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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 25, 2015 8:41:06 GMT -5
Found this book in a thrift shop. It is by Rick Marschall and is the 1992 revised edition with the original dating from 1985. It caught my attention because the Trio album back cover pic is the book's back cover but this huge pic is in color. Not being critical but the first thing I did was to look up Garth Brooks, as he came out in 1989 and would have been during the revision period but there is no bio on him.
The bio on Linda is good as these encyclopedia's go as there is lack of space to provide huge amts of coverage to one act. There is one sentence that goes like this: "She holds a record as the biggest-selling female vocalist in the history of music." It also says re: her Trio section (in each bio they mention the project but they as a group do not have a separate entry) that there was four hit singles from Trio; 3 of which went Number One. We know that all four were top ten country hits but that "Tkhitlh" was the only Number One and was the first single off the album.
Getting back to the biggest-selling female, I know that Linda was Number 2 of all time for quite awhile behind Ms Streisand. I would say she was Number 2 for about a decade. I don't know if anyone else has those figures or input but would love to hear it. eddiejinnj
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Post by erik on Sept 25, 2015 9:15:04 GMT -5
Re. Trio--yes, all four singles released from that album went into the Top Ten on the C&W singles chart, but it was "To Know Him Is To Love Him" that got to the rhinestone-studded penthouse.
In terms of album sales, which is where I think one can judge Linda's career most accurately (she was arguably the first female artist in any genre ever whose impact could be measured as much by album sales [if indeed not more so] as by hit singles), depending on what one reads, the figure is anywhere from fifty to one hundred million copies overall, which are Elvis/Beatles-type numbers. Whether that puts her ahead of, or just slightly in back of, Babs in terms of overall album sales is anyone's guess in my opinion.
Now I could be mistaken about this, but Linda may hold the record among female singers for having the most albums to go into the Top Ten on both the Billboard Top 200 album charts and the C&W album charts: Heart Like A Wheel (#1 pop, #1 C&W); Prisoner In Disguise (#4 pop, #2 C&W); Hasten Down The Wind (#3 pop, #1 C&W); Greatest Hits, Volume 1 (#6 pop, #2 C&W); Simple Dreams (#1 pop, #1 C&W); Living In The USA (#1 pop, #3 C&W); and Trio (#6 pop, #1 C&W).--seven in all.
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 25, 2015 9:34:38 GMT -5
She definitely from what I have seen consistently is that Streisand is still number one in sales of all time for a female. I do think it is cool and very impressive that Linda was Number 2 for a long time especially in terms of music careers. Great stat, erik and you probably are right that that is a record. It just showed her overall versatile appeal. eddiejinnj
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jimi
A Number and a Name
Posts: 24
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Post by jimi on Sept 25, 2015 12:24:28 GMT -5
I have a similar book, The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music, a British book by Colin Larkin from 1998. While this one doesn’t mention sales figures, it does mention Linda’s great success in all the forms and styles she chose to work in, but also adds:
‘Ronstadt, while hugely popular and successful has never been truly recognized by the cognoscenti. Her change of styles may have been a contributing factor.’ - We’ve heard that one before, though it is hardly true any longer.
The entry about Linda has nice things about some of the individual albums like Winter Light, a favorite of mine:
‘The highly acclaimed Winter Light was produced by herself and George Massenburg, and came across as a personal and highly emotional album.’
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Post by Goldie on Sept 25, 2015 13:38:14 GMT -5
I think Diana Ross, may hold the record as biggest seller, especially if you add the Supremes icing on that cake. But is there really any way to know for sure if their record companies weren't doing their part of record keeping?
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 25, 2015 15:57:09 GMT -5
No, it is Streisand. Erik or Tony has commented that she (Diana) and the group were more singles' artists than album. Of course, I am not saying they did overall very well there too. eddiejinnj
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Post by Goldie on Sept 25, 2015 16:42:20 GMT -5
Worldwide I would think it was Madonna but in this country I would think Diana Ross although the further you go back the foggier the statistics seem to get and Diana began early in the rock/pop era when things were foggy for sure. Mariah, Celine, Whitney were all probably bigger sellers than Barbra although Barbra should be right up there and it seems the later their career began with the new media the new media and larger population the more they would sell.
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 25, 2015 16:53:08 GMT -5
There is a listing of the top artists of all time and I am 100% sure that Streisand is number 1 for females. Linda had the second spot for like 10 yrs. Second now is I believe Madonna. Maybe Dion. Whitney and Mariah in there too. eddiejinnj
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markv
A Number and a Name
Posts: 93
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Post by markv on Sept 25, 2015 17:52:01 GMT -5
Madonna Whitney Celine Mariah - garbage.
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Post by Partridge on Sept 25, 2015 19:52:59 GMT -5
Diana Ross only has a handful of gold albums, only a couple of platinum, and no multi-platinum. She and the Supremes had many great hit singles, but album sales were not so great. A lot of artists' publicity and legend (Tina Turner, for example) would lead people to think they were huge sellers, when that is not exactly true.
Ronstadt was one of the first women to consistently sell platinum. And we can't forget Carole King who sold 10 million copies of Tapestry, but failed to have a string of hit platinum albums.
But the generation of female singers from the late '80s and '90s- Celine, Madonna, Whitney, Mariah, Shania, Reba, and alas, even Britney, sold in humongous numbers, and I think all of them outsold Ronstadt overall. I think probably some of them have also eclipsed Streisand. I've seen Madonna, Whitney, and Mariah each proclaimed by their own publicists as the biggest female artist ever.
(Most of my favorite artists have never even had one platinum album. Sales are not the be-all and end-all.)
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 27, 2015 7:22:34 GMT -5
They really need to update Linda's certs. she would probably go back up above Reba, whom is close to her in official counts the last I knew and only got there in the last 5 yrs or so and also Britney. Maybe even Shania since she had so few recordings. The other 4 and Streisand have more than Linda. The first four because of the massive sales of music in the 90's. eddiejinnj
PS: I still think it's cool that she held the number 2 spot for like 10 yrs I believe.
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Post by vikingfan on Sept 27, 2015 18:13:17 GMT -5
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 27, 2015 18:25:43 GMT -5
So she went from 2 to 9. Still good that she is in the top ten almost 50 yrs after she began. If there was a new audit, I think she could surpass Reba and Britney. The only thing is they are still active. Reba more so than the once a decade Britney or however many yrs she goes between recordings. eddiejinnj
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