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Ask Billboard: Jonas Brothers Want to Know Their Album & Song Sales

... and they're not shy about asking. Plus, thoughts about Ed Sheeran and more.

As always, submit questions about Billboard charts, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S. Or, Tweet @gthot20

JONAS BROTHERS WANT TO KNOW THEIR SALES

 

Hi @enettozc … and Kevin, Joe and Nick!

Since the Jonas Brothers went to such lengths to request their (your) best-selling music – and send the first “Ask Billboard” gif-question ever! – of course.

The erstwhile trio’s breakthrough album, 2007’s Jonas Brothers, leads with 1.9 million sold in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. The set reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200.

The group’s first Billboard 200 No. 1, 2008’s A Little Bit Longer, follows at 1.6 million sold. In third place: the band’s second leader, 2009’s Lines, Vines and Trying Times (669,000).

Related

Rounding out the top five, soundtrack The 3D Concert Experience has sold 189,000 (No. 3, 2009) and the Jonas L.A. soundtrack, the threesome’s fifth and final Billboard 200 top 10 (No. 7, 2010), has moved 132,000.

Meanwhile, Jonas Brothers’ first charted album, It’s About Time (No. 91, 2006), has sold 67,000.

And, the Jonas Brothers’ best-selling songs: “Burnin’ Up” (1.9 million), “S.O.S.” (1.5 million), “When You Look Me in the Eyes” (1.18 million), “Year 3000” (1.05 million) and “Lovebug” (857,000).

As soloists, Joe Jonas reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200 in 2011 with Fastlife. The set has shifted 45,000.

Nick Jonas, meanwhile, has collected two Billboard 200 top 10s: Who I Am (with the Administration) (No. 3, 2010) and Nick Jonas (No. 6, 2014). They’ve sold 179,000 and 133,000, respectively, with the latter currently spinning off its second hit: after “Jealous” reached No. 7, “Chains” bounded 92-76 in its second week on the Billboard Hot 100 last week. “Jealous” is the best-selling solo Jonas single (1.6 million), second among the trio’s combined solo and group releases after only “Burnin’ Up,” with plenty of time left in the former’s life as a current hit to challenge for the top spot overall.

No solo albums for Kevin Jonas, but as I’m writing this “Ask Billboard” on Monday night, he’s trying to help Leeza Gibbons defeat Geraldo Rivera on the season finale of NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice. (And, he did! As for numbers more important than album and song sales, Jonas helped Gibbons raise nearly $500,000 on the show this season for her charity, Leeza’s Care Connection.)

THINKING OUT LOUD ABOUT ‘THINKING OUT LOUD’

Hi Gary,

Just “thinking out loud” about some of the biggest hits right now …

What will be the next Hot 100 No. 1 after Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk!,” featuring Bruno Mars? Perhaps Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” or Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney’s “FourFiveSeconds”? Interestingly, Rihanna’s biggest hit so far (10 weeks at No. 1) is “We Found Love.” If Sheeran can keep Rihanna at bay with his latest hit, he’ll do so with a song whose lyrics include “we found love” (“right where we are,” not necessarily “in a hopeless place”).

Maybe “FourFiveSeconds” will peak at No. 4, or 5. Or, if it misses No. 1 by a spot, it will have to settle for “second(s)” place.

A bit lower on the chart, I’m glad that Kelly Clarkson’s latest is going up, up, up, up …

Oh, and wouldn’t it be fun, now that they’re rumored to be collaborating, if Kanye and Taylor Swift were to record a tune called “Imma Let You Finish”?

Anyway, that’s all I –

YOU CALL THAT AN “ASK BILLBOARD” QUESTION? THE JONAS BROTHERS DID IT WAY BETTER! I MEAN, THAT GIF THEY SENT IN? THAT’S … ARTISTRY!

[Editor’s note: Kanye, please let this emailer finish. There you go, please sit back down. Thank you.]

… um … I … was … done … anyway …

Pablo Nelson
Oakland, California

Thanks Pablo (and sorry about that interruption. You’re in some great company, though!)

As for this week’s Hot 100, it looks like we should be in for an even closer race for No. 1 than last week, with sales projections looking fairly even for “Funk!” and “Loud.” Could this be the week that “Loud” passes “Funk” in sales, and on the Hot 100? We’ll find out tomorrow. And, reaching No. 1 would make for a nice birthday present for Sheeran, who turns 24 today.

