Most played Smiths and Morrissey songs on UK Radio (recent month)

This list is from the most recent month's worth of airplay figures:

1. This Charming Man (41 plays) Marr
2. First of the Gang (39) Whyte
3. How soon is now (31) Marr
4. Suedehead (29) Street
5. Panic (23) Marr
6. Irish Blood (17) Whyte
7. What difference (16) Marr
8. Bigmouth strikes again (14) Marr
9. There is a light (13) Marr
10. Heaven knows (12) Marr
11. Every day is like Sunday (12) Street
12. The last of the famous (10) Street
13. The more you ignore me (10) Boorer
14. Ask (8) Marr
15. Boy with thorn (7) Marr

It's interesting to see these lists as they show you which songs the general radio-listening public would recognise.
If Morrissey was to perform at a festival, these are probably the songs that would go down the best, or at least that most people would be able to sing along to.
Not surprisingly, the Marr contributions dominate although, less predictably, Alain's First of the Gang nearly takes the top spot.
The list shows Street in a pretty good light. He only wrote 5 singles for Morrissey, and 3 are in the top 15. That's probably a better strike rate than Marr.

It doesn't generally reflect well on Morrissey's post-Smiths repertoire. Nearly 4 times as many songs but it's still the Marr compositions that dominate.
I would argue this is partly due to consistently poor choice of single. Had he released his most melodic and catchiest songs over the years (e.g. Staircase, Now My Heart, Nobody Loves Us, When last I spoke to Carol, etc) I reckon the airplay list would be quite different.

Do it by album sales , say the first five years of release, and it comes out differently still. Add downloads or even do downloads and you get something different again perhaps by generation. Statistics are fun

 

[Anonymous]

Yes,I wonder how long it will be before people don't want or need to have that object,something tangible to hold. By having an object(tape,record,c.d) there was always the feeling(yes an illusion) that it brought one closer to the artist.

With a different generation moving in,who does not (in most cases) have the need,feeling or desire for this(you don't miss what you never had) ,then yes... out with old in with the new brave world.

Last purchase was Bowie 'Blackstar' on c.d. I could have downloaded it,but it was just the knowledge that it will be the last time for a release from him. Just had to.

Yeah but they're are so many interesting other ways to feel connected to the artist that they do have or will wuch as the personal chatting a lot of younger bands do or being able to remix or rework radio head demos etc which has been done. To communicate directly with the artist is interesting and a very connecting experience. Being born in 1980 gives me a weird perspective and experience for both. I remember when it was just CDs and I remember my first download which was great as the only place that sold CDs was like at least an hours drive away and being poor I could barely afford to get anywhere and that's not until I could even drive. I loved being able to get the albums of bands I could only hear about in some strange word of mouth as it made my musical world actually possible to open. I'd love to think what it would have been like if I'd had even YouTube growing up to just be exposed to things that would have never come to me without the internet. I could be influenced by music from all time periods and genres and have my mind opened faster and wider than without it

 

[Cornflakes]

Be neat to see the sales for each over time as viva hate has been on sale for much longer than say ringleader which is not my fav album and then to see it correlated to cd sales or album sales in general over the same period of time. Just curious

Viva Hate was released in 1988, certified gold in the UK in 1988 and gold in the US in 1993. This means it sold at least 600,000 copies in the first five years. Accounting for differing levels of music sales doesn't make much difference. Although sales were in decline in 2006, when Ringleader was released, they were at about the same level (in fact, very slightly higher) than in 1988 - about $12 billion (in 2011 dollars). So, even trying to make the comparison as fair as possible, Viva Hate still massively outsold Ringleader.

Morrissey's strongest period commercially is 1986-89, and that's mainly down to US sales. Of the six albums he or the Smiths released from TQID to Bona Drag, five went gold in the US (meaning 500,000 copies sold). The most a Morrissey album sold outside that period is 366,000 (Your Arsenal), although Singles sold about 400,000.

 

[Anonymous]

Viva Hate was released in 1988, certified gold in the UK in 1988 and gold in the US in 1993. This means it sold at least 600,000 copies in the first five years. Accounting for differing levels of music sales doesn't make much difference. Although sales were in decline in 2006, when Ringleader was released, they were at about the same level (in fact, very slightly higher) than in 1988 - about $12 billion (in 2011 dollars). So, even trying to make the comparison as fair as possible, Viva Hate still massively outsold Ringleader.

Morrissey's strongest period commercially is 1986-89, and that's mainly down to US sales. Of the six albums he or the Smiths released from TQID to Bona Drag, five went gold in the US (meaning 500,000 copies sold). The most a Morrissey album sold outside that period is 366,000 (Your Arsenal), although Singles sold about 400,000.

I can see the outselling of ringleader as I put it at the bottom of my list and I can see viva selling a bunch as of ninety three with it being his first outside of the smiths but arsenal at least here got a bunch of attention which can also help the the previous albums continue selling. Also this uses Rica shipment numbers minus returns as according to sounds an the numbers come back as being different. Still neat to look at though. They shipped five hundred thousand but sounds can says they sold a lot less. Also just as an amusing side the viva hate wiki states that though credited to street he wrote the album with Vinci which is then backed up by tony Wilson. I found that pretty funny and the statements by Vinci were pretty good natured in the end. Wonder why he didn't keep writing with street if the sales were so good and the work of such high caliber

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry meant to say minus the albums returned as according to sound scan they did not all sell. My bad