Billboard Chart Preview – Issue 6/7/08

Apparently, “Dream Big” was more of a hit than I initially thought. I fully expected “The World I Know” to rank higher. Heh. What do I know?

Apparently, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Dream Bigà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  was more of a hit than I initially thought.

I know, huh? When he first played it my husband and I thought “80′s montage song,” but it’s catchy. I find it getting stuck in my head. “If you don’t dream big, what’s the use of dreaming…”

I think that maybe people just prefer hearing him singing a song not known for another singer. I mean, Archie’s cheesefest is also doing well.

Gwendolyn – I honestly enjoy Dream Big…..I know I am a little crazy.

Anyone else find it interesting that in the rankings on Rickey.org that Castro’s usually higher than Syesha but left first? Darn lyrics!! :) Also, I just LOVE the pictures of Carly that Rickey used. They are frigging hysterical!

Oh yeah, and WHOO HOO for the AI clan taking over the charts :)

Since most of those songs are not available anymore for download, does that mean that they’ll be off the charts next week? Also, will they be releasing the total number sales for each song this season?

I love Dream Big. Heh. I wish there were a studio version of it, too. ;p

Those are some mighty impressive numbers for Cookie!

This makes me so happy for Cook! He deserves all of this.

I’m going out on a limb here but — (and don’t throw stones at me) — Television helps. Most artists today know that a TV appearance on DWTS, or the Grammys or Idol (example) helps their song downloads & CDs sell. David C. is the beneficiary of Idol and only Idol. On his own, he would need a lot of work and a lot of push to get to the general public and sell the way he has.
Just IMO.

Chicago-Sally: did that even need to be said? Idol pulls 25 million people per show…thats exposure. You would think that AT LEAST the small percentage that likes a contestant would go buy their stuff.

MrsTrep
May 29th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Gwendolyn – I honestly enjoy Dream Bigà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦..I know I am a little crazy.

Yeah, I do too…now. But, I’m a bit biased when it comes to DC, so whodda thunk I wasn’t alone? ;)

That’s just mind boggling. I want to see totals for the whole season. I’m curious to see what kind of a following Micheal Johns has.

I honestly cannot imagine how surreal it must be to go from being completely unknown six months ago to having 11 songs on the Hot 100.

Of course being on reality tv sped up his career, but it sure doesn’t sound like Idol was easy street – it takes a lot of work over the months of the show to get people to sit up and notice and isn’t hugely different in terms of effort involved (IMO) from doing the rounds at local clubs to try and get people to notice. The biggest difference is the number of people a person can reach out to via television. More power to DC, he saw an opportunity, grabbed it and is reaping the rewards of his efforts.

Anybody notice the similarities in tune and sound palette btw the Skittles song and You & Me by Lifehouse… going to go do some chord progression analysis :)

All of the AI songs other than Time of My Life have now been pulled from itunes.

Does this mean I will hear other than “Time of my Life” on the radio? Well actually I have sirus and XM radio and I still haven’t heard “Time of my Life” on either. Anyone know what channel on XM and Sirius?

They probably pulled all other songs to shunt all of the DC interest into that song. They say TOML is blowing up on radio. Heard it a couple of times here in Hawaii already. I think top 40 will embrace it the most. We’ll see. Regardless, DC’s haul for this week is quite impressive. I’d love to see the numbers for his songs for the entire run of the show.

Given these numbers and interest for both guys, is pulling almost everything else off itunes wise?

Probably not, they would make a mint keeping all the songs available. Personally, I wish they’d be released elsewhere as well as iTunes. I don’t have an iPod and its such a hassle to have to finagle a way to change the m4p to an mp3 (at least it is for me and my limited tecchy skills) so that it will work on my player.

Does anybody know when they pulled Tuesday’s performance songs?

Didn’t Ryan say on the show that they’d be available until midnight Wednesday?

Given that I’m so unfamiliar with how songs chart these days, it’s interesting that most of the DC downloads are (presumably) based on his performances OR studio recordings during the show.

So, if the downloads are this popular from the show alone, I can just imagine how well they’d do if released to the radio. I’d be willing to bet my paycheck that if released to the radio, Billie Jean, ABMB (and others as well) would chart to #1 because while there are millions of people watching the show, there are just as many millions who don’t watch and never heard them.

