Going Places - the fifth longest charting album of all times

[martin]

VG, the biggest Norwegian newspaper and also the container of the official Norwegian record sales chart had an article last week about the longest charting albums and singles of all times. It turns out that Herb Alpert's (typically misspelled Herb Albert) "Going Places" was the fifth longest charting album ever with 84 weeks on the top ten chart in 1966/67.

- greetings from the cold north- (still snowing)
Martin

 

[thetijuanataxi]

If ever there was an album that deserved top 5 of all time status, GOING PLACES would definitely be it. It still sounds as fresh today it did 38 years ago and it's Herb and the Brass at the top of their game. Not a bad track on the album and multiple hits. That LP was my introduction to the Brass and I never get tired of listening to it. Let Herb explore new avenues musically, if that's what makes him happy, but if only one album could be put in a time capsule to represent the height of Herb's artistry and creativity and the essence of the 60's, then GOING PLACES wins, hands down, IMHO.

David,
who remembers seeing a South American pressing of GP on ebay, but it was titled "TIJUANA TAXI" in the middle of the Mexican flag....

 

[Jay Maynes/Juan Oskar]

I come from a musical family and by the time I was 13 years old I had played piano recitals, gone to concerts, etc. ...but at 13 years old I heard "Going Places" and it ruined my life. I was hooked. "Now you know the rest of the story." Peace amigos...Jay

 

[Steven J. Gross]

VG, the biggest Norwegian newspaper and also the container of the official Norwegian record sales chart had an article last week about the longest charting albums and singles of all times. It turns out that Herb Alpert's (typically misspelled Herb Albert) "Going Places" was the fifth longest charting album ever with 84 weeks on the top ten chart in 1966/67.

- greetings from the cold north- (still snowing)
Martin

Is that worldwide or in Norway I wonder?

 

[martin]

No, it is in Norway. I don't think there exists anything like a "worldwide chart", but there is no doubt that the TJB albums from their heydays in the mid sixties would have been to find there, had such a chart existed.
The VG charts from the sixties were based on sales report from selected music stores. In the nineties, much like in the US, they changed to a "soundscan" system.

- greetings from the north -
Martin

 

[Tim Neely]

You might be interested to know that five of the Herb Alpert/TJB albums spent more than TWO YEARS on the USA Billboard album charts:

Whipped Cream and Other Delights: 184 weeks
Going Places!: 164 weeks
South of the Border: 163 weeks
The Lonely Bull: 157 weeks
What Now My Love: 129 weeks

I could find only three other artists with five albums that spent over 100 weeks on the American charts:
The Beatles
The Kingston Trio
Mitch Miller

 

[Tim Neely]

Sorry -- duplicate post.

 

[Rudy]

Taking this a step further, FOUR of those TJB albums were on the charts for more than THREE years! In-freakin'-crecible.

Isn't Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon still the reigning champ for being on the album chart the longest?

 

[Tim Neely]

Isn't Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon still the reigning champ for being on the album chart the longest?

Yes, and it's a record that is highly unlikely ever to be broken, because of two key ways Billboard has changed its album charts:

-- If an album drops below 100 and has been on the charts more than a certain number of weeks (100?), it is dropped from the main "200" and moved to the "Top Pop Catalog" charts.
-- Albums more than a year old are no longer permitted to appear on the main "200" chart once they drop off. (On a related note, an album more than a year old and has NEVER made the main Billboard album charts is NEVER allowed to make the charts. That does not include new compilations of old music.)

 

[Rudy]

(On a related note, an album more than a year old and has NEVER made the main Billboard album charts is NEVER allowed to make the charts. That does not include new compilations of old music.)

Wow, that's wild. Say, if someone like Norah Jones had an album that was a sleeper for a couple of years, then finally got some kind of breakthrough publicity and sold enough to hit the upper reaches of the album chart, it wouldn't even get listed?

The charts sure have changed since I used to follow them!

 

[W.B.]

Isn't Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon still the reigning champ for being on the album chart the longest?

Yes . . . but unlike Mr. Alpert and the TJB, The Beatles, The Kingston Trio or Mitch Miller, the Floydsters didn't have four other albums that were in the charts for over 100 weeks. Maybe combined -- but I suppose that wouldn't count. (And remember . . . in so doing, PF knocked Johnny Mathis' Johnny's Greatest Hits off the all-time long-running list.)

 

[Tim Neely]

Wow, that's wild. Say, if someone like Norah Jones had an album that was a sleeper for a couple of years, then finally got some kind of breakthrough publicity and sold enough to hit the upper reaches of the album chart, it wouldn't even get listed?

The charts sure have changed since I used to follow them!

