Topping

Simon spotted Deep Purple in his local Sainbury’s chart rack at number 10, bravely doing battle with a cheapo Doris Day Collection at number 9! Meantime, David Browne – who has sort of slipped into the role of charting the rise and rise of Whoosh for us (and future historians!) – says the list of top ten entries has grown over the past week (see below).

#1 Germany

#1 Finland

#1 Belgium (Wallonia)

#1 Scotland

#1 Austria

#1 Switzerland

#2 Poland

#2 Czech Republic

#3 Hungary

#3 Sweden

#3 Norway

#4 UK (highest chart entry in 46 years)

#4 Japan (International)

#6 Italy

#7 Belgium (Flanders)

#7 Netherlands

#8 France

#8 Denmark

#13 Australia

The one which is puzzling him and us is the US Billboard chart. But if you look at what they call their Top Album Sales (which they describe as “a pure album sales chart” and mixes all genres) then Whoosh comes straight in at No. 11 (just below ‘Now 75!’). They will find it tough going as it is one of SIX new entries. As for how it compares with previous reunion albums? Scroll down.

David also thought to look back at reunion album positions in Billboard and this charts a real u-turn now, with positions dropping steadily to Battle, and then creeping back up. He also points out that the last Deep Purple album to get higher than #11 in the US album sales chart was (according to the old DP discography!) : Burn #9, which mimics the position in Britain.

Titles which do not appear didn’t make it into the Top 200 chart at all, so a huge chunk of the catalogue is missing.

Tags: 2020, Billboard, chart positions, deep purple, Whoosh