From: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org (jewel-digest) To: jewel-digest@smoe.org Subject: jewel-digest V3 #708 Reply-To: jewel@smoe.org Sender: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jewel-digest Tuesday, December 15 1998 Volume 03 : Number 708 * If you ever wish to unsubscribe, send an email to * jewel-digest-request@smoe.org with ONLY the word * unsubscribe in the body of the email * . * For the latest information on Jewel tour dates, go to: * http://jewel.zoonation.com and click on "TOUR" * OR * go to the OFFICIAL Jewel home page at http://www.jeweljk.com * and go to the "What, When, Where" section * . * PLEASE :) when you reply to this digest to send a post TO the list, * change the subject to reflect what your post is about. A subject * of Re: jewel-digest V3 #xxx or the like gives readers no clue * as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Jewel in USA Today article about the seasons' CD sales [Mike Connell Subject: Jewel in USA Today article about the seasons' CD sales Here's the other article in todays' USA Today newspaper that mentions Jewel about six different times or so. Mike :-) *********** http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/lmds434.htm Garth atop fall album crop Garth Brooks wins by a landslide, thanks to hard campaigning and some ballot-box tinkering. Jewel unseats Whitney Houston in a surprise upset. Ice Cube's momentum is slowing to a glacial pace. And it's too early to tell if the Prince of Egypt is a dark horse or a lame duck. As results from the music industry's Super Tuesday continue to pour in, retailers are getting a clearer picture of what's hot and what's not this holiday season. A slew of high-profile albums released Nov. 17 predictably triggered a shopping frenzy, though not every candidate wowed the constituency. Brooks' Double Live broke two long-standing chart records by selling 1,085,000 copies in its first week, yet Houston's My Love Is Your Love failed to crack the top 10, selling only 123,000 copies to land at No. 13. Seal's Human Being trailed at No. 22 and has been free-falling since. While Super Tuesday discs by Jewel, Mariah Carey, Method Man, Ice Cube and the Offspring fared far better, none are in spitting range of Brooks, poised to remain a record store Goliath through December. "The most conspicuous winner from the Super Tuesday slate is Garth," says Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts. "He set a goal and met it, selling more records in the first three weeks than any other album in the SoundScan era. He did it largely through mass merchants. Other artists have sold better in record stores, but the department stores put him over the top." Nobody stumped harder. Thanks to a promotional blitz that included a live NBC special and closed-circuit broadcast to 2,400 Wal-Marts, Brooks unloaded 2.16 million albums in three weeks, breaking his own record set last year with Sevens. However, the industry is privately downplaying his first-week tally, which was considerably boosted by an accounting cycle shift at Handleman Entertainment Resources, which supplies Wal-Mart, Target and other chains. Its switch to the more common Monday-Sunday cycle gave Brooks an extra weekend of sales denied to earlier record-setters. Even Brooks can't sell enough records by Dec. 31 to capture 1998's top-seller title. That ship has sailed. The unsinkable Titanic soundtrack, launched in late 1997, has sold 9.14 million copies this year alone to lead the pack in 1998. Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love is a distant second with 5.53 million. The rest of the year's top 10 spots are held by, in descending order, Backstreet Boys, Shania Twain's Come on Over, City of Angels soundtrack, Savage Garden, Will Smith's Big Willie Style, Matchbox 20's Yourself or Someone Like You, the Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty and the Armageddon soundtrack. The ranking could change in the fourth-quarter stretch, as Christmas shoppers navigate through the logjam of superstar albums, most unleashed since September. "This has been an outstanding season because there have been very few disappointments," says Mike Shalett, chief of SoundScan, which has tabulated sales data since 1991. "This year looks really strong. Our numbers are rising almost 10% (over 1997)." Shalett credits part of that rise to the wide variety of music reaching a broad demographic, including increasingly active buyers over 35. They account for some of Jewel's surprisingly sturdy sales. Driven by the single Hands, her Spirit album is outpacing new efforts by mega-divas Houston and Carey. "It's the combination of a great song and her amazing appeal with males and females across the board," Shalett says. "She's shooting beyond anyone's expectations." One surprising negative factor: Balmy weather, especially on the East Coast, has had a chilling effect on record sales, Shalett says. Weather permitting, shoppers should be scooping up fall releases by Dion, Metallica, Jewel, 'N Sync "and all the usual suspects," says Stan Goman of Tower Records. "Alanis is still holding up. We're not a huge Garth seller, but we're doing well. Super Tuesday was OK, but it wasn't as super as everyone predicted. We thought November would be a lot better. There's nothing super-duper exciting out right now. There's no Titanic." Goman foresees brisk sales for box sets by Bruce Springsteen and John Lennon and for Hill's solo