Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah returns to the charts with a deluxe fiftieth anniversary reissue, surging 401,000% in sales and landing multiple top 10 debuts. Members of the rock group Grateful Dead are Bill Kreutzman (striped shirt), Jerry Garcia (black shirt and jacket), Mickey Hart (“God is Sound” T-shirt), Phil Lesh (white T-shirt), Bob Weir (Duke sweatshirt), and Brent Mydland. (Photo by © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG via Getty Images)
Corbis/VCG via Getty Images
The Grateful Dead is back on the Billboard charts this week. The legendary jam rock outfit returns with a title that longtime fans, and even perhaps casual listeners, are already familiar with.
The set Blues for Allah is one of the most memorable in the outfit’s discography, and this frame in America, the full-length finds its way back to one of the most important tallies in the United States, while simultaneously debuting on several others thanks to a special anniversary reissue, which helped the set experience an incredible sales spike.
Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah Surges 401,000% in Sales
After a new deluxe edition of Blues for Allah was released for superfans, the album sold just over 12,000 copies throughout the U.S., according to Luminate. The week prior, it only managed single-digit purchases. From one frame to the next, Blues for Allah experienced a sales increase of 401,000% – a rare sight for any title.
Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah Debuts in the Top 10
That large increase in pure purchases helps Blues for Allah debut inside the top 10 on two Billboard rankings this frame. The title opens highest on the Vinyl Albums chart, where it comes in at No. 4. The project also manages to crack the highest tier on the Top Album Sales list, as it enters at No. 8.
How Many Top 10 Albums Does the Grateful Dead Have?
As Blues for Allah arrives, the Grateful Dead adds to its ever-growing roundup of top 10 successes on both lists. Throughout the years, the rockers have sent 21 projects into the highest tier on the vinyl-only ranking.
The group is far more successful on the Top Album Sales chart, which is not specific to any one format or genre. On that roster, the Grateful Dead have reached the top 10 with 48 different releases, and 134 albums and EPs from the group have appeared somewhere on the ranking.
How Blues for Allah Performed on Rock and Alternative Charts
Blues for Allah also manages to arrive on another pair of Billboard rosters, but it comes in just beneath the top 10. The Grateful Dead favorite starts off at No. 14 on the Top Rock Albums chart, and just three spaces lower on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums tally, which is slightly busier, as it includes all subgenres of rock. Grateful Dead only needs a few more appearances on both of those genre-specific lists to make it to 100 wins, a landmark that the act will likely hit at some point.
Grateful Dead Reenters the Billboard 200
The Grateful Dead also appears on one other tally in the U.S. this week, as Blues for Allah reenters the Billboard 200. On that roster, the album comes in at No. 81. That’s a far cry from its No. 12 peak, which it reached decades ago.
As Blues for Allah returns, it hits 14 weeks on the chart, which ranks the most consumed albums throughout America. Blues for Allah debuted on the Billboard 200 in the mid-1970s when it was first released and quickly became one of the group’s most successful titles.
Blues for Allah reaches the Billboard 200 with 12,300 equivalent units moved throughout the country. That sum is made up almost entirely of actual purchases, although streaming equivalents and sales of individual tunes from the album added a few hundred equivalent copies to its total, helping it find space once more inside the upper half of the chart.
Grateful Dead’s Limited History on the Hot 100 Explained
Grateful Dead released Blues for Allah on September 1, 1975, after recording it earlier that year. The jazz rock and progressive-leaning set was the band’s eighth studio album and has been noted as a shift for the group toward improvisation, which would become a hallmark of the jammers.
Blues for Allah is also remembered for its commercial success, as it gave the Grateful Dead one of the band’s only hits on the Hot 100. Despite charting well over 100 albums on various Billboard rankings, the outfit has only ever reached the Hot 100 songs tally with half a dozen cuts. “The Music Never Stopped,” one of two singles pushed from Blues for Allah, debuted on the tally in October 1975 and peaked at No. 81 just a few weeks later.
What’s Included in the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of Blues for Allah?
To honor Blues for Allah’s fiftieth birthday, a three-disc anniversary deluxe edition was delivered in mid-September. The new version includes a remastered edition of the album people already know, as well as a recorded sound check, a rehearsal, and various recordings from several concerts. Longtime Grateful Dead fans are used to consuming live recordings, so this is nothing new, and the success of Blues for Allah speaks to not only the band’s continued popularity, but also the fan base’s demand for any bit of music from the act, no matter how it was recorded or when.
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