Monkees Albums See Sales Gain of 1265%

[jobeterob]

Following the death of the Monkees' Davy Jones on Feb. 29, the pop group returns to the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time since 2003.

"The Best of the Monkees" re-enters at No. 20 with 17,000 [[up 7,808% according to Nielsen SoundScan) while "Flashback With the Monkees" debuts at No. 125 with 5,000 [[a gain of 252%). They were last seen on the Billboard 200 on June 21, 2003, when "The Best of the Monkees" wrapped a then-five week run.



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Collectively, the group's albums sold 29,000 in the week ending March 4 -- a gain of 1,265% over the 2,000 copies sold the previous week. In terms of digital track sales, the act's best seller this week is "Daydream Believer," which shifts 39,000 [[up 5,346%) and debuts at No. 49 on Digital Songs.

The Monkees' overall track sales grew by 3,750% -- moving from 4,000 sold in the week that ended Feb. 26 to 140,000 this past week. In all of 2011, the band sold 174,000 tracks and 96,000 albums.

[stephanie]

Interesting you should post this I was wondering if there would be a surge in sales for them. About 7 years ago I talked to the customer service manager for Rhino Records on the phone and I asked him out of all of the new releases and compilations that come out which ones do the best? He said to be me "Believe it or not the Monkees, everytime we do something on them it sells out and we dont have to worry about being overstocked they have one of the most loyal fan bases I have ever seen." I thought about us Motown people who buy unreleased material when I heard his statement.

I think what helps the Monkees is the fact that not only were they popular in the sixties but then the show was run again on MTV in 1986 and I bet that the powers that be didnt expect the loyal response they got. They begged Micky, Peter and Davy to do a tour again and those were sellouts [[I went to one of them and they were great!) They just did another successful reunion tour last year but for reasons they will not reveal it was cut off in the middle. When the Monkees show was shown again on MTV and did very well I knew then that the kids want nostalgia. I am hoping that they will continue to sell more records because what they offered was pure innnocent fun. Boyce and Hart, Carole King, Neil Diamond, Harry Nillson and all of the other songwriters who contributed to their catalog have a lot to be proud of. RIP Davy!