The Genesis Trivia Quiz

  • Well not to be pedantic or anything, but...


    https://www.discogs.com/Genesis-Foxtrot/release/13490683

    I should have been a little more specific as to the UK being the country of origin, the question is correct for England. Both those albums were pressed on the pink label here only first. Before being moved over to the Mad Hatter label. Obviously they must have used it in different areas for longer. With not having access to any USA pressings I was unaware of Foxtrot also using it sorry.

    Edited 3 times, last by Wayne ().

  • I should have been a little more specific as to the UK being the country of origin, the question is correct for England. Both those albums were pressed on the pink label here only first. Before being moved over to the Mad Hatter label. Obviously they must have used it in different areas for longer. With not having access to any USA pressings I was unaware of Foxtrot also using it sorry.

    I was under the impression that Foxtrot didn't come with the pink label. Must be only the US copy, I didn't know that. So there's another vinyl to look out for.!!

  • Anyway I'm away right now. Managing to relax , a bit of hot tubbing, a bit of reading , a bit of Genesising, a bit of eating and a lot of drinking. As I peruse this site have mused over a question and came across a bit of trivia. ( Which I'll discuss after the answer) But I need to check it out and I can't find the answer for sure and am not hunting around the net right now.


    SO, this is the question and and I don't have the answer but someone here will tell me and then set the next question.


    Rank the Genesis albums in terms of all time sales. I know the highest few and lowest one but the midrange I can't find and I think there is a suprise if I'm right.

  • 1. IT

    2. WCD

    3. Genesis

    4. Duke

    5. Abacab

    6. CAS

    7. ATTWT

    8. Lamb

    9. TOTT

    10. W&W

    11. SEBTB

    12. Foxtrot

    13. NC

    14. Trespass

    15. FGTR


    So... Not quite in reverse chronological order. BTW I haven't researched this. It's a guess!

  • The piece of trivia I came across in a book I brought away with me is that CAS outsold all the PG Genesis albums bar TLLOB, and that surprised me, but I couldn't find a list very easily to double check it. According to your guess it outsold them all. Although in comparison to IT and WCD it flailed , (though what would anyone expect) it wasn't such a failure then as it's believed to be especially if it's based on recent figures. Anyway, does anyone have the definitive answer?

  • https://tsort.info/music/6yw5gb.htm


    This link gives a list of albums and best charted history...similar to early list...although the Lamb slightly higher

    That must be it. The trivia I came across was that CAS was the ninth best selling studio album outselling all the PG era albums bar the lamb and W&W and SO. Also I see it outsold Live over Europe. Quite surprising. (So that would have been my straight forward question but couldn't find the info verify it easily). Surprising how difficult it seems to be to find an up to date list of actual sales . Also surprising to to see where CAS ranks on the sales figures. Didn't do to badly.

  • That must be it. The trivia I came across was that CAS was the ninth best selling studio album outselling all the PG era albums bar the lamb and W&W and SO. Also I see it outsold Live over Europe. Quite surprising. (So that would have been my straight forward question but couldn't find the info verify it easily). Surprising how difficult it seems to be to find an up to date list of actual sales . Also surprising to to see where CAS ranks on the sales figures. Didn't do to badly.

    I'm not that surprised about CAS's sales. They remained a key band for Europeans especially, where they've had a very faithful devoted fanbase from early on and a new album and lineup was always going to be an attraction. I think many of us regard the album as a sort of appendix to their career, not especially great and I've even seen people here say they don't regard it as a 'proper' Genesis album. All those views create a sense of it being a poor relation among their work and maybe in that context it can seem surprising it sold fairly well.


    I agree, it's oddly difficult to pin down straightforward sales figures.*


    *EDIT: a footnote on that site explains that websites - including their own! - are not reliable sources of information on global album sales.

    Abandon all reason

    Edited once, last by Backdrifter ().

  • https://tsort.info/music/6yw5gb.htm


    This link gives a list of albums and best charted history...similar to early list...although the Lamb slightly higher

    That backs up my thought about the top 3, although the sequencing belies the higher sales figure they give for WCD.


    Interesting that once you get past the trio years in pretty much reverse chron order, taking out non-regular studio albums the Lamb is the next highest.


    They've been pretty detailed in listing all live/comps etc but am I missing Archive 2 or is it not there?

    Abandon all reason

  • I'm not that surprised about CAS's sales. They remained a key band for Europeans especially, where they've had a very faithful devoted fanbase from early on and a new album and lineup was always going to be an attraction. I think many of us regard the album as a sort of appendix to their career, not especially great and I've even seen people here say they don't regard it as a 'proper' Genesis album. All those views create a sense of it being a poor relation among their work and maybe in that context it can seem surprising it sold fairly well.


    I agree, it's oddly difficult to pin down straightforward sales figures.*


    *EDIT: a footnote on that site explains that websites - including their own! - are not reliable sources of information on global album sales.

    There are a lot of issues with album sales figures going back over a couple of decades. largely due to old record companies having been taken over, HQ's changed, and old paperwork being lost or disposed of. Decca, for example, have changed hand and moved HQ's a couple of times since 1980, (Now owned by Universal, though that evolved from the US arm of Decca that was splintered off years earlier.) and as a result, sales figures for the preceding era are largely lost.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!