recordingarts.co.uk


On the Charts: Jimi Hendrix Scores Highest Debut Since ‘1969’

Jimi Hendrix. What appears to be the late guitar hero’s final studio album, consisting of unreleased tracks recorded with a variety of musicians between 1968 and 1970, sold 72,000 copies and made its debut at Number Two. It’s a little creepy to have to report this, but People, Hell & Angels is Hendrix’ highest-charting album since 1969.

Unsurprisingly, it seems to be a physical-CD phenomenon – it reached only Number Five on iTunes Top Albums chart, with Luke Bryan’s Spring Break … Here to Party, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ The Heist, Bruno Mars’ Unorthodox Jukebox and Imagine Dragons’ Night Visions placing higher. It’s not often these days that the iTunes and Billboard 200 charts suggest such a clear-cut dichotomy between older-artists-equals-physical-sales and younger-artists-equals-download-sales.