Marvin's 'What's Going On' album officially gets 'Platinum disc' status in UK

[alanh]

Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' has just officially been awarded - along with a number of other classic albums - a 'Platinum' disc in the UK for sales of over 300,000 since 1994.

It's a strange situation and follows the way the BPI [[which represents the UK's recorded music industry) allocates sales awards. The albums had all previously received no sales certifications because they were originally released prior to 1973 when the BPI introduced platinum, gold and silver awards. Although they had sold enough copies to be officially recognised, under previous rules it was down to the record company to contact the BPI and request a sales award. However, this changed last month when they decided to automatically recognise the sales of an album as soon as it hit the right quantity, according to Official Charts Company data.

The automatic allocation of awards is only for sales going back as far as 1994, the year the Official Charts Company started. Albums released before then are now only being acknowledged for how many copies they have sold since 1994 rather than in total.

The new awards for platinum and gold also include all the Beatle albums, the Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds', a couple by the Stones, Dylan and others.

It makes me wonder:
a) why an overall tally of sales aren't kept anyway
b) why record companies never bothered to claim the awards
c) the total 'What's Going On' has sold in the UK since 1971

[roger]

I don't think that the "What's Going On" L.P. ever made the U.K. L.P. charts back in 1971/2 [[lack of airplay and it was a bit too "progressive" for most Soul-Music fans at the time) although it was a steady seller for years. And it seems it still sells steadily in the C.D. era.

I would imagine that E.M.I. kept sales records of the STML release and that they are available somewhere, but I can't find anything on the net about this.

Roger

[florence]

I've heard it said that Marvin's What's Going On LP has sold the 1m in the UK.

The problem is that prior to 1994 sales were based on a small sample of the market although the chart panel shops were carefully researched and chosen as representative so any certifications had to be made by the record company based on shipments. Unlike the US these could be claimed as soon as the required level had been reached and no allowance was made for any returns so that it was possible a record had not actually sold the required level cross counter.

When Gallup lost the chart franchise in 1993 they took all their old data with them so the OCC has no access to it and before that the BMRB did not take any record for Christmas week which was the biggest selling week of the year when massive amounts could be shifted.

After 1994 with the introduction of EPOS there is more or less full access to the market and the records will have actually sold the number of copies required for the level of cetification.

There are many cases where companies have not bothered to claim a certification for an award - who knows why?

For example Abba whose company always claimed the awards for some strange reason never even bothered to claim sliver let alone gold for The Winner Takes It All single which has sold over 500k.

Similarly no silver discs were ever claimed for The Supremes' Stoned Love, Diana and Lionel's Endless Love and Diana's Why Do Fools Fall In Love which all sold over 300k. On the other hand, Diana's My Old Piano single received a silver disc on 250k copies shipped and while it has sold over 200k was a good bit short of the 250k in cross counter sales.

You would think that the companies would have back records - wouldn't they have to pay royalties to the song artists but then maybe these have gone astray over the years as is supposed to have happened with Motown in the US.

Maybe if a record is in the charts it looks good from a PR viewpoint to have the certification symbol beside it so if the record isn't charting they decided to ignore it.

What it does show is that LPs can quietly sell substantial numbers over the years without troubling the charts. Not so much singles though.

Diana Ross has received 3 awards.

Silver for The Voice Of Love album a compilation released in 1996 which only reached #42 in the charts but has sold around 85k to date.

Gold for DRATS 40 Golden Motown Greats which made #35 but is 100k+.

The most interesting certification is for an album released by Spectrum and called You Keep Me Hanging On by Diana & The Supes which was a collection of singles plus B sides and a few odd songs. I'm sure many won't even have heard of this. I believe it was also released in the US.

This has been certified silver but as it is a budget release the lower catalogue price means that to qualify for the award it has had to sell 120k+. While this may seem small fry to many in the US it is a very respectable total in the UK.

Apparently the OCC is looking in to how it might be able to combine pre-1994 sales with those post then [[I presume this could only be with figures from the record companies) which be a mammoth step forward but I would surely take some time to organise.

[alanh]

Fascinating reply Florence, thank you! You're obviously a lady 'in the know'. You're right about the fact that albums can quietly sell over the years. Going back to 'What's Going On' we all know that it wasn't a major commercial success in the UK when it was first released. It wasn't until 1999 that it even reached the charts, but then only peaking at 56. I suspect that chart entry plus the recent years nominations of 'What's Going On' as being one of the 'best albums of all time' by critics and in magazines helped the platinum sales of 300,000 since 1994.

It's also interesting that even though 'What's Going On' never charted on initial release, it obviously helped build the 'buzz' because 'Let's Get It On' entered on release reaching 39 and then 'I Want You' got to 22 and even 'In Our Lifetime' reached 48. In hindsight I'm amazed [[and pleased) at the success of 'I Want You'. It would be interesting to know the sales figures for them too - although I suspect the accrued long term sales of 'What's Going On' are higher.