“Loud,” meanwhile, is continuing a noteworthy feat on the Hot 100 for parent album X: each of the set’s successive singles has done better than its predecessor. “Sing” reached No. 13, “Don’t” became Sheeran’s first top 10, climbing to No. 9, and now “Loud” has risen to No. 2.

Generally, a first single has the best chance of faring the best, given the excitement for a new album, the promotional push behind it, and the fact that consumers are more often likely to buy a lead single, as its album might not be out yet; or, because by the time a later single is released, they may already own the song from having purchased the album. In the case of X, Sheeran has instead climbed the ladder with each single release.

I can think of two other albums that yielded higher-peaking singles as they went along: Heart came back after a lengthy break in 1985 with its eponymous album. The Hot 100 peaks for the set’s first three singles: No. 10, “What About Love?”; No. 4, “Never”; and No. 1, for one week, “These Dreams.” (Fourth single “Nothin’ at All” reached No. 10.) The Hot 100 peaks for the first three Heart singles seem partly due to song quality – “These Dreams” is a quintessential ’80s power ballad – and partly due to fans at the time steadily finding their way back to the band, which hadn’t hit the top 10 since 1981 (and returned with a newer, more commercial sound).

Soon after, Def Leppard turned charting higher with subsequent singles into an even greater art form. Here are the peaks of the first five singles from Hysteria: No. 80, “Women”; No. 19, “Animal”; No. 10, “Hysteria”; No. 2, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”; and No. 1, one week, “Love Bites.” (The album would produce two more hits: “Armageddon It,” No. 3; and “Rocket,” No. 12.)

“Women” remains one of the oddest first-single choices ever, given the wealth of hooks on Hysteria, but Def Leppard, like Heart, was reappearing in 1987 after a long break (including drummer Rick Allen losing his left arm) and the hard-edged “Women” provided immediate evidence of the band’s rock cred. Perhaps “Sugar” could have led off the set, but no way “Love Bites” could’ve; hair bands released many hit ballads in the late ’80s, but generally never first. I.e., Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” followed “Nothin’ But a Good Time” and “Fallen Angel”; Bon Jovi’s “I’ll Be There for You” was likewise the third single from New Jersey; and White Lion roared with “Wait” (and “Tell Me”) before “When the Children Cry.”

(Random thought about Hysteria: “Love and Affection” is one of the catchiest cuts on the album. I still think it could’ve made a great eighth single in spring/summer 1989.)

Like Heart and Def Leppard, Sheeran has notched his highest-charting hit with a ballad. After exploring his funkier side on “Sing” and “Don’t,” he perhaps connects best at his most vulnerable musically. “Loud” “so perfectly captures the essence of Ed: it’s introspective, humble, sincere and unflinchingly romantic,” says Jayn, music director/assistant program director of KLLC San Francisco. (In topping Adult Pop Songs, “Loud” has become Sheeran’s first No. 1 on a Billboard airplay chart.)
 
“The song is timeless,” echoes Charese Fruge, KMXB Las Vegas PD. “The words are so compelling and make women melt. And, the music goes back to what I consider to be Ed’s roots, and the reason that I fell in love with him as an artist.

“This will be the wedding song for the next decade.”

PERSONAL CHARTS

@gthot20 can we do a personal chart for Ask BB soon? @WALKTHEMOON band cracked the top half of mine, while @RynWeaver is closing in on Top 5.

Brian Brostek ?@BOSBrian02368

Sure Brian, you just did. Good taste with Walk the Moon, which this week takes over atop Rock Airplay and Alternative Songs with “Shut Up and Dance.” The track also rises 26-25 on Adult Pop Songs and looks likely to chart soon on Pop Songs.

Happy to run more readers’ latest charts. Just email askbb@billboard.com to submit yours.

My current favorite song: Starling Glow’s “Ignite,” although I’m also intrigued by the song that closed Sunday’s touching episode of Girls. “Shiver” by Lucy Rose (not Mimi Rose) was first released in 2013, but given its prominent placement, is receiving new clicks on YouTube:

(It must be the first song ever to serve as a soundtrack to a character spending the night in a storage unit.)