people who wrote the 'guiness british hit singles and albums' said that it was almost impossible to put an exact figure on album sales worldwide.

Thats why you see lots of different figures for the amount that Bat has sold, between 15m and 40m. Personally i'm prepared to say it has sold just under 35m, which is outstanding.

I know this much: and you'll freak when you see this:

BAT OUT OF HELL: 40 - 50 million copies
DEAD RINGER: 8 million copies

That's a huge plunge for a follow-up album

I thougth it was like this:

Bat, 35 mio
Dead Ringer, 4 mio
Bad for Good, 1 mio
Midnite, 0,5 mio
Bad, 0,5 mio
Blind ??
Live at Wembley ??
Bat 2, 17 mio
WTTN, 4 mio
Live around the world ??
Best of ??
CHSIB 1,0 mio

Haven't got all the figures ... but here's a few anoraky type facts from the top of my head (yes I know I need to get out more)

Bad Attitude sold something like 4 million according to Meats online chat / interview with USA Today last March.

Deadringer's sales are something in the region of 6 million in Europe and Austrailia and Bat Sold 9 million between '87 and '93 according to reports in VH-1's Behind The Music.

I think most of the figures by Bart sound about right, however I i've never heard an estimation for the sales of Bat between 40-50m. It would be great if it was but I personally doubt it.
I'm sure Bad attitude has gone platinum in the UK so thats over 0.3 million in the UK alone, so 0.5 million does sound a little low. I'd add at least another 0.25m.

40-50 million is made up numbers, it's more like 35-40 million.
I'd have thought Bad Attitude sold around 1 million and Dead Ringer around 5 million.

Pud :twisted:

yeah, id say that sounds about right to me.

Nice one, thanks folks! Isn't it bizarre that no one knows for sure? If you have eg a movie, then the total gross and ticket sales are known pretty accurately. Or at least known. I wonder why this is not the case for music sales?

You can get actual numbers from Neilsen Soundscan (I think that's what it's called) but you have to be an industry insider or subscribe to it.

Pud :twisted:

I thought neilson soundscan was for the USA?

O and I am pretty sure Live around the world sold 200,000 copies.

You are correct, USA and Canada. Not sure what the main one is for Europe

Pud :twisted:

Just seen on The Dream Engine that Dead Ringer sold "in excess" of 8m copies, so I guess 8.5m is realistic. Not bad!

WOW! suprising, I wouldn't thought it sold that much. Then again it was at number #1 for 2 consecutive weeks in the UK and didn't perform badly anywhere else.... If you don't include America.

His best ever singing was done on Dead Ringer.

Everything is Permitted is the best song on the album.

I wonder why America has taken so long to 'get hooked' on Meat and Steinman. Bat1 came in very late in America, with Australia and the UK catching on quickly; Jim Steinman said it was a year later before America caught on. I'll bet America was last in the timing of the sales of any/all of Meat's albums. Makes me wonder about my own country for music tastes and adoptions (other things, too, but that's off-topic).

Funny you should say that - Meat's voice was apparently so f*cked at that time that they had to splice together various takes to make each song. I can see what you mean though - I quite like the rough, gravelly quality his voice has. Although Bat is my preferred album, I probably prefer his 'rough' voice on Dead Ringer to his (allegedly speeded up) softer voice on Bat. Also, I read on the site FAQ (I think) that Meat hates 'Everything is Permitted'. I like it, but it's no 'Read Em And Weep'!

The American market seems to be dominated by country singers/records. Look how many albums Shania Twain's garbage Come On Over has sold in, what, 7 years? It seems that a huge chunk of America's (and hence, the world's) music buying population are country fans, understandable really as that is what a lot of America is! Maybe that explains why Bat hasn't had such an impact in the US?

Whilst agreeing with Space Monkey I know what you are saying. I acually really like his voice in this album and to be honest don't know what alll the fuss is about when people say that his voice was bad.

To my mind, as I have said before, it also features some of Jim and Meat's most beautiful songs - IGLHFBOU is my favourite Meat song of all, followed by REAW and DR, then BOOH and ELTEE.

I just can't get over the difference between Bat and DR. 35-40 compared to 8. That's pretty scary for a follow-up album :|

wHATS WRONG WITH 8?

It's all relative isn't it?

Sales of 8 million for a second album are pretty damn good really ... I'm sure many artists today would jump at the chance of sales figures like that for their second album, however when compared to the phenomenal success of Bat I (30 - 40 million depending on where you read) then 8 million is a paltry figure. I think it's more the case that Bat 1 has the exceptional figures and not Deadringer.

I have a question...

At what amount of sales, is an album considered a success? I thought it was anything over 1 million per country, anyone know for sure?

Back on topic, although 8 million (for DR) is considerablly less than what Bat1 sold, I think 8 mill. is still pretty damn good. :D

J.