U.S. Sales of Capitol Albums

U.S. Sales of Capitol Records LP releases

1964

01 Meet The Beatles! 4,045,174
02 Beatles 65 1,967,261
03 The Beatles’ Second Album 1,668,435
04 Something New 1,049,243
05 The Beatles’ Story 271,340*

1965

01 Rubber Soul 1,800,376
02 Help! 1,314,457
03 Beatles’ VI 899,025
04 Meet The Beatles! 203,851
05 The Early Beatles 198,128
06 Something New 145,019
07 Beatles’ 65 134,153
08 The Beatles’ Second Album 124,934
09 The Beatles’ Story 97,481*

1966

01 Revolver 1,187,869
02 Yesterday & Today 967,410
03 Rubber Soul 488,215
04 Meet The Beatles! 142,173
05 Help! 132,034
06 The Early Beatles 125,064
07 The Beatles’ Second Album 89,843
08 Something New 87,403
09 Beatles 65 74,734
10 Beatles’ VI 74,587

1967

01 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 2,360,423
02 Magical Mystery Tour 1,936,063
03 Revolver 146,045
04 Rubber Soul 141,646
05 Meet The Beatles! 84,477
06 The Early Beatles 68,397
07 The Beatles’ Second Album 51,117
08 Something New 51,087
09 Beatles 65 45,767
10 Yesterday & Today 43,289
11 Help! 42,425
12 Beatles’ VI 30,331
13 The Beatles’ Story 2,979

1968

01 The Beatles (White Album) 2,201,536
02 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 436,936
03 Revolver 163,498
04 Rubber Soul 142,834
05 Magical Mystery Tour 101,233
06 Yesterday & Today 87,176
07 Meet The Beatles! 83,228
08 The Early Beatles 55,315
09 Help! 41,116
10 The Beatles’ Second Album 40,009
11 Something New 38.378
12 Beatles 65 36,408
13 Beatles’ VI 33,349
14 Yellow Submarine 9,500
15 The Beatles’ Story 4,305

1969

01 Abbey Road 4,067,246
02 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 575,222
03 Yellow Submarine 560,148
04 Magical Mystery Tour 336,691
05 The Beatles (White Album) 275,707
06 Revolver 227,864
07 Rubber Soul 193,791
08 Meet The Beatles! 140,445
09 Yesterday & Today 132,683
10 The Early Beatles 89,558
11 The Beatles’ Second Album 77,148
12 Something New 72,605
13 Beatles 65 68,863
14 Help! 64,000
15 Beatles’ VI 57,415
16 The Beatles’ Story 6,987

1970

01 Hey Jude 2,321,769
02 Abbey Road 780,720
03 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 389,516
04 Magical Mystery Tour 275,311
05 The Beatles (White Album) 195,043
06 Revolver 165,104
07 Rubber Soul 154,559
08 Yesterday & Today 106,103
09 Meet The Beatles! 104,105
10 Help! 87,215
11 The Early Beatles 83,861
12 The Beatles’ Second Album 71,804
13 Something New 66,306
14 Beatles 65 64,300
15 Beatles’ VI 58,464
16 Yellow Submarine 18,555*
17 The Beatles’ Story 8.864


* = sales figure incomplete

Interesting. Where did you get these numbers?

Interesting indeed. Nice to see how the older albums kept on selling! And to see Meet the Beatles sold THAT much in 1964... Phenomenal!!! I mean, the market in 1964 was smaller than it was in 1969 and still it almost outsells Abbey Road (which also has a phenomenal amount of copies sold in the first year!) And Meet the Beatles kept on being the best sold 'older' album from the beginning. Great list! :)

EDIT:
A missing item:
1966 The Beatles' Story 4,211

It's a pity not to see A hard day's night and Let it be in the list. But those were Universal-releases, right? Although Let it be is also Apple...

EDIT 2:
Also interesting: the totals from each year!

