Using math to measure the "biggest comebacks" of all time

[badrobot]

I mentioned her in passing but I remain impressed by Nelly Furtado’s comeback with Loose. Not just bouncing back but doing it with multiple #1s. I don’t think she even had any singles chart from her sophomore album.

[85la]

Feb 5, 2018 9:17:01 GMT -5 jebsib said:

Elton John and Mariah Carey had huge stretches of hits early in their careers, followed by periods where they became the butt-of jokes (a point at which few can come back from) to launch monster returns.

I'm curious to know what you think Elton John's low period and what his comeback was, because looking through his chart history, he did seem to slip a bit in the late 70s and 80s, but from the beginning of his career up until the Lion King era at least, he seemed to have a fairly steady stream of top ten hits (to a lesser extent his albums, but most of those made at least the top 20). It seems like you might be referring to Candle in the Wind 1997 as his comeback, but I wouldn't really count that since it was a re-working of an older track meant as a charity tribute to a deceased public figure.

[badrobot]

^If I recall correctly, Elton John had a crazy record like having a top 40 hit every year of his career for 30 years straight (1970-1999) so I'd be curious what his "low period" would be — he seems like he was consistently doing well. I remember hearing about low points in his personal life but it doesn't seem like his chart career was ever really thrown off much?

[85la]

^ Yeah, kind of the point I was making. It definitely seems though that after 1999, he hasn't had much chart action, aside from a quickie top-ten debuting album here and there.

[badrobot]

Feb 7, 2018 1:18:44 GMT -5 85la said:

^ Yeah, kind of the point I was making. It definitely seems though that after 1999, he hasn't had much chart action, aside from a quickie top-ten debuting album here and there.

Sorry i shouldn’t have pointed to your post, I was agreeing with you. :)

[jebsib]

Elton John's low chart point was from 1977 through 1980. He had been the most celebrated pop star of the early mid 70s, the first act to ever have an album debut at #1 (actually 2!) and close to 12 top 10s in a row.

At some point in 1976 - possibly due to the Rolling Stones interview where he came out of the closet - his career shifted dramatically, and his top 10 songs immediately dried up. There was massive backlash to his success: Peter Frampton became 'the new Elton'; A disco single backfired; Nothing hit the top 20 for years - and when they finally did - they were considered unremarkable. As a mater of fact, nothing was considered a BIG comeback (by Billboard, R&R or Entertainment Tonight) until "I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That" in mid 1988. (BTW, this was AFTER "Candle in the Wind", "I'm Still Standing" and "I Guess That's Why,", etc .. songs that charted admirably, that we NOW consider classics, but at the time were kind of lost in the avalanche of new wave / MTV glamor). Through it all, Elton did manage a top 40 hit every year… but he was still considered a has-been / joke by many in the mainstream by that time.

[areyoureadytojump]

She blinded me with science math...

[Unhinged]

Because I have a incessant need to include him in everything, how about Michael Jackson with HIStory?

At the time MJ was coming off the hugely successful Dangerous album, yes, but HIStory was also his first album since the 1993 scandal hit. His public perception at the time was at an all time low (especially in the US) and there was some major uncertainty with how his new album would be received. Many thought he was done.

The album's first single "Scream" debuted at No. 5 on the Hot 100 which was a record at the time and the following single "You Are Not Alone" became the first to debut at No. 1.  "Earth Song" was also his biggest hit in the UK spending 6 weeks at No. 1.

Meanwhile, the HIStory album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with his highest first week sales (391,000) and managed to spend two weeks at No. 1. Keep in mind that History was a double album so he basically shifted almost 800,000 units in his debut week and just over 525,000 the week following (263,000).

While the album cooled off in the US in late 1995/early 1996, it was still huge internationally and went on to become the biggest selling double album of all time with sales of 20 million world wide. I believe it is 7X platinum in the US.

I guess it could be argued that he sold as much as he did with this album based on name recognition and the fact that it included a greatest hits disc but I think it was still impressive (though at the time the album was considered a flop).

