Barbra Streisand’s ‘Live at the Bon Soir’ Debuts in Top 10 on Album Sales Chart
Written by djfrosty on November 17, 2022
Barbra Streisand’s Live at the Bon Soir debuts in the top 10 on both Billboard’s Top Album Sales and Top Current Album Sales charts, and arrives as her 64th entry on the Billboard 200 — extending her record for the most total albums charted among women.
The archival live set was recorded in 1962 and was originally intended to be Streisand’s debut album for Columbia Records. Instead, the project was shelved and her first release for her longtime label was the studio effort The Barbra Streisand Album in 1963. (It was also her first charting album on the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 17 on the Aug. 17, 1963-dated list, later peaking at No. 9.)
Live at the Bon Soir sold 7,500 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Luminate, and bows at No. 8 on Top Album Sales and No. 7 on Top Current Album Sales.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Live at the Bon Soir’s 7,500 sold, physical sales comprise 5,000 (all on CD) and digital album download sales comprise 2,500. The album will be released on SACD and vinyl LP at a later date.
On the Billboard 200, Live at the Bon Soir bows at No. 150, marking Streisand’s 64th entry on the chart. That extends her record for the most charting albums among women. It’s also her ninth live project to chart on the list, and she’s logged at least one charting live album in each decade from the 1960s through the 2020s.
Streisand’s live albums on the Billboard 200:
Title, Peak Position, Peak Date
A Happening in Central Park, 30, Dec. 14, 1968
Live Concert at The Forum, 19, Jan. 6, 1973
One Voice, 9, June 6, 1987
The Concert, 10, Oct. 15, 1994
The Concert Highlights, 81, June 10, 1995
Timeless: Live in Concert, 21, Oct. 7, 2000
Live in Concert 2006, 7, May 26, 2007
The Music… The Mem’ries… The Magic! Live in Concert, 69, Dec. 30, 2017
Live at the Bon Soir, 150, Nov. 19, 2022
At No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Taylor Swift’s Midnights holds tight for a third straight week, with 93,000 sold (down 19%). In its first three weeks, the album has sold 1.348 million copies in the U.S.
Joji debuts at a career-high No. 2 on Top Album Sales, as Smithereens bows with 17,500 sold. Of that sum, CD sales comprise 13,000, bolstered by its availability in a Target-exclusive variant with alternative cover art, along with an array of deluxe box sets sold through the artist’s official webstore.
The Beatles’ Revolver falls 2-3 on Top Album Sales with 15,000 sold (down 68%) while the Stranger Things: Season 4 soundtrack re-enters at a new peak of, fittingly, No. 4 with 14,000 sold (up 2,067%), following its arrival on vinyl. Of that sum, vinyl sales comprise 13,000, enabling its debut at No. 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss – which launches atop the Billboard 200 – starts at No. 5 on Top Album Sales with 12,000 sold.
Home Free collects its highest charting effort on Top Album Sales, and third top 10, as So Long Dixie debuts at No. 6 with 8,000 sold.
Steve Lacy’s Gemini Rights bows at No. 7 with nearly 8,000 sold following its vinyl release. Nearly all of its sales for the week were driven by its vinyl LP (No. 3 debut on Vinyl Albums). Gemini Rights was released on streaming services and to purchase as a digital download album on July 15, but never sold enough to chart on Top Album Sales until its vinyl was released. It has yet to be issued on any other physical format other than vinyl.
Rounding out the top 10 on Top Album Sales is Berner’s From Seed to Sale (4-9 with 6,000; down 55%) and Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city (16-10 with 6,000; up 45% thanks to continued strong performance of its 10th anniversary reissue variants).
In the week ending Nov. 10, there were 1.749 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 8.1% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.363 million (up 10.2%) and digital albums comprised 386,000 (up 1.3%).
There were 631,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Nov. 10 (up 1.8 % week-over-week) and 720,000 vinyl albums sold (up 18.8%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 29.652 million (down 7.3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 33.294 million (up 3.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 80.993 million (down 6.7% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 63.412 million (down 1.7%) and digital album sales total 17.581 million (down 21.1%).