I would LOVE a long version of Hello released – no question in my mind it would be hot, hot, hot.

I heard TOML yesterday on xm’s top 20 countdown – 20 on 20. I think that’s the only xm station playing it at the moment though. I saved the song as a favorite, so my radio beeps and tells me when and where it’s on – and so far that’s been the only channel. But the more fans that vote……….

http://www.xmradio.com/programming/20on20_vote.jsp :cheese1_ee:

mj: Does anybody know when they pulled Tuesdayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s performance songs?

Hopefully someone else will have a more precise answer for you, but from just my imperfect memory of random drive-by checking, they were there yesterday and not this morning at 8am, CST. The videos are also gone (Hero was at #1, ToML at #2, IIRC).

*sniffle*

Also, Coldplay have taken back #1 from ToML, which is now at #2 with “I Kissed A Girl” close behind.

Thanks CooksCookie, I’ve had sirius on all day on channel 01 and just heard the DJ say and I quote “Tomorrow at 7am american Idol winner Steven Cook and simon Cowell.”

Yep dj called him Steven! LOL So I guess Sirius will start playing David’s song starting in the morning but as far as today still nothing on Sirius. I tune in to XM now. Thank you.

[quote]American Idol winner David Cook on The Morning Mash Up!
Fri 5/30 7 am, 8 am, 9 am & 10 am ET
After over 90 million votes, David Cook was crowned American Idolà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s season 7 champion. David talks to The Morning Mash Up about his road to the title, all the way from the auditions to his final performance. Heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll talk about dating, behind-the-scenes Idol stuff and more. [/quote]
http://www.sirius.com/siriushits1

That is what it says towards the bottom. THey have Jason and David A there and apparently did an interview with them.

Natasha Bedingfield heard that David A wanted to sing a song with her and she thought that was nice and wants to meet him. So maybe they will do a song together.

Lera – didn’t she meet him the night she sang on the results show?

This is pretty exciting news. I expected he would do well, but seeing all those songs on the charts is astounding.

Sadly I only have xm. :downer_ee: Can’t believe the dj called him Steven. Given all the press, you would think that everyone in the world – especially at a radio station – would have heard his name by now.

Oooooh…. TOML on xm 20 RIGHT NOW!! :jittery_tb:

I have a theory that they’ll release something that has the unreleased performances or studio songs from Top 3, Top 4, and Top 5, along with the single or something else? To give them something to put out there during to summer to keep him on the charts and radio before his CD comes out in the fall. (Theory? Hope? Both? But it just seemed curious that the strongest songs from both Davids for those weeks were withheld, which would make sense if they plan on a subsequent release of them for some reason.)

Without Idol on TV, I doubt they’d be selling many more anyway. They had the big numbers because people knew this was the final week to get them. Cook’s single will continue to sell due to radio play and his TV appearances. It’s the only song he sings on this promo tour for a reason.

S6 idols had EPs released but I kind of doubt they’ll do that. They would have announced it while the show was still on TV.

MrsTrep she said this” I was on the show not long ago and I saw him and he was waving at me but I didn’t get to say hi. I think she is on drugs or got the two David’s mixed up.

MJ I heard that MTV interview with DC was today and I missed it. I so hope you will be posting this soon?

Personally, I think the whole “OMG COOK SMASHES RECORDS” thing is a little deceptive. I’m sure if they offer the option to purchase performance songs next year (and even during seasons before that), there would be similar, if not identical, results.

I am really surprised. Gotta give the dude credit when the credit is due. Obviously some people, some music-buying people, more importantly, can’t get enough Cookie. I hope he keeps the momentum going. AI desperately needs a big seller after sloppy sales of S6 and slumping ratings of S7. Maybe he can deliver with robust album sales, but you never know….

Tony, it’s anyone’s guess how it would compare to previous seasons, but at least within this season, it’s pretty clear from Rickey’s itunes data that it was a Cook-specific phenomenon. The other Idols weren’t doing as consistently well throughout the season, and all the non-finale singles were only available *before* the finale — that is, before Cook was crowned the winner — so their success isn’t due to his winning.