1964
9,001,453

1965
4,722,462

1966
3,365,661

1967
5,004,046

1968
3,474,821

1969
6,946,373

1970
4,914,489

So... 1964 was by far the most succesful year, followed by 1969. And A hard day's night isn't even included in this 1964-number!!! AHDN sold about 2,000,000 in the first three months alone, so the real 1964 total of Beatles lp's sold in the U.S. should be way above the 11,000,000!!!

Originally Posted by feelfab

Interesting. Where did you get these numbers?

Wolf is VERY well informed and mostly does not mention his sources but I trust them without a second of doubt.

Interesting to see how the sales of albums kept going on in future years.

Typical how low Help is in all these years but that is no doubt because of the content of the US funny version which is so contrary to the normal one.

Great info.

Are there records available up to the present?

Regarding the source, these sales figures were made available in the court case between the former Beatles and Capitol Records regarding the payment of correct royalties.

1971

01 Abbey Road 269,618
02 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 224,838
03 Magical Mystery Tour 149,386
04 The Beatles (White Album) 141,312
05 Rubber Soul 95,942
06 Revolver 91,147
07 Meet The Beatles! 62,283
08 Yesterday & Today 52,541
09 The Early Beatles 45,840
10 Help! 45,184
11 The Beatles’ Second Album 33,936
12 Beatles 65 30,147
13 Something New 29,273
14 Beatles’ VI 21,941
15 Yellow Submarine 11,048
16 The Beatles’ Story 7,097
17 Hey Jude 5,491*

1972

01 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 312,308
02 Abbey Road 294,503
03 Magical Mystery Tour 240,361
04 The Beatles (White Album) 200,625
05 Hey Jude 184,766
06 Rubber Soul 135,448
07 Revolver 129,027
08 Meet The Beatles! 109,335
09 Yesterday & Today 88,992
10 Help! 88,107
11 The Early Beatles 80,901
12 The Beatles’ Second Album 78,417
13 Beatles 65 68,668
14 Something New 64,485
15 Yellow Submarine 56,421
16 Beatles’ VI 55,652
17 The Beatles’ Story 16,168

1973

01 The Beatles/1967-70 1,294,896
02 The Beatles/1962-66 1,215,338
03 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 267,204
04 Abbey Road 240,852
05 Magical Mystery Tour 207,338
06 The Beatles (White Album) 191,013
07 Hey Jude 142,063
08 Rubber Soul 88,812
09 Revolver 86,396
10 Meet The Beatles’ 58,773
11 Yesterday & Today 53,868
12 Help! 50,323
13 The Early Beatles 43,568
14 Yellow Submarine 43,287
15 Beatles 65 42,291
16 The Beatles’ Second Album 39,554
17 Something New 34,618
18 Beatles’ VI 30,719
19 The Beatles’ Story 10,597

1974

01 The Beatles/1967-70 489,598
02 The Beatles/1962-66 428,424
03 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 304,822
04 Abbey Road 258,949
05 Magical Mystery Tour 241,132
06 The Beatles (White Album) 227,836
07 Hey Jude 125,317
08 Rubber Soul 111,641
09 Revolver 100,588
10 Meet The Beatles! 70,073
11 Yesterday & Today 59,276
12 Help! 576,901
13 The Beatles’ Second Album 53,311
14 Yellow Submarine 52,974
15 Beatles 65 52,075
16 The Early Beatles 50,779
17 Something New 49,297
18 Beatles’ VI 41,382
19 The Beatles’ Story 19,195

1975

01 The Beatles/1967-70 427,097
02 The Beatles/1962-66 384,900
03 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 230,312
04 The Beatles (White Album) 229,420
05 Abbey Road 228,435
06 Magical Mystery Tour 157,076
07 Rubber Soul 93,213
08 Hey Jude 87,935
09 Revolver 78,717
10 Yesterday & Today 57,635
11 Help! 56,492
12 Meet The Beatles! 55,578
13 The Beatles’ Second Album 54,199
14 Yellow Submarine 46,894
15 The Early Beatles 46,319
16 Something New 45,774
17 Beatles 65 41,619
18 Beatles’ VI 33,052
19 The Beatles’ Story 19,766


* = sales figure incomplete

Wow! This is fascinating stuff to me. Thanks for sharing.

