This week’s cover story about Kate Voegele identified her as “the best-selling locally spawned artist” of recent vintage, based on sales of 2008’s Don’t Look Away LP, her full-length debut. It should have identified her as the best-selling solo artist. She’s moved close to 300,000 albums to date.
The Black Keys have sold 671,000 records, between five LPs and one EP. The Keys’ recent live DVD has sold another 14,000 copies. Last year’s Danger Mouse-produced Attack and Release continues moving briskly, and is on track to break 174,000 by next week, according to figures Nielsen SoundScan provided Wednesday, May 27.
So the Black Keys are the best-selling locally based band. But Kate is way cuter. And Voegele’s new sophomore LP, A Fine Mess, has sold 38,000 since its release last week. The big numbers landed her at no. 10 on the Billboard album chart. The disc also topped the iTunes pop album chart.
All that reconciling words and figures prompted us to crunch some numbers and try to get a grip on who are the top-selling acts to come out of Cleveland in the last couple decades.
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2009.