Eagles Restocked

Nielsen SoundScan had a last-minute revision that resulted in Eagles getting the No. 1 album in the country, topping Britney Spears, when SoundScan’s numbers were released November 7th.

As of November 7th, Britney sold 290,000 copies of Blackout – which became a distant second to the very respectable (these days) 711,000 copies of Long Road Out Of Eden. Eagles’ new two-disc album, the first new music the band has put out since The Long Run, is sold exclusively on the shelves of Wal-Mart, and digitally through WalMart.com.

Wal-Mart sales have never been excluded from SoundScan, according to a representative, but this is the first time it has released sales data for an exclusive title. That set the wheels in motion and Spears was quickly relegated, ya’ll.

Billboard, which uses SoundScan numbers and has had a rule to not report on units sold by a single retailer, has revised its philosophy – a sign of the times.

Eagles members were recently interviewed about their whole history by the Los Angeles Times. Don Henley said the decision to go with Wal-Mart was partly influenced by the company’s recent environmental initiatives.

Glenn Frey simply said, "If this is our last album, I wanted to sell as many copies as possible."

Eden is Wal-Mart’s best-selling CD in two years, according to the company.