I’m sure most of the Idol singles would chart somewhere in the downloads list if we got their numbers on the week they were released, but in this case, literally *everything* Cook had available as a music download (if the TWOP forum is not mistaken, his missing songs were all video-performances-only) all charted like this with four days of sales before he was the winner. I’ll be surprised if we see something like this again as a matter of course. IMO it’s a combination of his material being satisfying for music buyers and not just Idol watchers, and that he was so varied across the season — that is, I (and I suspect a lot of fans) wanted to listen individually to pretty much every song he did, as opposed to having just one or two standouts to represent him.

Personally, I think the whole à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“OMG COOK SMASHES RECORDSà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  thing is a little deceptive. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sure if they offer the option to purchase performance songs next year (and even during seasons before that), there would be similar, if not identical, results.

I’m going to go out on a limb and disagree with you. My reasoning stems from the finale vote total. 97.5 MILLION votes. That smashed the previous voting record by what, 30 million (or close to it?). People REALLY like the Davids, Cook in particular. In my discussions with Idol fans of different ages, genders, musical tastes, etc., all of them like David Cook. It seemed that a great majority of people who were fans of other contestants like him too. He wasn’t my favorite, but I’ll be out buying his CD the day it is released, you can count on that! Plus, he hasn’t been a very polarizing contestant, and I think it would be hard for anyone to say that he didn’t deserve to win.

So, to sum it up, I don’t think that his record smashing on the iTunes charts is any kind of fluke. I typically don’t get too delusional about the future prospects of American Idol contestants, but I truly believe that Cook will do great things and sell a LOT of albums.

Can you even compare. All through the series DCÂ ´s studio versions were outselling by miles the other. In four days he sold 944,000 dollars beating the Beatles record of 14 songs on the charts at one time, because his 11 on the charts were in the same week. Many of them like Always Be My Baby has been on for over 7 to 8 weeks. How can you even find a comparison. Without any buying power from the Internationals, which Cookie has so many, because they cannot download on USA itunes. Also previous Idols have had physical singles released and not merely itunes.

I think thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the only xm station playing it at the moment though.

He’s at 54 on Mediabase so someone is playing it somewhere. Does anyone know if they will release a physical cd?

http://w2.mediabase.com/mmrweb/AllAccess/Charts.asp?OB=14

This news gave me goose bumps. Some of you want to play it down, but you have to give credit where it is due. Cook has smashed records. Not just his last song but almost every week during the season. He is amazing!
I also think Cook needs to take credit for winning American Idol. What is with Archie on his coat tails all the time and Cook saying he thought Archie would win and that he deserves just as much attention as Cook himself. And most of interviews with the two are mostly about David Archuleta. What is with that?
IMO, David Cook won because he deserved to win. He won the whole season because he never had a bad week. He won by 12 million votes!
He was tops in itunes almost every week of the season. What is this big shocker that he won the whole thing? He was winning all season long.
Tired of Cook being so humble and not taking the credit he is due!

From TWoP – DCook’s Preorder is already up at Amazon

Let’s just say, I’m glad they have a price guarantee. $18.98 is crazy. I am disappointed that it says “Featuring Time of My Life,” as well. Hopefully that track falls on the cutting room floor :X

I don’t know that you could say that any winner would have had the same result. If Archie had won instead of Cookie—which certainly looked very possible after the judges’ comments last week—then Cookie would have had 10 hit the Hot 100 (losing his biggest seller, ToML, definitely keeping all of the pre-finale performances (which ceased being sold before the winner was announced) and presumably gaining his three finale performances), and Archie would have had four (the three he currently has, plus presumably ToML). In the digital, it would have been similar: Cookie would have had 13 hit the hot digital songs (losing ToML) and Archie would have presumably gone from 3 to 4.. So, while Archie’s overall numbers would have gone up if he were the winner and had the single (and maybe a bump up in sales of the new songs) you would have had the problematic issue of the runner-up setting a record for number of charting songs.

