Re: the first album sales

[Jeff Lester <lester@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

JPhill9990@xxxxxxx asked:

>I forget what book i read this in, and the numbers might be wrong, 
>But wasn't 
>Zeppelin I certified gold in a short time without alot radio air 
>play?  If 
>anyone has the dates on that I'd really appriciate it.

According to the RIAA page, Zep I was released 1/11/69 and went gold 
7/22/69.
Pretty good for a first album by a relatively unknown act, it did 
better than
any of these:

Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced  Released: 8/26/67 Gold: 3/19/68
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath       Released: 5/15/70 Gold: 6/14/71
The Doors - The Doors               Released: 1/1/67  Gold: 9/11/67

There are probably other (and possibly more suitable) comparisons, 
but I can't
really think of any at the moment.


The RIAA database is pretty interesting, www.riaa.com and then
gold&platinum->database search.

Platinum status:
Zep I - 6X
Zep II - 12X
Zep III - 6X
Zep IV - 22X (#4 all time list)
Houses of the Holy - 11X
Physical Grafitti - 15X (tied for #17)
Presence - 3X
TSRTS- 4X
In Throught the Out Door - 6X
Coda - 1X
Box Set - 10X
Remasters- 2X
Complete Studio Recordings - 2X
BBC Sessions - 1X
Early Days 1 - Gold

Multidisc sets count the number of discs, so the Box Set is 
equivalent to
2.5 million ands Physical Grafitti 7.5 million.

- -Jeff Lester