Tom Petty’s ‘Live at the Fillmore’ Lights up Billboard Charts, Debuts In Top 10 on Album Sales

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ archival release Live at the Fillmore, 1997 debuts in the top 10 across a range of Billboard charts (all dated Dec. 10), including Top Album Sales, Top Current Album Sales, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Tastemaker Albums. It also launches in the top 40 of the all-genre Billboard 200, arriving at No. 35 — Petty’s 21st top 40 album.

Also in the top 10 on Top Album Sales: Taylor Swift’s Midnights holds at No. 1 for a sixth consecutive week as it surpasses 1.5 million in U.S. sales while the Cure’s Wish re-enters at No. 4 after its 30th anniversary reissue. Plus, Matteo, Andrea and Virginia Bocelli’s A Family Christmas hits the top 10 for the first time as it jumps 38-5 following the trio’s appearance on CBS’ Sunday Morning (Nov. 27) and NBC’s Christmas at Rockefeller Center special (Nov. 30).

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Top Current Album Sales lists the week’s best-selling current (not catalog, or older albums) albums by traditional album sales. Independent Albums reflects the week’s most popular albums, by units, released by independent record labels.  Vinyl Albums tallies the top-selling vinyl albums of the week. Tastemaker Albums ranks the week’s best-selling albums at independent and small chain record stores.

Live at the Fillmore, 1997 – which commemorates Petty’s 20-show run at the historic theater in 1997 – sold 16,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 1, according to Luminate. Live at the Fillmore was available in multiple configurations (with either 33 tracks on a standard edition or 58 tracks on an expanded version) that ranged in price from a basic $20 digital download album to a $550 uber deluxe collector’s boxed set with six vinyl LPs. All versions of the album are tracked together for sales and charting purposes.

Of Live at the Fillmore’s 16,000 sold, physical sales comprise 14,000 (with 9,000 on CD and 5,000 on vinyl) and digital album download sales comprise 2,000. The set features live takes of such songs as “American Girl,” “Free Fallin’” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”

At No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Swift’s Midnights holds atop the list for a sixth straight week (60,000 sold; up 5%). It’s the first album to sell at least 50,000 copies in each of its first six weeks of release in nearly a year, since Adele’s 30 also sold 50,000-plus in its first six frames (Dec. 4, 2021-Jan. 8, 2022-dated charts).

Midnights’ total U.S. sales now stand at 1.525 million – more than twice the sales of year’s second-largest selling album, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (678,000).

Michael Jackson’s Thriller is a non-mover on Top Album Sales with 18,000 sold (down 35%).

The Cure’s Wish re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 4 with 15,000 sold (up from a negligible sum the previous week) following its 30th anniversary reissue. The set, originally released in 1992, debuted and peaked at No. 2 on Top Album Sales and the Billboard 200. It’s the highest-charting effort for the act on the latter list.

Matteo, Andrea and Virginia Bocelli’s A Family Christmas vaults from No. 38 to No. 5 on Top Album Sales — its first week in the top 10 — with its best sales week yet, 14,000 (up 169%). The gain comes after the trio appeared on CBS’ Sunday Morning (Nov. 27) and NBC’s Christmas at Rockefeller Center special (Nov. 30). (The album’s title is truth in advertising: Matteo and Virginia are Andrea’s children, ages 24 and 10.)

Styles’ Harry’s House rises 9-6 on Top Album Sales with nearly 14,000 (up 28%), Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack climbs 11-7 with 13,000 (up 35%), Swift’s Folklore bumps 13-8 with 13,000 (up 57%) and another Swift set, Red (Taylor’s Version) rises 17-9 with 11,000 (up 33%). Most albums in the top 10 also benefit from Black Friday sale pricing and promotion at major retailers, as the tracking week reflected on the latest chart covers the Nov. 25 – Dec. 1 time frame (with Nov. 25 Black Friday).

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours rounds out the top 10 of Top Album Sales, vaulting 21-10 with 10,000 sold (up 31%) following the death of the band’s Christine McVie on Nov. 30.

In the week ending Dec. 1, there were 2.708 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 17.3% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 2.361 million (up 22.4%) and digital albums comprised 348,000 (down 8.8%).

There were 862,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Dec. 1 (up 18.1% week-over-week) and 1.485 vinyl albums sold (up 25%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 31.892 million (down 10.3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 36.871 million (up 3.4%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 87.949 million (down 8.1% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 69.265 million (down 3.3%) and digital album sales total 18.683 million (down 22.5%).