It really does seem pretty unique, given that Cookie apparently was selling throughout the season at a high pace, yet every single one of his recordings made it either on the Hot 100 or the “bubbling under” (17/17) based on a partial week of sales at the end of the season. I mean, he averaged well over an average of 100,000 downloads a day that last week, despite having sold tons of Billie Jean, ABMB, and Hello (and other) downloads before that time.

voobys.com has idol performances for free download. You need to download a flv player as well. I suggest the Applian, which is free online and a short download. It has a converter and a recorder in it. You can listen to video or audio online and this will record the audio only without any background noise, just like a studio recording, into your pc. If you cant get the songs you like anywhere else, go to voobys. Ive been downloading finale songs like mad there, and got all the itunes songs I wanted in time from them.

I have to agree with everyone who is stating that any attempt to downplay DC’s chart success is amusing, at best.
His Billie Jean went to #1 on all of itunes when he first performed it, as did ABMB. Even the Aerosmith song went to #2. And they didn’t just hit those spots, they stayed there for a while. With the exception of Innocent and HLTW, every last one of his performances spent a decent amount of time in the itunes top 10. The same cannot be said for any other contestant.
Think for a moment about how many downloads are typical for a top 10 on itunes. When you add it all up (I would LOVE to see those numbers) I am betting that Cookie sold a phenomenal amount. That is why Simon grinned from ear to ear when he won. The man has marketability and selling power written all over him, which is exactly what this show needs from a winner (not a 4th place finisher) if it is to be taken seriously again.
For simple comparison, last season, Jordin and Blake were consistently outselling the competition by wide margins. The sales from the other contestants were laughable by comparison. However, before the finale, the biggest seller was Blake’s cover of Maroon 5′s This Love. It sold 30k after the top 3 performance night. So, during and after the show, NO ONE came anywhere close to the numbers that DC posted this week.
TOML now sits at #3 on itunes. I can’t remember the last time a coronation song stayed that high on the chart for over a week. He also is doing respectably on radio with this sappy thing (#54 on pop, #21 on AC and #38 on HAC).
Even if he wasn’t your favorite, or isn’t your cup of tea, you really can’t discredit his achievements or downplay this rather impressive out of the box success.

One more thing and then I’m done (I think):
Why is DC up for pre-order already on amazon? Not that I’m complaining, but I can’t recall any others being listed so soon after the finale. Does it have anything to do with the fact that DC has been sitting on the top of Amazon’s new product alert list for weeks?
ETA: DC is already at #60 on amazon’s best sellers list.

TOML now sits at #3 on itunes. I canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t remember the last time a coronation song stayed that high on the chart for over a week.

iTunes didn’t exist during season 1, but I’m pretty sure the equivalent (my guess would be the singles chart) would have displayed how, proportionally, Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This” would have exceeded his total, since she stayed at #1 on the Hot 100 chart for two straight weeks. Same with Clay Aiken.

I’m just not surprised that Cook’s songs have all appeared on the Hot 100. Kelly, Clay, Fantasia, Carrie & Taylor have all had their coronation songs skyrocket to #1….while this feat has eluded Cook. I just don’t think it’s too far off to assume that they could have had just as many (if not more) songs chart had their songs been available, given how well their coronation songs performed.

A song’s success after having been performed on American Idol is NOT impressive to me.

A songà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s success after having been performed on American Idol is NOT impressive to me.

I agree. It’s not uncommon for a single out of the AI gate to do so well, but I don’t think you can even start to compare the seasons where physical singles were released vs. itunes downloads. Different markets…period. Itunes is gaining in popularity now and people are probably more likely to download their music than to buy physical CD’s…but there still are those who buy physical CD’s.

Do we know what the other songs were on the chart when the other idols went to #1? If there is a big song with big promotion ala. Coldplay’s newest or Leona Lewis Bleeding Love, it’s harder to get to the number one spot with sales alone. Radio needs to get behind it. I don’t think we can take anything away from David Cook. It remains to be seen what all of this will mean in regards to his future, but for now, we can say that the Idol winner spot has finally gotten some juice back after the epic fails of the previous two winners. For the record, Jordin Sparks went to #15 and didn’t go anywhere but down I believe. Post season 5, nobody has done exceptionally well minus Chris Daughtry. So for Cook to do so well now, that’s a good reflection on him.

