View Full Version : Albums with the most singles or no singles at all


jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 03:27 PM
As far as I am aware Michael Jackson's Bad had the most:

I Just Can't Stop Loving You
Bad
Way You Make Me Feel
Man in the Mirror
Dirty Diana
Another Part of Me
Smooth Criminal
Leave Me Alone
another whose title I forget but was dedicated to Ryan White and AIDS research.

That's 9 commercial singles. The first 7 were all big hits.

As for albums with no singles there have been quite a few in recent years, but I don't think the Beatles' Sgt Pepper had any singles off of it.

Dean Winchester
06-28-2004, 03:40 PM
Originally posted by jamesanthony
As far as I am aware Michael Jackson's Bad had the most:

I Just Can't Stop Loving You
Bad
Way You Make Me Feel
Man in the Mirror
Dirty Diana
Another Part of Me
Smooth Criminal
Leave Me Alone
another whose title I forget but was dedicated to Ryan White and AIDS research.

That's 9 commercial singles. The first 7 were all big hits.

As for albums with no singles there have been quite a few in recent years, but I don't think the Beatles' Sgt Pepper had any singles off of it.

the Ryan White song, "Gone Too Soon" was from Dangerous.

dlemond
06-28-2004, 03:44 PM
I'm pretty sure that "Thriller" had bigger hits than "Bad"- in terms of weeks and ranking.

A lot 80's albums milked themselves with singles- think about Huey Lewis "Sports" Def Leppard "Pyromania" The Cars "Heartbeat City."

There are dozens, all I remember about the 80s music scene is that they always tried to release as many singles from an album as they could- no matter how bad the song was.

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 03:52 PM
Originally posted by dlemond
I'm pretty sure that "Thriller" had bigger hits than "Bad"- in terms of weeks and ranking.

A lot 80's albums milked themselves with singles- think about Huey Lewis "Sports" Def Leppard "Pyromania" The Cars "Heartbeat City."

There are dozens, all I remember about the 80s music scene is that they always tried to release as many singles from an album as they could- no matter how bad the song was.

The Bad singles spent less time on the charts overall than the Thriller ones, although the first 5 from Bad all hit #1. He was rush releasing them, as soon as one peaked they were pushing the next single, although I don't think any of the ones from Bad, Thriller or Dangerous ever appeared together in the top ten the way Usher and Ashanti have done in recent years.

The 80s was a period of single madness. It was common for a hot album to have 5 hit singles show up in the to 40 over maybe a year and a half. That was before the record companies figured out that if you push a song on radio and don't make it into a single you can get people to shell out money for the entire CD.

vashti1999
06-28-2004, 03:53 PM
I'm not 100% positive, but I don't think Leave Me Alone was released as a commercial single from MJ's Bad.

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 03:57 PM
While Bad had 5 #1 hits Thriller only had 2: Billie Jean (7 weeks) and Beat it (3 weeks). The others were The Girl is Mine (#2 pop, but #1 on r&b and adult contemporary), Wanna Be Starting Something, Human Nature, PYT and Thriller. The last 4 all hit the to ten on both pop and r&b. Human Nature hit #2 on adult contemporary. The single Thriller burned itself out by about June of 84 but the album kept selling for the rest of that year and according to Billboard was that year's #1 album. (It was #1 in 1983 also)

Dean Winchester
06-28-2004, 03:58 PM
Originally posted by jamesanthony
The Bad singles spent less time on the charts overall than the Thriller ones, although the first 5 from Bad all hit #1. He was rush releasing them, as soon as one peaked they were pushing the next single, although I don't think any of the ones from Bad, Thriller or Dangerous ever appeared together in the top ten the way Usher and Ashanti have done in recent years.

The 80s was a period of single madness. It was common for a hot album to have 5 hit singles show up in the to 40 over maybe a year and a half. That was before the record companies figured out that if you push a song on radio and don't make it into a single you can get people to shell out money for the entire CD.