[badrobot]

Feb 7, 2018 10:48:30 GMT -5 Unhinged said:

Because I have a incessant need to include him in everything, how about Michael Jackson with HIStory?

At the time MJ was coming off the hugely successful Dangerous album, yes, but HIStory was also his first album since the 1993 scandal hit. His public perception at the time was at an all time low (especially in the US) and there was some major uncertainty with how his new album would be received. Many thought he was done.

The album's first single "Scream" debuted at No. 5 on the Hot 100 which was a record at the time and the following single "You Are Not Alone" became the first to debut at No. 1.  "Earth Song" was also his biggest hit in the UK spending 6 weeks at No. 1.

Meanwhile, the HIStory album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with his highest first week sales (391,000) and managed to spend two weeks at No. 1. Keep in mind that History was a double album so he basically shifted almost 800,000 units in his debut week and just over 525,000 the week following (263,000).

While the album cooled off in the US in late 1995/early 1996, it was still huge internationally and went on to become the biggest selling double album of all time with sales of 20 million world wide. I believe it is 7X platinum in the US.

I guess it could be argued that he sold as much as he did with this album based on name recognition and the fact that it included a greatest hits disc but I think it was still impressive (though at the time the album was considered a flop).

Hmm — I think what we're seeing in a lot of these examples (Bieber and Elton also come to mind) is a distinction between personal drama and chart success.

If you look at MJ's career separate from his personal life, he consistently had long gaps between albums, and if anything HIStory comes across as a bit of a letdown when you look at it that way — the debut positions of Scream and You're Not Alone are impressive, but that was also during the very brief period in the mid-90s where chart rules and label decisions made it fairly common for big artists to debut high (I am taking a US focus here), and none of the other singles made a significant impact on the charts.

It is impressive that he was able to somewhat bounce back and have some hits after his scandal, but sadly I think the closest thing he had to a comeback was after his death — had chart rules been different, he would've been all over the Hot 100, and of course he managed a top ten with Justin Timberlake posthumously. I think a new generation got re-exposed to his music.

[85la]

Feb 7, 2018 8:28:43 GMT -5 badrobot said:

Feb 7, 2018 1:18:44 GMT -5 85la said:

^ Yeah, kind of the point I was making. It definitely seems though that after 1999, he hasn't had much chart action, aside from a quickie top-ten debuting album here and there.

Sorry i shouldn’t have pointed to your post, I was agreeing with you.

No problem lol, and thanks for the clarification jebsib.

[brady47]

Feb 6, 2018 3:11:07 GMT -5 badrobot said:

I mentioned her in passing but I remain impressed by Nelly Furtado’s comeback with Loose. Not just bouncing back but doing it with multiple #1s. I don’t think she even had any singles chart from her sophomore album.

Loose was decent in the US - 2 #1 singles, (3 if you count "Give It To Me"), and was 2x platinum.

She DOMINATED worldwide though, Promiscuous, Maneater, Say It Right and All Good Things has to be one of the biggest 1-2-3-4 punches ever. Promiscuous was her biggest hit in America, Maneater was biggest in UK and huge in Europe, All Good Things was her biggest hit in Europe, and Say It Right was her biggest hit overall.

[rockgolf]

I'm sorry, I cannot consider 3 years as a long enough period for a comeback.

How about the Four Seasons, who could be considered to have 2 comebacks? In 1974 and again in the 90s when Dec 1963 recharted.

Or The Contours with Do You Love Me? Or for that matter, the Beatles with Twist & Shout.

[Gary]

Those aren't comebacks - those are old singles being reissued, in my opinion.

A "comeback" to me means the band and/or artist had a bunch of hits - left for a while then came back to record new hits

The closest "comeback" and only "comeback" the Beatles had was in 1996 when they did Free As A Bird/Real Love

[brady47]

Cher's comeback with "Believe" was pretty epic

Some other smaller comebacks (in terms of number of years) would be Madonna with "Confessions on a Dance Floor", Nelly Furtado's "Loose", Britney Spears "Circus" (in the US), and Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi" (in the US)