Just how popular was Deep Purple really in the US in the 70s?

I hope everyone realizes by now how the popularity of any rock band in the 70's was measured here in the US.

It's about what happened where you went to school. What happened on your local radio station. What your circle of 10 friends thought. What did your best buddies play most in their cars! This is how you measure success!

And Cal Jam answers everything as far as popularity for the 70's. That one gig tells the entire story for the entire decade. For example and please follow this indisputable logic. Since The Eagles played before Black Oak Arkansas at California Jam, we can surmise that in the 70's The Eagles were not as commercially successful as Black Oak Arkansas. This is a FACT!

Come on. This stuff is easy, folks. Look, I knew more people heavily into Sabbath than the other two bands, therefore they were the most successful. I post that now as if fact and then disappear from the thread and you bow to my in depth knowledge on the topic of rock 'n' roll.

 

I doubt that's even remotely close. I think their RRHOF press release says something like 100 million worldwide. (I remember seeing it but googling in vain.) Marketing...so maybe less than that...but I still doubt 10 million could be anywhere near accurate.

But...no data from me!

 

In 1973 I knew a guy who wasn't really much of a music nut, but he told me he just went and bought every single DP 8-track he could find. Now, the only data I have is personal experience, but I figure stuff like what I mentioned was fairly typical all across the good ole USA and probably worldwide. Especially when Purple was the biggest album seller of any artist in the US and or the Earth.

 

That's interesting, are you talking the '70s radio play or your '82 present ? I heard (not a ton ok?) a lot of DP songs besides the ones you've mentioned in the '70s at least. I was radio listenin' all through the '70s .My Woman From Tokyo was on a lot and popular when released as I recall?Burn was big when released. My wife hates Coverdale (A-L-O-T) but, I thought then and still do now the the album Burn was a heck of a recovery from losing one of the most golden voiced banshee screamin'singers in rock history!but it was the path going down right?

 

I hear you! I was mesmerized with what was coming out of my little clock radio when I as a kid at the turn of the '7os . Just blown away by what I was hearing through those years and I truly am so thankful to have been there when I look back nowadays.

 

That was in 1974.

 

Slim Whitman claims he sold 120 million, they must have had the same PR firm.
The Deep Purple sales numbers come directly from the RIAA, and count certified sales, rather than marketing. They are the ones who award the gold and platinum albums. So, I’d say their numbers are very accurate. Now, how you get 90 million more sales from the rest of the world is where the mystery is.

 

Certification has to be paid for and also updated. I've seen some certified figures that haven't been updated since the 70's.

 

Since Deep Purple has titles that have been certified in the 2000’s, I’m guessing any titles that would have reached another plateau would also been updated, particularly since they were pushing to get into the HOF.

 

I think a lot of sales figures are suspect. Some probably too high and some probably too low for all big selling artists.

Purple had some weird licensing deals and their number may even be higher. I doubt all those numbers were correctly reported. Sabbath maybe even more so. Does anybody think all those countless budget LPs and CDs that Meehan licensed out to Dorchester Holding are truly accounted for and accurate numbers reported? Maybe they are, I don't know.

Ozzy once said that he doesn't buy the number that's reported for Paranoid. 4 million certified in the US is it? He said something like: "Everybody has a copy of that album."

 

List of best-selling music artists - Wikipedia

All artists included on this list, which have begun charting on official albums or singles charts have their available claimed figures supported by at least 20% in certified units. That is why Cliff Richard, Diana Ross, Scorpions, Charles Aznavour, Bing Crosby, Gloria Estefan, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Tom Jones, The Jackson 5, Dionne Warwick, the Spice Girls, Luciano Pavarotti, Dolly Parton, Ozzy Osbourne, Andrea Bocelli and others have not been included on this list. The more recent the artist, the higher the required percentage of certified units, so artists such as Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Flo Rida, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Adele, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Nicki Minaj are expected to have their claimed figures supported by over 75% in certified units. The requirements of certified sales are designed to avoid inflated sales figures, which are frequently practiced by record companies for promotional purposes.