I'm always looking for info like this but it's really hard to find... I wish Billboard released more detailed info.

I also wish they didn't have that really stupid rule where only new albums are included in the Billboard 200. For example right now no Michael Jackson albums are in the top 200 on the Billboard 200 charts but in reality he has 6 of the top 9 selling albums for last week.

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Edit: I notice that Let It Be isn't included? Why?

2nd Edit: And oh yeah... AHDN isn't included either... I'm sure there's some obvious reason I'm not catching onto as to why these albums aren't included.

---

Still very fascinating. I'd love to see numbers like this for every year up through 2009 :)

Originally Posted by JonnyBeatle

Edit: I notice that Let It Be isn't included? Why?

2nd Edit: And oh yeah... AHDN isn't included either... I'm sure there's some obvious reason I'm not catching onto as to why these albums aren't included.

AHDN isn't on the list because it was not released on Capitol until the late 70s (around 1978 if I'm not mistaken). Before that, United Artists had the rights in the US.

I have no idea why Let It Be is not on the list, but maybe it has more to do with specific wording in the court case that excluded this album from consideration.

"Let It Be" was releaed by United Artists as well. Capitol Records had no sales documentation regarding the 1970s sales of "Let It Be" (or "A Hard Day's Night").

Originally Posted by Wolf

"Let It Be" was releaed by United Artists as well. Capitol Records had no sales documentation regarding the 1970s sales of "Let It Be" (or "A Hard Day's Night").

I never realized that before, but that explains why there was a gap between the time that "Let It Be" was discontinued on Apple and when it was finally released on Capitol. The album was actually unavailable in the US from 1976 to 1979, and some lower quality bootlegs of it surfaced. I wonder why UA never released the album on its label? Surely any Beatles album would be considered a money maker, especially an official studio album, even if 6 years old.

1976

01 Rock’N’Roll Music 1,242,812
02 The Beatles/1967-70 544,275
03 The Beatles/1962-66 491,821
04 The Beatles (White Album) 436,873
05 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 292,891
06 Abbey Road 282, 358
07 Magical Mystery Tour 211,991
08 Hey Jude 127,827
09 Revolver 122,302
10 Rubber Soul 119,095
11 Yesterday & Today 75,658
12 Help! 71,137
13 Meet The Beatles! 70,500
14 The Beatles’ Second Album 62,011
15 Yellow Submarine 61,855
16 Beatles 65 56,305
17 The Early Beatles 55,162
18 Something New 54,102
19 Beatles VI 43,582
20 The Beatles’ Story 20,839

1977

01 Love Songs 890,556
02 Live At The Hollywood Bowl 800,100
03 The Beatles/1967-70 380,305
04 The Beatles/1962-66 339,004
05 The Beatles (White Album) 300,346
06 Rock’N’Roll Music 268,239 *
07 Abbey Road 249,225
08 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 231,932
09 Magical Mystery Tour 158,996
10 Hey Jude 97,311
11 Rubber Soul 86,708
12 Revolver 79,376
13 Yesterday & Today 52,248
14 Meet The Beatles! 51,123
15 Help! 49,245
16 Yellow Submarine 44,893
17 The Beatles’ Second Album 41,646
18 Beatles 65 38,166
19 Something New 37,265
20 The Early Beatles 32,898
21 Beatles VI 26,587
22 The Beatles’ Story 13,002

* = sales figure incomplete

Originally Posted by digdad

I never realized that before, but that explains why there was a gap between the time that "Let It Be" was discontinued on Apple and when it was finally released on Capitol. The album was actually unavailable in the US from 1976 to 1979, and some lower quality bootlegs of it surfaced. I wonder why UA never released the album on its label? Surely any Beatles album would be considered a money maker, especially an official studio album, even if 6 years old.

