All the chart trade mags had periods of payola buying chart positions. For example when Cashbox was having major financial difficulties a few years before it shuttered Wayne Newton or Curb bought him a number one pop single with a cover of the Box Tops The Letter which didn't chart or bubble under on the Billboard Hot 100. In a Morown related note one of the high up execs at Casablanca Records detailed in his memoir how he payed the chart manager of Billboard a hundred grand in cash to make Thank God It's Friday Soundtrack the number one album and cussing him out when he took the money but didn't do it since RSO paid more money under the table to the exec to keep Saturday Night Fever number one. He also discusses sending acts to their conferences as well as coke and cash to keep songs going up the charts in those days to keep dog product from being returned that they had certified gold or platinum. [[ The Kiss solo albums is the main one I recall but I'll have to pull the book out). We are never going to know the true answer since the accounting records are incomplete, there was no Soundscan to count units, and no one was smart enough like Tommy James back in the early seventies when he went after Morris Levy and Roulette Records when he couldn't get an accurate accounting of his royalties to go to the printer who did all the labels for his records to figure out he got underpaid by millions. He never got the money but it was a genius way to get a true figure. Also, the market fluctuates wildly by the week let alone the year so pulling out The Beatles figures mean nothing. It'd be like saying the week this year Lady GaGa sold a million means the week this year Amos Lee sold 40,000 and set the record for lowest selling chart topper was just Blue Note skimming off the top and really did the same as GaGa. The chart every week is supposedly the most played and bought songs in the country and that can vary so a number seven in 1970 could be the same as a number one in 1981 or a number 40 in 2011 so at the end of the day it should be about the fans enjoyment of Stoned Love. I've never let a sales figure or chart position tell me to like something more or less.

Ok, I've rambled enough lol