Alpocalypse Chart Watch & Speculation

[Quab]

Has any comedy musician ever gotten anywhere near number 1?

[ludovica64]

Top 30 album maybe, Top 10, very unlikely.

You honestly don't think he will sell at least 24,000 copies in the first week to make the top ten? That's half of what "Poodle Hat" did without the help of a music video.

Wow I had no idea that such low numbers were involved..

[ludovica64]

Some novelty/comedy records have been Billboard#1s
"The Purple People Eater" "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" "My Ding-a-Ling" "Disco Duck" are some that spring to mind

[spmahn]

Yes, but those all went #1 on the singles chart, not the album chart. The big single for this album came and went and wasn't even a blip on the radar. Sure, maybe it'll pick up some steam when the album / video come out, who knows. The album isn't going to go #1, keep dreaming, I'm willing to put money on that.

[giantlobsterrobot]

It seems that the biggest parody hit off Poodle Hat was "Ebay" instead of his lead, so it makes sense that even if PTW doesn't carry the album by release time, he can probably get a feel for what the "best" song off the album will be and promote with that by album time. There's a very great chance that the other parodies will be funnier than PTW. Even with the million+ views it got, when I went to the concert last weekend, the three people I went with had never heard that one before. There are probably people who will buy his cd when it comes out who will get the newness factor of the entire thing still.

It seems a bit hard to believe that a cd with a lead single that isn't his best work would hit number one, but the album seems very solid so far and he wasn't rushed to get the other songs done (most likely,) so they are probably better. That's why I am assuming that he is prepping to promote with PTW along with a second strong song. Only needing 24,000 albums sold seems very possible for a man who's fan-base still enjoys physical products to hold and sleep with... He has millions of fans around the country, and it's very possible that 30,000 of them will buy his cd upon its release.
That's also a benefit to doing so much collaborating with other talent. Fans of the animators will buy the cd. Fans of Taylor Hanson and guest musicians will buy the cd to hear their work and support them.

Also, do the deluxe versions and the regular versions count as the same album according to Billboard?
The fact that he doesn't even need to go gold in the first week to hit number one these days makes it seem very probable. I'm interested in seeing what his promotion strategy is the week before the release.

[weird_el]

Back in 1960 Bob Newhart had a #1 album. In 1963, Allan Sherman had 2. I don't think there's been any comedy albums at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 since then.

[Quab]

Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah?

[weird_el]

Hello Muddah reached #2 on the Hot 100 (singles). The album it came from, My Son the Nut reached #1 (albums).

[spmahn]

It seems that the biggest parody hit off Poodle Hat was "Ebay" instead of his lead, so it makes sense that even if PTW doesn't carry the album by release time, he can probably get a feel for what the "best" song off the album will be and promote with that by album time.

eBay charted at #15 on the bubbling under chart 3 years after it's release in what was more of a weird anomaly during the holidays in 2006 than any sort of referendum on the song . eBay wasn't any more or less successful than anything else on the Poodle Hat album, it just happened to have a brief resurgence of popularity much later on.

[TMBJon]

Born This Way and Tha Carter IV are both going to be above Alpocalypse on the chart, possibly some others. I think a top ten is very reasonable, a top five would be amazing. The thing no one here has mentioned about Perform This Way is that the video has not come out yet. Al could still be coming with an incredible video that's released a week or two before the album causing a huge surge in Weird Al awareness. I don't think the song being a month old is going to be such a problem. After all, Born This Way the album just came out last week but Born This Way the song came out four months ago. The original song is still very relevant and Lady Gaga's popularity is at an all-time high. If promoted well and spread virally this video could really be what drives sales for Alpocalypse in the first few weeks.