Wow, somehow I think a point has been missed.
Radio play accounts for more on the BB Hot 100 now than it did during all previous seasons except S6. The others also had an entire week to sell vs. 4 days. DC would have had the #1 in a week’s time. He also did not have the benefit of fans being able to purchase 5-10 copies of a physical CD to count towards his sales. If I am not mistaken, itunes does not count multiple purchases.
And, the fact that his older tracks (which had already sold well and had been available for a long time) sold as well as they did before the outcome of the competition was known is a good reflection on his capability to sell music long-term.
I don’t think Billboard would be crediting him with breaking a record if he wasn’t legitimately breaking a record. An AI winner breaking a BB chart record right out of the box is also a good reflection on the show as a whole (given the past couple of sub-par winners, by AI standards). I have no doubt that the producers and Co. were well aware of his sales and I also think they needed him to win this thing.
As was stated in another comment, let’s say DA had won. Let’s give him all of Cook’s TOML sales (although there is no guarantee he would have sold as many). In total downloads for the week, DC would still have outsold him by 300k. Wouldn’t exactly have been a good way for the S7 winner to jump out of the gate. Cook’s jump looks just fine.

Someone better tell DC to make sure his next releases are available outside the US…. otherwise, lots of lost money for him!!!

There’s MANY of us who are just FORCED to download everything for free. I know it’s called American Idol but come on… These days it costs NOTHING to distribute music also in other countries, that’s the power of digital! How hard is it to understand that if you air the show in other countries there will be fans there too?

We are getting a bit frustrated here!

Wake up iTunes people!!!

PS: note- we did get TOML on iTunes UK. Only that though.

sherryw – I agree. You are so right!!!!!

Also, his Analog Heart was pulled off of Amazon because it was selling like crazy. I believe I saw the chart at one time it was close to outselling Mariah Careys #1 new Album.
Wonder why they pulled the sale of his album. Because he was in contract with AI? Anyway, as far as I know you still can’t buy it.
I think he will keep on being a smash hit. The coranation songs are always pretty lame songs, but still people want his cd’s no matter how lame they are because IMO he makes lame sound pretty darn good!

One of the bad things about winning is you have to sing lame crap. Daughtry was very lucky he didn’t have to sing about rainbows. I think Cook would be better off if the song didn’t get much radio play and just died a quick death. Next year, they should just stop the whole coronation song thing completely.

Since this is about rankings, I hope I’m putting it in the proper thread. . .David Cook’s coming album is now up for pre-sale on Amazon and it is already number 13 on their bestseller list, and rising fast. What has me curious is its price. . .$l8 plus, twice the price of other albums. So I’m wondering if this could turn out to be the “boxed set” that they advertised earlier (for Analog Heart) and then removed. Whatever it is, it sounds like two discs, yes? Maybe? Fingers crossed.

I pre-ordered, of course!

jpfan – I agree about this lame song. He has to sing it on every morning show he has been on. It’s starting to grate on my nerves. I suppose AI says he has to sing that song. However, I guess I would buy even a rockers rendition of the phonebook if he recorded that. I think he will continue to be the hit he already is and hoping to buy that cd that is already on the bestseller list and not even made yet! Wow

The song is “featured” in the Amazon ad for the upcoming album. I suspect he’s going to keep singing it for awhile. :)

He’s now up to #8 on the Amazon list. He’ll be #1 soon. I don’t know how these things work. Will he go to #1 with presales and then almost have to drop back down for the months in between? And then go back up again when it comes out?

I really love watching him do so spectacularly well on so many charts. So deserved. Such a talented mensch.

On a non-DC note, Elliott’s Wait for You is #5 on Japan’s Hot 100 this week. Top westerner on that chart, with Madonna at #11 currently. Leona Lewis is at #23.

Also, Elliott is #2 on Japan’s Pop 100 Airplay chart.

Since I doubt Cook’s album will be released until Oct/November, it’ll probably fall down the Amazon charts pretty quickly. I don’t remember them issuing an album to Amazon so early. Once they put out the release date, it’ll probably zoom back up the charts there.
Very cool Elliott news.

Ya it is a lame song, guys…but I think he made it work. Seriously, I cringed when I first heard the “magic rainbow” line but what’s so cool about Cook is he looked like he enjoyed singing the song.

I really do hope he doesnt get stuck in songs like that. I’ve heard him sing “Creep” by Radiohead and his Analog Heart songs are not exactly cheesy rock ballads.