Hot Chilis bump the Drop

News release
February 21, 2007

Hot Chilis bump the Drop

A late burst of December sales by the Red Hot Chili Peppers has knocked Fat Freddy's Drop's Based On A True Story from its perch as the country's number one album for 2006.

The American rock group celebrates its 25th year in music in style with the quartet's Stadium Arcadium running down Fat Freddy's Drop's bolter debut album in the Christmas stakes.

Early in December it looked as though the local lads would head off the Red Hot Chili Peppers but after an enormous 88 weeks in The Chart, the Wellington collective's album lost ground to the group.

It was déjà vu for the seven piece; in 2005 Based On A True Story was pipped at the post by Englishman James Blunt's debut set Back To Bedlam.

Based On A True Story spent seven weeks at #1 during 2006, a week more than Bedlam and two weeks more than local eight-piece The Black Seeds' Into The Dojo, the country's 17th highest selling album.

Third highest selling album of 2006 was U2's 18 Singles while Back to Bedlam maintained its momentum into the year as the country's fourth most popular album lurking 36 weeks in the chart.

TV and the movies had an influence on what we bought as well. Disney's made-for-TV movie "High School Musical" with its cast of unknowns was the highest placed soundtrack of the year at #5.

Notable local successes in the year's top 40 were Brooke Fraser's Albertine at 10, Bic Runga's Birds at 28, Real Life from Evermore at 31 and the feelers' One World which came in one spot lower.

Other Kiwi artists in the top 50 were Blindspott with End the Silence at 39 and Yulia's Montage, the country's 44th best selling album.

Top selling single for 2006 was Gnarls Barkley's Crazy which spent seven weeks at number one. Although never topping the singles chart, Bathe in the River by the Mt Raskill Preservation Society and Hollie Smith was the third highest selling single of the year.

The number one DVD of 2006 was Pink Floyd's P.U.L.S.E. Crowded House came in at eight with Farewell to the World and Shihad's Love Is The New Hate: Live At Aotea Square was the tenth highest selling DVD.

Heading the top compilations for 2006 was Now That's What I Call Music 22 with 20 and 21 claiming second and third spots.

The figures are compiled by Media Sauce Ltd for the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) which has just released The Official Chart sales data to December 31. The figures are for across-the-counter sales to consumers.

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