The unavailability of "Let It Be" from 1976 to 1979 is indeed quite baffling. I do not know the reasons for that.

In 1969, Allen Klein had approached United Artists asking them if they wanted "Let It Be" to be released as a soundtrack LP, because The Beatles still owed UA one soundtrack to a movie according to their 1963 agreement with UA. Originally "Let It Be" was planned to be aired on TV, but Klein convinced all involved parties that releasing it as a movie would generate more money, hence it was also possible to give UA that last soundtrack LP they still owed them. Capitol lost out on releasing "Let It Be" as a regular Beatles album. While the LP was distributed through United Artists Records as Apple AR 34001, Capitol were eased as they were the ones pressing the discs.

Capitol Records released "Let It Be" on their own label in March 1979 as Capitol SW 11922.

Here is the link to this info!

http://www.kronemyer.com/Beatles/Bea...01964-1985.pdf

Further link to sales figures!

http://musicindustrynewswire.com/200...592_195858.php

This is awesome stuff, I'm always curious about this and it's usually hard to find the numbers.

Does anyone know if The White Album is being counted twice for these sales figures? (Because it's a double album)

Same question goes for Blue & Red...

Originally Posted by JonnyBeatle

This is awesome stuff, I'm always curious about this and it's usually hard to find the numbers.

Does anyone know if The White Album is being counted twice for these sales figures? (Because it's a double album)

Same question goes for Blue & Red...

Double albums are not counted twice in these sales figures (the RIAA does that when certifying album sales).

1978

01 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 731,611
02 The Beatles/1967-70 487,726
03 The Beatles/1962-66 435,731
04 The Beatles (White Album) 421,854
05 Abbey Road 249,635
06 Magical Mystery Tour 158,087
07 The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl 131,299*
08 Love Songs 103,666*
09 Hey Jude 89,054
10 Rubber Soul 77,068
11 Revolver 73,329
12 Meet The Beatles! 49,331
13 Yesterday & Today 48,015
14 The Beatles’ Second Album 40,079
15 Help! 40,574
16 Beatles ’65 38,858
17 Something New 33,926
18 Yellow Submarine 33,415
19 Rock’NRoll Music 33,353
20 The Early Beatles 32,876
21 Beatles’ VI 31,914
22 The Beatles’ Story 8,985

* = sales figure incomplete


1979

01 Abbey Road 256,256
02 The Beatles/1967-70 226,129
03 The Beatles/1962-66 180,724
04 The Beatles (White Album) 163,712
05 Magical Mystery Tour 94,693
06 Hey Jude 82,415
07 Let It Be 79,298
08 Love Songs 76,325
09 Rubber Soul 65,247
10 Revolver 61,490
11 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 56,678
12 Meet The Beatles! 34,805
13 Rock’N’Roll Music 32,024
14 Yesterday & Today 30,718
15 Help! 29,312
16 Beatles ’65 27,491
17 Yellow Submarine 27,477
18 The Beatles’ Second Album 23,475
19 Something New 18,873
20 The Early Beatles 18,322
21 Beatles’ VI 15,876
22 The Beatles’ Story 10,258
23 The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl 9,949

* = sales figure incomplete

Isn't it fascinating to think that around 10 to 20 thousand people per year were buying 'The Beatles Story' double album in the 70s?! I wonder if they were delighted with their purchase once they found it could have easily fitted onto ONE LP?! And is pure hokum!

Originally Posted by Wolf

Double albums are not counted twice in these sales figures (the RIAA does that when certifying album sales).

Very cool. Thanks for that bit of info.

---

Somewhat related: I'm very curious as to how the sales of these new box sets are going to affect the sales of their individual albums (re: RIAA) ... How does the RIAA treat the sale of a box set with 16 discs in it? It seems like the box set sales (if not treated as a sale of every album contained in that box set) could actually hurt their album sales numbers (not that this really matters... but I find it interesting anyway.)

Do these numbers reflect 8-track and cassette sales?