Which pop musician/band has the highest ratio of Major Label Relases: Gold and Platinum records

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Lou Reed has released close to 25 albums on major labels and only two of them have gone gold (New York and Rock'n'Roll Animal). So that's a ratio of about 12:1. Can you think of an artist or band with a higher ratio? (There's a searchable database on the RIAA website, btw).

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Well if I am reading this right then Tom Waits has no gold or platinum records.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 4 October 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Also I am thinking some jazz guy (maybe Miles) has to have an insane ratio.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 4 October 2004 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm assuming most manufactured uberpop would have a 1:1 ratio (Spice Girls, Britney, Xtina etc) because when these guys stop going platinum, they simply cease to exist.

Rap figures would be interesting to look at.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 4 October 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah no jazz, different world and not a fair comparison. Waits is no longer on a major, by the way.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I was kind of shocked to see that none of Stevie Wonder's classic 70s albums have even made gold.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Uh, I'm not gonna check about Stevie, but is it possible you didn't look in the right place? I'm sure he has a couple platinums in there.

How does Randy Newman score? And what about blues guys?

― chuck, Monday, 4 October 2004 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Motown is notoriously lazy about submitting its albums for RIAA certification. Soundscan would tell a completely different story on Stevie, the Temptations, etc. -- but by RIAA standards, they're all gold- and platinum-free. :(

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

The RIAA site lists a few of Wonder's 80s albums as platinum, but nothing that came out before 1980.

xpost

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Randy Newman has two gold records (Short People and Little Criminals). Of course, he's released far fewer records as well - probably 12 or 14, right?

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Not even Songs in the Key of Life or Talking Book or Innervisions??

That makes no sense.

And Randy Newman has way more than 12 or 14 records. ("Short People" was a single, off Little Criminals. Do singles get computed into the ratio??)

― chuck, Monday, 4 October 2004 18:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Singles are also listed in the database, yeah.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

A label has to request certification from the RIAA for the album to achieve "gold" or "platinum" status. I suppose Motown eventually started submitting albums for certification in the '80s, but for reasons that elude me, no one ever bothered to request certification for the old albums. I'm not aware of any other labels of Motown's success level that have treated the certs with such indifference, and I'm surprised the artists don't talk about it.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:21 (twenty-one years ago)

How about Frank Zappa? A zillion releases, and not any gold records at all, I think.

Or doesn't Ryko count?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually for the purposes of this question I was talking about albums, if that's cool with everybody.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Sonic Youth have been on a major since 1990 (seven, eight albums released on Geffen?) -- no gold records.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Re Zappa - "Apostrophe" went gold, but isn't Ryko an independant?

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

>Singles are also listed in the database, yeah. <

yeah, but what's the definitive source for figuring out how MANY major label singles an artist has released over a lifetime? is there one? you would need one to compute a ratio, obviously.

Heh, maybe Motown's not a major anyway. Or at least it wasn't once.

Re Zappa: Didn't "Valley Girl" go gold?

I think only artists who have at least one gold record should count, anyway. Otherwise you are dividing by zero, which is mathematically impossible. (Unless zero is the numerator not denominator, in which case lots and lots of artists would be tied for first place.)

― chuck, Monday, 4 October 2004 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think Dusty Springfield ever scored a gold album. Her successes were limited to singles; even Dusty in Memphis only charted in the 90s.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

only artists who have at least one gold record should count

This sounds like a good rule. Do Best-Of's count?

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

That's fine -- although I originally posed this question to dig up which artists have been supported by major labels over long careers with few or no bona fide hits (the reason I didn't count indies is I hope obvious -- there are a million indie bands with 50 albums out & no gold records, b/c indies can relase records cheaply with no recording or marketing budget. Majors "commit" financially in ways that indies don't.)

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

So in in terms of the way I envisioned it, best-ofs would indeed count, b/c majors make money off of them (and thus recoup their investment.)

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom Waits still wins. Twenty plus years and sixteen plus albums on Elektra/Asylum and half a dozen greatest hits collections and still no gold albums. That he is currently on a HUGE indie doesn't make any difference to that.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

So Waits leads, then.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Trailing but worth mentioning - Todd Rundgren - 16 major label releases (if you count Bearsville/Warner as a major) and one gold record.

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Neither Karajan nor Bernstein had a lot of gold records, did they?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, I guess they don't qualify as pop though (but do rock acts that hardly sell at all?)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Btw. In the same breath, did Miles Davis ever have a gold record?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm too lazy to check on this, but have the Dead had more than one or two gold records? I don't imagine that anything besides American Beauty and the one with "Touch of Grey" sold all that well, but I'm not sure.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

did Miles Davis ever have a gold record?

One platinum, one multi-platinum, and one gold. (Bitches Brew, Kind of Blue, and Sketches of Spain, respectively.)

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

One platinum, one multi-platinum, and one gold. (Bitches Brew, Kind of Blue, and Sketches of Spain, respectively.)

Still a small percentage of his entire catalogue though.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

but have the Dead had more than one or two gold records?

Apparently, yes. Several multi-platinums as well.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Again, jazz is not a fair comparison, since marketing budgets, recording expenses, markets, etc. are totally different.

Incredibly, the Dead have like 25 Gold records. It looks as though this is b/c multi-disc sets count for number of discs (so a 4-CD Dick's Picks only has to sell 125,000 copies -- but still!) Both American Beauty & Skeletons from Closet are platinum.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

How about Babybird?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

The Manhattan Transfer have one gold and one platinum out of 20 or so albums.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The platinum is the Best Of naturally.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 4 October 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Miles has one Gold (Sketches of Spain) and two platinum (Kind of Blue & Bitches Brew).

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 5 October 2004 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

(but still, let's not count jazz ok?)

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 5 October 2004 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

How about Neil Young? I bet only a couple of those went gold or above.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Tuesday, 5 October 2004 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm totally wrong on Neil Young (I blame the beer).

But I don't know how much I trust the RIAA site, anyway. They always seem to underestimate, or at least they don't update enough. I remember Gordon Gano telling me that the first Femmes album - the one that everybody has or has had - was on paper forever just shy of gold, even though it had sold much more than that. Right now the RIAA lists it as platinum, even though I myself know more than a million people, personally, who have bought it.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Tuesday, 5 October 2004 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

What does it take to go gold? I thought Dirty went gold but Barry's right, Sonic Youth doesn't turn up on that database.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 00:19 (twenty-one years ago)

eight years pass...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/03/beatles-sgt-pepper-platinum-sales-award

― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Tuesday, 3 September 2013 12:34 (twelve years ago)

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