IMO, that showed how stupid and greedy the labels were. In the 80's, albums that were loaded with singles like Thriller, Born In The U.S.A., Dirty Dancing, Purple Rain, Like A Virgin, Hysteria... ALL sold over 10 million copies each, and there are countless others like Forever Your Girl, Faith, Bad, Control, etc.... that sold between 6-10 million, and the fact that there were so many songs that were familiar to recordbuyers kept adding sales to them. Yet the labels got so greedy they decided to kill singles to serve a few more album sales. The industry is not the same as it used to be. N'Sync's album that sold 11 million only had 3 singles... and now as time has passed, nobody buys it anymore because there were only 3 singles instead of being milked for 5-6 (by comparison, 90's megasellers like Come On Over, Metallica and Jagged Little Pill, of which all had at least 5 songs released from them to radio/MTV, are all STILL selling healthy numbers, constantly outselling more recent followups by the same artists).

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 04:01 PM
Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
the Ryan White song, "Gone Too Soon" was from Dangerous.

This would mean that Dangerous had 8 singles. Janet had 7 singles apiece from Rhythm Nation 1814 and janet. and if I am remembering right all 14 of them were big hits.

Dean Winchester
06-28-2004, 04:01 PM
Originally posted by jamesanthony
The Bad singles spent less time on the charts overall than the Thriller ones, although the first 5 from Bad all hit #1. He was rush releasing them, as soon as one peaked they were pushing the next single, although I don't think any of the ones from Bad, Thriller or Dangerous ever appeared together in the top ten the way Usher and Ashanti have done in recent years.

Billie Jean and Beat It did co-exist in the top 10 for awhile in April/May 1983... not positive, but I think Beat It may still have been in the top 10 when Wanna Be Startin' Something came out... but still, all those songs had healthy runs..

As opposed to Usher, who is going WAAAAAAYYYYY too fast with singles. As soon as Yeah went top 5, he released Burn, and as soon as Burn went top 10, he released ANOTHER single, despite the fact the first song was still #1 on the chart. That was just too excessive. Whereas when Ashanti had 3 songs in the top 10, 2 of which were collaborations with rappers that appeared on their subsequent albums, while just one of which was on Ashanti's own cd.

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 04:06 PM
Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
(by comparison, 90's megasellers like Come On Over, Metallica and Jagged Little Pill, of which all had at least 5 songs released from them to radio/MTV, are all STILL selling healthy numbers, constantly outselling more recent followups by the same artists).

Another question is which album had the most songs hit the charts, regardless of whether or not the company made them into singles. Shania Twain's Come On Over had a whole slew of them, like maybe 9 though only 5 crossed over outside of the country format. Saturday Night Fever had a lot also as did a few other film soundtracks. Now it is common to look at the charts and see someone like Kanye West or 50 Cent or R Kelly have many different songs from the same album charting simultaneously.

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 04:11 PM
Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
Billie Jean and Beat It did co-exist in the top 10 for awhile in April/May 1983... not positive, but I think Beat It may still have been in the top 10 when Wanna Be Startin' Something came out... but still, all those songs had healthy runs..

As opposed to Usher, who is going WAAAAAAYYYYY too fast with singles. As soon as Yeah went top 5, he released Burn, and as soon as Burn went top 10, he released ANOTHER single, despite the fact the first song was still #1 on the chart. That was just too excessive. Whereas when Ashanti had 3 songs in the top 10, 2 of which were collaborations with rappers that appeared on their subsequent albums, while just one of which was on Ashanti's own cd.

You're right about Beat it and Billie Jean overlapping. I remember now that there was only one week between the two songs being number one. Come On Eileen got in the way in the spring of 1983. I'm not sure about Beat it and Wanna Be Startin Soemthing though.

I don't know what Usher and his company have in mind, but the 3 singles he's had out this year have spanned about 6 months the same time that the first 4 Thriller singles spanned. Other artists push a lot of songs in a short span like the ones I mentioned earlier: Kanye West, R Kelly, but people I suppose want to eat up Usher's songs so they are jumping up the charts more than those other acts.

dlemond
06-28-2004, 04:14 PM
Uggh.

