Tickle Me Garth!

Sevens sales 609,000 albums its second week

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 10, 1997 /PRNewswire/ -- The buying frenzy over Garth Brooks' new album, "Sevens," continues, with retailers hustling to keep their CD bins stocked with the top-selling album of the year.

SoundScan reports 609,000 sales of the album in its second week of release, making it the #1 album on both Billboard's Top 200 and Country Album charts for the second week in a row. Next week the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will certify "Sevens" as 5x Platinum, reflecting that Capitol shipped five million copies of the album to fill the orders of stores across the country.

"A phenomenal album," says Dick Odett, VP of Purchasing for the Musicland Group, music supplier for Sam Goody, Media Play and OnCue. "It will certainly be the Number One record of our Christmas year."

"Sevens" sold 896,932 copies in its first week, putting it second only to the first week sales of Pearl Jam's "Vs.," which sold 950,377 units in 1993. Geoff Mayfield, Director of Charts for Billboard magazine, writes in the December 20 issue, "By retaining 68% of last week's 897,000 unit sales, Brooks actually manages to move more of "Sevens" in two weeks than he did during the first two weeks of 1994's "The Hits" -- especially impressive when you consider that the earlier album's sum included sales rung during that year's Christmas week. Thus, the 1.5 million posted by his new set establishes a new best for a two-week take by Oklahoma's favorite son, bettering his '94 mark by 5.5 percent."

"The phrase that retailers keep repeating to me is 'Tickle Me Garth,'" says Pat Quigley, President and CEO of Capitol Nashville. "The demand for "Sevens" is spectacular. People are buying it for themselves and as holiday gifts. The difference between this album and last year's Tickle Me Elmo doll is that our sales staff is working overtime to make sure that anyone who wants to buy "Sevens" will find it in the stores."

The remarkable success of "Sevens" punctuates a year filled with record- making achievements for Garth Brooks. His nationwide tour drew more than 3.5 million people to arenas across the country, with tickets selling out at every show. In August, he played to the largest crowd ever at New York's Central Park. Fifteen million people watched that concert live on HBO -- the largest audience for an original cable program this year. It won the night over the four broadcast networks in HBO homes, receiving a 15.2 rating and a 25 share. ABC received a 4.2 (7 share), CBS a 5.1 (8 share), NBC a 9 (15 share) and Fox a 5.1 (8 share).

Brooks is the best-selling solo artist in U.S. music history, with the upcoming certification of "Sevens" bringing him to 67 million albums sold. He's also the fastest-selling album artist in RIAA history and one of the industry's most awarded.

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