I think Rick said it best in one of his latest interviews on the current press tour "this record has debuted higher than almost any record i have ever had". That right there shows the accomplishment of his first week Number 28 debut moving 16,000 units.

Now the number may make people say "big deal" but its not about that number, its more about the fact that Rick has not had a Top 40 single or album since 1988's "Rock of Life", second, Rick is 58 years old, and these times are VERY AGE conscious times, and third would be, this is an ALL NEW record. This debut is not based on a HITS record, nor is this Rick doing tracks wth Timbaland or Lil Wayne, this is not Rick pulling a Rod Stewart or Barry Manilow and singing standards to get that "audience", this is Rick doing a straight ROCK/POP record the way it should be done, the way he always did it, and breaking through. Oh and by the way, he did it from his website on his label with help from an indie label called "New Door Records"

So its time to recognize the facts and give props to the guy. First fact, he's not a one hit wonder, hes had 18 top 40 hits, 16 of them coming in a row during 1981-1985, a feat only matched by Madonna,Michael and Janet. He had 4 straight multi-platnum albums during 1981-1984, also putting him in that icon-group. Next would be that Rick was/is not an ACTOR that suddenly started singing, Rick's first hit came in 1972 and peaked at number 14, was called "speak to the sky" and during the 1972-1980 years before "Jessies Girl" rick had 5 albums released, and even "working class dog" was done before he appeared on General Hospital in 1981.

More facts to come.....Including ONE that if in place today, every new artist would be out of the industry.

We just added "What's Victoria's Secret?" to the NewPowerRadio rotation this week.

That is cool. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the tip!

You know it actually doesn't surprise me now. The success of older acts this year has been incredible. Whether you like the artist or not Motley Crue, Journey, Judas Priest, Whitesnake have all had significant success with albums released on smaller labels. I really think its a turn in the tide and i don't think it's just older people buying this music either.

Yeah i totally agree, and for that 16,000 first week is a significant rise in the first week numbers of his previous few studio records in 2005 and 2004. Those records moved around 5,000 first week, granted they were very limited in stores because it was his own label, and now his label is getting more of a push, and also a deal with Amazon.Com for distribution (amazon tracks with soundscan, alotof his previous numbers werent tracked). As for the others i wasnt surprised to see Motley move albums, vh1 classic has been giving them some good play, Journey has really surprised me, even with the whole YouTube thing, they still have sold alot of records with no play.

As for the fact that i eluded to earlier. Early in Rick's career when his first album "beginnings" was released, and his first single "speak to the sky" was creeping into the top 20, a rumour started amongst the industry, questioning "how could this unknown singer (though it was number one in Aussie) climb the charts with almost no play", the rumour was that EMI was getting young girls into EMI and stores to buy the record. Now can you imagine if we called every artist into question for having a "HIT" out the box?? There would be NO ONE left, everyone now is a hit out of the box because they have to be, its bought that way.

RodeoSchro said:

Yeah its my fave album of the year, its blowing my mind, its fresh, its fast, it rocks, its got hooks, its perfect.