If you think Bad is a better album than Thriller, you have your own issues.

And no matter what, Thriller made MORE money than Bad.

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 04:19 PM
Originally posted by dlemond
Uggh.

If you think Bad is a better album than Thriller, you have your own issues.

And no matter what, Thriller made MORE money than Bad.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of his adult music. He was better when he was a youngster on Motown. As for the singles he and Janet did set all sorts of chart records some in gimmicky ways like in 1995 when You Are Not Alone became the first single ever to debut at #1 only because it was saturated at radio for weeks so that when it was finally released as a commercial single the demand for it was so great that it entered at #1. But it din't stay there for all that long if I remember right.

dlemond
06-28-2004, 04:21 PM
Off the Wall is essential music.

Otherwise, ehh.

ABC, I Want You Back, Ben, all that is almost baby music to me.

vashti1999
06-28-2004, 04:21 PM
Originally posted by dlemond
Uggh.

If you think Bad is a better album than Thriller, you have your own issues.



Who said Bad was a better album than Thriller?

dlemond
06-28-2004, 04:22 PM
Originally posted by vashti1999
Who said Bad was a better album than Thriller?

"You" being a general comment for anyone with that notion.

Dean Winchester
06-28-2004, 04:27 PM
Originally posted by vashti1999
Who said Bad was a better album than Thriller?

that's what I was wondering. All James said was Bad scored more #1 singles. Doesn't mean it's a better album or was more successful, but it's true!!! Bad had 5 #1 singles, Thriller had 2. But... the 5 Bad singles wound up spending all of 7 weeks at #1 combined, whereas Billie Jean alone spent 7 weeks at the top.


Anyways, as someone who was 8 when Bad was big... and 4 when Thriller was huge. I will admit that I definately have more memories with the Bad era, seeing him in concert in 1988, having my older sister buying me anything MJ related she could find... and the sort, while when Thriller was big, I just knew the music and not so much the image. So why trash someone who might prefer Bad? I do agree Thriller is the superior album of the two, but there are a lot of us who were just a tad too young to truly experience the Thriller mania who were old enough for Bad-mania that do have fond memories of that album.

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 04:34 PM
People who want to promote Bad as being better than Thriller would very quickly say that it had more chart topping singles, but its more an issue that those songs were promoted to go to #1. Dangerous only had 1 song top the Hot 100, Black or White (tying Billie Jean with seven weeks on top) but there were all those other songs pushed off of that one. At the time of Black or White the Billboard Hot 100 changed the way it tabulated points so comparing Black and White's chart stats to Billie Jean opens up some debates.

vashti1999
06-28-2004, 04:54 PM
Michael Jackson's Thriller, Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA and Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 I believe are the only albums to spawn off 7 top ten singles each. I don't remember if Bad did it also.

Dean Winchester
06-28-2004, 05:10 PM
Originally posted by vashti1999
Michael Jackson's Thriller, Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA and Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 I believe are the only albums to spawn off 7 top ten singles each. I don't remember if Bad did it also.

nope, Another Part Of Me barely missed the top 10, peaking at #11

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 05:23 PM
Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
nope, Another Part Of Me barely missed the top 10, peaking at #11

Oh OK. That one hit #1 on the r&b chart though.

vashti1999
06-28-2004, 11:27 PM
Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
nope, Another Part Of Me barely missed the top 10, peaking at #11

That's something, to have the first 5 singles all hit #1 and then the 6th doesn't even crack the top ten.

Janet also managed to have 6 top ten from her first-name-titled 1993 album. "Because of Love" managed just one week at the #10 position to make it count, joining:
That's The Way Love Goes
If
Again
Anytime Anyplace
You Want This

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 11:37 PM
Originally posted by vashti1999
Michael Jackson's Thriller, Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA and Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 I believe are the only albums to spawn off 7 top ten singles each. I don't remember if Bad did it also.