Yep. That's what happened with Eva Cassidy. When her CDs started selling in 2001, her CDs were several years old, so they ended up on the "catalog" charts. They never made the main LP charts in Billboard though at their peak they were probably outselling 80% or more of the albums that were listed on the main chart. The more recent compilation, Imagine, was issued in 2002 and did make the main chart.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

That change in the Billboard 200 has always bothered me. I think if Pink Floyd (or Herb Alpert) is still selling more than the #200 album, then they SHOULD be listed in the chart. I wonder if the Pink Floyd album would still be there if they went strictly by sales, without all these extra "rules" they apply?

 

[Tim Neely]

That change in the Billboard 200 has always bothered me. I think if Pink Floyd (or Herb Alpert) is still selling more than the #200 album, then they SHOULD be listed in the chart. I wonder if the Pink Floyd album would still be there if they went strictly by sales, without all these extra "rules" they apply?

I agree completely. During the Dark Side/Wizard of Oz fad of several years ago, the sales of DSOTM were quite healthy again, and it went back to the top 5 of the Top Pop Catalog chart. On average, the No. 1 album on the Catalog chart would be between 30 and 40 on the main Top 200 album chart, and at times would even be between 20 and 30. It's almost as if the industry wants to be in denial about how well "catalog" CDs are doing in comparison to the current stuff. I remember the 1970s, when the release of a highly anticipated new album would result in that artist's entire back catalog re-appearing in the top 200. That can't happen anymore.

 

[LPJim]

The new rules for the Top 200, had they been in force in 1966, would have prevented TJB VOLUME TWO (which had been released in 1963) from ever charting. Seems unfair to me. As it was, VOL. 2 actually made it to #17 in '66 and stayed in the Top 200 a respectable 56 weeks.

Christmas albums, which enter and leave the charts several years in a row, would only be allowed to chart the first time. This also is unfair.

JB -- reading from Whitburn's "Top Pop Albums" again, online

PS: There's also the Monkees catalog, which was in the TOP 200 both during 1966-69 and again in 1986 when Rhino reissued it. In fact one title., CHANGES, was released in 1970 but didn't chart until '86.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I wish Billboard would debut a new 200 chart, "Top Selling Albums," that would go strictly on sales (mainstream, internet, record-club and all) and have no other "rules" applied. (Tim, any way you could get that into a "suggestion box" at Billboard?

 

[Tim Neely]

Though I know a couple people at Billboard, I don't think they have that much pull.

First and foremost, Billboard is a tool of the recording industry, in both the good and bad senses of the word "tool." As the recording industry is much more interested in promoting new artists and new compilations -- after all, they sell more copies more quickly -- it would be a slap in the face to see so many "old" albums on the sales charts. The industry doesn't care that the Billboard 200 isn't a "pure" chart.

No doubt that a "complete" Top-Selling Albums chart is possible, as SoundScan has all the data. But no one seems to be interested enough, or have enough money to pay SoundScan to have it compiled and published.

 

[Tim Neely]

The new rules for the Top 200, had they been in force in 1966, would have prevented TJB VOLUME TWO (which had been released in 1963) from ever charting. Seems unfair to me. As it was, VOL. 2 actually made it to #17 in '66 and stayed in the Top 200 a respectable 56 weeks.

Christmas albums, which enter and leave the charts several years in a row, would only be allowed to chart the first time. This also is unfair.

PS: There's also the Monkees catalog, which was in the TOP 200 both during 1966-69 and again in 1986 when Rhino reissued it. In fact one title., CHANGES, was released in 1970 but didn't chart until '86.

One of the hypocrisies of the Billboard charts is that, whereas "old" albums are not allowed to re-appear (or appear for the first time) on the charts, this is NOT true for singles.

It used to be that a single automatically dropped off the charts after it had dropped below 50 in its 20th week. But if the sales or airplay component would make it re-appear at 50 or higher, it could re-appear (this happened with "Macarena," which dropped off the charts after 20 weeks, only to re-appear when it started to get airplay after crossing over from clubs and wedding receptions).

On the country charts, it used to have a very strict 20-week rule -- a song that was dropping, had been on the charts for 20 weeks and would have been below 20 was bounced. But tightening playlists have changed that rule. Anyway, you get the annual phenomenon, especially on 100% airplay-based charts such as country, of truly old Christmas songs re-appearing on the charts, because they haven't been on the charts for 20 weeks yet! "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms re-appeared in the country charts in December 1996; "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Gene Autry re-appeared in both 1998 and 1999!

I remember in 1978, when the infamous Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band soundtrack was released, Capitol spent some money to re-promote the original Beatles version. It put stickers on the shrink wrap proclaiming the album "The Original Classic" in the shape of a word balloon, to make it look as if one of the people on the cover was saying it. Very clever, actually. It re-appeared on the Billboard album charts and got all the way to No. 20 before it started to drop again. There's little incentive to do this kind of promotion of back catalog any more.