The Jazz Age enters at number 50.

Not a total disaster I guess.

No I think top 50 is very respectable given it is a 1920s jazz album, and also given the time of the year (when the world and his wife release an album for Christmas, and sales are higher than at any other point of the year). It will be interesting to see how high the 1st week sales were. I suspect they may be as high as they were for Olympia.

BTW, in the good old Records Store Charts it went in at number 29.

50 is minimally OK, but not really so great. This doesn't bode well for TJA catching on as an impulse buy for holiday gift giving. I'm afraid it will be lucky if TJA stays in the top 100 for more than one more week.

But don't worry, when the promotional tour kicks in ten months from now it will start flying off the racks and out of the bins... Or maybe not.

IMO this is rather low considering how much publicity I perceive I've seen. But given its genre, it was never going to sell much. But, it may yet rally.

All the more reason to give bf kudos for having the balls to do this project.

I think it's more informative to look at total sales figures rather than chart position, especially given the time of year (i.e. just before Christmas, when CD sales are generally much higher, with many popular Christmas albums just released). The latest figures should be released tomorrow, but judging from last week's figures to reach the top 50 at this time of year the Jazz Age is likely to have sold enough copies (probably between 5,000 and 10,000) to have made it into the top 20 at just about any other time of year. The Jazz Age is of course not really a Christmassy album, but rather an experimental jazz album (like you say a bold move, which in my opinion works brilliantly).

Plus the fact that as JOB pointed out Tesco isn't stocking it and neither is Asda, presumably the other supermarket chains will be following suit, so thats probably the biggest outlets for sales nowadays not touching it and no radio play either. Given that Ferrys highest chart position is usually the first week of entry I would be suprised if it stays in the charts next week disappointingly.

Sales do vary considerably depending on time of year.

Back in 1988 Chris de Burgh's latest album sold more copies in the week before Xmas, when it was #24 on the chart, than the week when it was #1 in October.

Some Ferry/Roxy Sales:-

'Taxi' sold 20,000 copies the week it entered the chart at #2 in April 1993.

'Street Life' sold 200,000 copies in total during the first 3 weeks (out of 5) that it was #1 in Apr-May 1986.

'The Ultimate Collection' released 7th Nov 1988, reached no higher than #6, but because of the time of year, was certified platinum for 300k sales by 8th Dec, and double platinum on 26th Jan 1989 - it would be certified 3x platinum in Nov 1994.

The Jazz Age is at No 2 in the iTunes Store Top 10 Jazz Albums in the UK, No 3 in Germany, No 4 in Austria, No 3 in Belgium and No 10 in Ireland.

Are all these charts Jazz charts or only the iTunes ?

Are all these charts Jazz charts or only the iTunes ?