Chart Performance Quotes

It's not about what hits Billboard or how many views you got on a video. It's about copies sold. It's about streams, you know?

I've only had one platinum album, and it's 'Red River Blue'.

I had no idea 'Big Green Tractor' was going to be as big a hit as it was. You just can't predict those things.

I can't control how high my song goes on the charts, you know what I mean. I mean, I can sway it a little bit by working as hard as I can, hopefully being a decent person and giving good interviews and working hard on the road and being nice to people and shaking hands and doing everything you can do.

Xscape never had a flop album as a group. The reason we broke up never had anything to do with sales.

There were a lot of songs during my MCA years that I thought should have been singles but were not. You can't worry about what wasn't - I was very lucky to have as many hits as I had.

And for it to make the statement the way that it did, for 'Controlled Chaos' to debut in the Top 10 of the iTunes rock chart... We debuted behind Queen and Chris Cornell, so it's not like we were just hidden away in the back of the instrumental metal category.

I have to write pretty songs; that's what gets them on the charts.

Def Jam, they've shown nothing but love as far as supporting my records. We haven't missed yet, radio-wise, and every song that they've actually tried to support has been No. 1.

I haven't had a big hit record in America since 1987.

'Fool If You Think It's Over' is still the only song I've ever not played guitar on, but it just so happened to be my first single, and it just so happened to be a massive hit. It was in the U.S. Top 10 for seven weeks.

I wouldn't consciously pursue trying to make something for the charts. It's just not in my scope now. I'd rather stick needles in my eyes.

I think our first record was a fluke, really. The fact that it went platinum and all that, it was all due to one video and the timing being just right.

Our first single, 'Ticket To Ride', was a kind of half-hit, half flop: in some places it was number one, in others it was ash-tray material.

You never know until a song comes out and becomes what it becomes, obviously you can't predict how the masses will react.

We call them impact songs, and people buy impact songs. But you just never know what those songs are going to be. One of those songs that really went through the roof for us was 'Big Green Tractor,' which I thought was kind of a fun little ditty song that I never in a million years thought would be as big as it was. But it was.

The packaging of Led Zeppelin's IV doesn't have the name of the band, doesn't have the name of the album: It's got a guy on the cover with a load of sticks on his back. This record didn't quite get to No. 1 in the United States - it went to No. 2 - but stayed on the charts for years and years and years.

Deep down, I always had a belief I would get on the charts.

When you do a record like 'Talk,' and you're happy with it, and it reaches your ambitions and then doesn't sell as well as you wanted, it kind of takes the wind out of your sails a little.

No. 1 records are fine, but in 2016, they just don't mean as much any more - the currency has changed.

'She's Country' obviously changed a lot of things for us and pretty much, I think, doubled our crowd size in just a few months time.

When 'Flaws' went to No 21, we thought it was the most chart-bothering thing we'd ever do. We had a little party and started thinking about the next album.

I try and keep up with the top 10 on iTunes.

Because record companies do not routinely release sales figures the way film studios do, the weekly charts in trade publications like 'Billboard' provide the best independent measure of record appeal.

Obviously Spawn was at the top of the charts at that point so you get a lot of opportunities.