World of Weird Al Yankovic

iTunes sales, more likely.

weirdojace wrote:iTunes sales, more likely.

It's better than nothing.

From what I've heard off the album though (the Leaks, PTW, and Polkaface at the concert last year), the only song I haven't liked is Ringtone so I am definitely looking forward to the finished copy of the album.

OK, The Lonely Island managed to chart at #3, making it the second highest charting comedy album of all time. It's going to take a lot for Al to beat that, but it's possible, and with the help of word of mouth, the album might even make it to #1.

How many units did the Lonely Island sell? I would say that number represents the absolute ceiling of Alpocalypse's potential sales.

68,000

My prediction? Al will do less than that but comfortably more than Poodle Hat (48K). But he'll still have a higher chart debut than SOL.



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And SOL sold 73,000 copies in its first week, but of course that was 2006 and it had W&N.

I would love for Alpoc to have a better first week than Lonely Island, so anything in the 69-70,000 range would be perfect. But that would all depend on how well received the PTW video will be.

But as of this week's chart (for June 4), if Al had hypothetically sold only 24,000 copies it would have bested SOL's debut position, just saying. Now, Lady Gaga herself might throw a monkey wrench in that for the next week or so as she's expected to sell a million in her first week, but barring some major unforeseen defection from fans, Al should easily do better on the chart than SOL's #10.

The only major, major album that comes out between now and Alpocalypse is the Lil Wayne album (Which comes out in the same week).

So assuming Lady Gaga still has a stranglehold on the charts at that point, and Adele holds on through the Gaga Onslaught, that's three albums guaranteed to be higher than Alpocalypse (So no higher chart position than Lonely Island, unfortunately).

But nothing else is coming out that'll be in the top ten for more than a few weeks. Death Cab For Cutie is probably the only safe bet to be in for a few weeks, the only other notable albums are well known but cultish alternative bands (Flogging Molly, My Morning Jacket, Arctic Monkeys) and niche projects by well known artists (An experimental album by Eddie Vedder, a live album from Def Leppard, and an EP from Bad Meets Evil, an Eminem side project).

But this is why we can't get caught up in Al "defeating" Lonely Island. They released their album with hardly any competition. SOL came out in a brutal sales week (Ludacris, Alan Jackson, Janet Jackson) which was in a brutal sales month (Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, John Mayer, Clay Aiken, Fergie). The fact that SOL even got close to the top ten (Let alone made it) was impressive as all get out.

Al getting another top ten album in this market is pretty much a foregone conclusion. A top 5 isn't out of the question, though that's a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig stretch. A more realistic goal in this market (And better in the long run) is Alpocalypse debuting high and then sticking around in the upper reaches of the charts for a while.

I saw yesterday that Al tweeted that so many people got on the link to preorder the album that it crashed so that has to be a good sign right? It seems that Twitter will help Al out a lot.

This could be Al's first number one album, though. Screw Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, all of them! This will be a number one!

I really hope he finally gets his number one! He's waited long enough..! And you know that Al would truly appreciate it if it happened.