So, this is saying that the Deep Purple claim of “over 100 million albums sales worldwide”, doesn’t have at least 20 million supported in certified worldwide sales to back up their claim so they can be included on the list.

 

I heard them but really wasn't buying their albums - 13 at the time but well aware of the rok scene

Smoke on the Water dominated the summer it came out
The live album, highway star and my woman from toyko huge

Then they kind of receeded from the spotlight

 

It's really surpring to see that Whitesnake outsold Deep Purple in the States. Only Whitesnake albums from Slide It In onwards gained the commercial success in the US. Whitesnake's 1987(S/T) was a huge seller though. But it was a time when they hit MTV and turned into a hair band. Their pre-Slide It In output was pretty popular in the UK and Europe, in general, while then Whitesnake weren't on the US radar at all.

Also a Deep Purple earlier offshoot, a band Rainbow were pretty big in Europe, while they were barely noticed here, across the Atlantic Ocean. None of their albums even went Gold, while "Rising" was always a huge classic in Europe.

 

Jeez, I never really realized how lackluster Rainbow’s albums sales were in the US. I always had it in my mind that the first two were at least Gold records.

 

Man On The Silver Mountain was a big song on the radio at the time I recall .H school my friends & I dug this song but, you're right, I think that's all I heard as of radio play? Long Live Rock too ,maybe? Rainbow was known in my circle here in S. Ca. but, yeah under the radar in the US

 

Back in the day two friends of mine went to the Perfect Strangers show in San Diego (Triumph opened) and looking back I regret not pursuing that opportunity more aggressively . I think the show soldout? But, while I wasn't in a big DP fan mode as my two buddies were, that was a missed chance! Too many things at the time competing for what little $ I had (early twenties living w/room mates kind of life) Maybe other reasons why I didn't? Bottom line, blew it!

 

I recall a Playboy interview with Elton at his 70s height. He said, "nothing is guaranteed platinum unless it has my name on it, or Led Zeppelin".

Top tier among the 70s rockers (pop is a different planet with different rules): Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Pink Floyd (post-DSOTM), McCartney/Wings, Sabbath, maybe Bowie or Stewart/Faces, Elton, CSNY, Dylan. Acts like DP and Cooper, or even ELP might have had huge years but they all flamed out. Cooper went solo and it was all over. DP had the lineup changes. Aerosmith burned out on drugs, and on and on. The top tier endured, you heard them in the high school parking lots, in the college dorms and frat houses all through the decade. Even my prog heroes like Yes or Tull never sustained their height.

 

I used to listen to my local "classic rock" station a lot from about 87-92, and their Purple playlist was probably even more constricted to just "Smoke," "Highway Star," and "Woman From Tokyo." They'd already given up on the Perfect Strangers stuff, not too many years after it had come out. When Slaves and Masters came out in 1990, I heard "King of Dreams" once or twice. I do remember them once playing "Burn" around midnight, but it was one of those "did I really just hear that or was I dreaming?" type things.

 

And yet Aerosmith has as many certified sales as the Rolling Stones. While they nearly fell apart in the late 70s, few artists have been able maintain and grow commercial appeal over multiple decades like Aerosmith.

Bowie only has 9.5 million certified sales. He never had a really huge album in the States despite his critical acclaim.

 

What is interesting is how little influence Deep Purple has on contemporary bands when compared to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

I like Mk 2 Deep Purple but definitely get off the bus come Coverdale/Hughes when things become super cheesy to my ears. Although I quite like parts of Come Taste The Band.

 

I think their influence came more from Blackmore's guitar playing than the band itself. Lot's of 80s guitar shredders name Blackmore as a big influence.

 

I think Blackmore was a bigger influence on Eddie Van Halen than EVH has ever cared to admit.

Deep Purple had more of an influence on bands from Europe over the years, like Helloween, Iron Maiden, Yngwie's Rising Force, and Europe (the band).

 

.Thank the Lord.

 

Indeed! VH covered, during the club days:

Maybe I'm a Leo
Might Just Take Your Life
Man on the Silver Mountain

 

Deep Purple probably had a bigger influence than you noticed on NWOBHM, and is also very influential on some current artists in the Occult Rock genre.