TITANIC RECORD SETS NEW RECORD

Although it has been nearly a month since Titanic sank from the top spot at the movie box office, the soundtrack from the movie continued to dominate record sales for the fifteenth consecutive week as it sold another 268,000 copies, bringing its total to nearly 7.5 million. The Sony release now holds the all-time record for an original soundtrack album, exceeding the 14-week record set by Exodus in 1962. Warner Bros. Records spokesman Bob Merlis told today's (Thursday) Los Angeles Times. "No. 2 is the virtual No. 1 these days because No. 1 is no longer within the realm of mortals." He noted that his company couldn't challenge the James Horner score even with releases by Madonna, Van Halen or Eric Clapton.

'Titanic' disc still No. 1 It's all-time soundtrack champ

By ADAM SANDLER, April 23, 1998

The soundtrack to Titanic has become the industrys longest-running soundtrack atop the album sales charts. The discs 15-week run at No. 1 bests the previous industry leader for a soundtrack, Exodus, and is honing in on the 17 weeks at No. 1 logged by Billy Ray Cyrus Mercury Records disc Some Gave All, in 1992. Though the Sony Classical/Sony Music Soundtraxs Titanic logged an impressive 268,000-copy tally, its sales were off by more than 140,000 copies from the previous week, and the drop reflected a thinning of the Easter weekend sales. During the holiday weekend, discs  particularly those boasting romantic themes  typically experience sales spikes. But the sales action was off across the board, as fewer than 10 of the charts top 200 albums posted increases, according to sales data released Wednesday, which covered the survey period ended April 19. Healthy retail Business is still good for this time of year, Russ Solomon, CEO of Tower Records and Video, told Daily Variety. A lot of records are selling good numbers, and theres a variety of artists, which is making it a healthy retail environment. At No. 2 was Celine Dions 550/Epic Records disc Lets Talk About Love with sales of 163,000 copies. Sales of the disc fell by more than 55,000 copies over the previous survey. The Reprise Records soundtrack to City of Angels jumped four slots to No. 3 on sales action of 152,000 copies, a 44,000-unit uptick from the previous week. The boost, which was no doubt aided by the pics No. 1 status at the box office, made the disc the lone ascender among the top 10. Savage Garden rose one slot to No. 4 on sales of 128,000 copies of its eponymous Columbia Records bow. The disc, which has been on the charts for more than a year, continues to be fueled by the single Truly, Madly, Deeply, which was the second-most played track last week behind Dions My Heart Will Go On, from her album and Titanic.

-- Dan Draghici (ddraghic@sprint.ca), April 23, 1998

Answers

-=W=-

-- Thomas M. Terashima (titanicShack@yahoo.com), May 13, 1998.