I was thinking more of albums just pushing out singles not necessarily if they were even big hits. Waiting to Exhale pushed out 7 singles with all but Aretha Franklin's It Hurts Like Hell being a top ten hit on either pop, r&b or adult contemporary. The Krush Groove soundtrack had 7 also in 1985-86 with the only top 10 Hot 100 hit being a #10 showing for Force MDs' ballad Tender Love. Sheila E's A Love Bizarre hit #11 on that list. Some of the other hits from that album like Chaka Khan's Can't Stop the Street and Kurtis Blow's If I Ruled the World were dance chart hits though.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is some album that had like 10 singles taken off of it.

vashti1999
06-28-2004, 11:51 PM
Originally posted by jamesanthony
Sheila E's A Love Bizarre hit #11 on that list.


Love Bizarre only appeared on Sheila's "Romance 1600" album. Her song included on the Krush Groove soundtrack was "Holly Rock".

jamesanthony
06-28-2004, 11:55 PM
Originally posted by vashti1999
Love Bizarre only appeared on Sheila's "Romance 1600" album. Her song included on the Krush Groove soundtrack was "Holly Rock".

Interesting info. Where can I read about this online?

vashti1999
06-29-2004, 12:00 AM
Originally posted by jamesanthony
Interesting info. Where can I read about this online?

I just know that stuff because I have both albums, but for basic track listings for albums, try gracenote.com

jamesanthony
06-29-2004, 04:34 PM
Originally posted by vashti1999
I just know that stuff because I have both albums, but for basic track listings for albums, try gracenote.com

Oh OK. i'm going by memory on Krush Groove. I remember a bunch of songs from that film were on the various Billboard charts in late 85-early 86 almost all at the same time and this was a time when except for the dance and adult contemporary charts a song had to be a commercial single to chart. If Love Bizarre isn't on the soundtrack it is connected to that film in some way. I think she performed it in the movie? Or it was promoted as being connected to the film.

If a film like this had a bunch of chart singles there is probably some other one that had more singles off of it. Thinking of soudtracks and going by memory alone Saturday Night Fever had at least 4 singles plus 2 that were already hits (5th of Beethoven and You Should Be Dancing), plus More than A Woman by both Tavares and Bee Gees neither of which may have been singles but I still hear them a lot on the oldies stations.

vashti1999
06-29-2004, 08:11 PM
Originally posted by jamesanthony
If Love Bizarre isn't on the soundtrack it is connected to that film in some way. I think she performed it in the movie?

Yes, Love Bizarre and Holly Rock are both performed by Sheila E. in the movie. They just split the tracks, with one going on her studio album and the other to the Krush Groove soundtrack.

AllIWantIsYourClutch
06-29-2004, 09:14 PM
Originally posted by jamesanthony
People who want to promote Bad as being better than Thriller would very quickly say that it had more chart topping singles, but its more an issue that those songs were promoted to go to #1. Dangerous only had 1 song top the Hot 100, Black or White (tying Billie Jean with seven weeks on top) but there were all those other songs pushed off of that one. At the time of Black or White the Billboard Hot 100 changed the way it tabulated points so comparing Black and White's chart stats to Billie Jean opens up some debates. I think Bad is better than Thriller....I don't care how it did on the charts, I just happened to like the music better. It's all a matter of opinion.

musicradio77
06-29-2004, 11:27 PM
"Thirller", one of the landmark's best selling albums by Michael Jackson had 2 #1 singles like:

1. "Beat It"
2. "Billie Jean"

"Off the Wall" has another 2 #1's:

1. "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough"
2. "Rock With You"

Hollow
06-29-2004, 11:49 PM
Originally posted by dlemond
Uggh.

If you think Bad is a better album than Thriller, you have your own issues.

And no matter what, Thriller made MORE money than Bad.
MAYBE YOU HAVE YOUR OWN ISSUES IF YOU THINK THRILLER IS BETTER THAN BAD YOU WRONGLY-OPINIONATED EVIL FOOL http://mindscraps.com/s/contrib/chapel/bigfrogs/bigsleep.gif