debut, which has sold 2.27 million copies since its Aug. 25 release. Though Super Tuesday albums are healthy, earlier releases are showing remarkable staying power: 'N Sync's self-titled debut, out March 24, has sold 2.8 million copies and is No. 3 in Billboard (its new Home For Christmas is No. 9). Twain's 14-month-old Come on Over, returning this week to the top 10, is at 3.96 million. "Having a whole bunch of records released in a two- or three-week period is not going to increase business overall," says Goman. "It doesn't make up for the crummy business we had in the summer or early fall. Record companies should space them out." The recent avalanche could have crushed the potential of such second-tier stars as Seal. Houston's poor entry can be explained in one word. "Radio," Goman says. "She's not getting airplay. And she was gone too long. You just can't be gone these days." Billboard's Mayfield weighs in: "Never underestimate Whitney or her label (Arista). The belief in the trade is that rushing her new album into release gave them no opportunity to set it up properly. They could have waited till the second single. She appeals to a lot of older customers who don't initially rush out to buy records. They may wait till they're familiar with two or three songs. Could her album come back up? Absolutely." Mayfield is impressed by the market clout of Garth's live set, Jewel's sophomore effort, Metallica's two-CD Garage Inc. and Dion's holiday-themed These Are Special Times. "If I could buy stock in records, I'd want points on Garth, Celine and Jewel," he says. "If allowed to invest beyond that, I'd take of piece of 'N Sync and Backstreet Boys. And I would not underestimate Shania Twain. She's got great momentum." The fast rise of 'N Sync, the first act since the Spice Girls to have two albums in the Top 10, is "not eating into the success of Backstreet Boys," Mayfield says. Conversely, the lackluster sales of the Prince of Egypt soundtrack could be partially blamed on the overabundance of When You Believe, its prized duet by Houston and Carey. "The Nov. 17 impact of the soundtrack was immediately diminished by the presence of the same song on two other records," Mayfield says. "The soundtrack didn't get even one week of exclusivity, so it couldn't be a unique event. But the label didn't have unrealistic expectations. They know they have to wait for the movie to come out." A box-office smash could goose record sales, though probably not to the levels achieved by Titanic. "Titanic is a phenomenon," Mayfield says. "That word gets used too much, but it's the only way to describe it. This is the best-selling score ever and it's moving up among the all-time best-selling soundtracks. A lot of people in this industry are scratching their heads to come up with the next Titanic. They might as well not even try." By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 18:59:27 EST From: Beemer430@aol.com Subject: Some Quenstions??? Hey angles, I was wondering somtin'. A couple of friends have been driving me crazy, they keep saying that now Jewel is singing country music instead of the kind she is singing now!!!!!!!! This is driving me crazy becuase the onley thing they have for proff is that they saw it on MTV news and all I watch is MTV all day. Well anyway they told me this and they said it's abvoiuse because she wears cowboy hats and boots and my reply was that she owns horses and stuff like that and that she grew up around people who dressed like that. So could someone please email me back and give me some written proof that she is not so that I may know the "TRUTH" Thankyou all, Po----Shane Veggie Angel ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 18:08:18 EST From: CACARTIER@aol.com Subject: Jewel / Christine Lavin While we have a Jewel / Christine Lavin thread going here... I thought I would post that I just saw Christine Lavin on Sunday. She was performing in Wayne, NJ along with Livingston Taylor! Unfortunately, she did not do the Jewel poet game there...(it would have been fun if she did)...BUT, she did have a lot of fun with inviting male audience members up on stage to help perform her song "SENSITIVE NEW AGE GUYS". It was a hoot! During the performance, one of the Sensitive New Age Guy audience members called his sister on his cell phone to "experience" the performance!!!! She's too funny! She also TWIRLED batons with chemical lights on the ends!!!! Anyway, she DID mention her latest " LAVIN LENDING LIBRARY". Someone donated a book called " HOW TO PICK THE RIGHT DOG"...(or something like that). She offered the book up to anyone that wanted to read it...as long as you signed the inside cover and promised to pass the book along. Okay, enough!...All I have to say is that Christine Lavin is really great...she's a hilarious entertainer! If you EVER get the chance to see her perform ... DON'T PASS IT UP! See yah! CA <~~ the pensive angel who now wishes she brought her ANWA book to the show ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 21:41:27 EST From: HRENB@aol.com Subject: EDAs mentioned on Jeopardy! Hey all, Probably won't post for a little while as I'm movin back to the mid west and gonna mosey across the country, anyways- My Jeopardy taping was yesterday. For the bio card they have you list 5 hobbies, anecdotes, etc. Well, as I said before I put the EDA's down, but that wasn't one of the ones the contestant prep guy had highlighted or really asked me too much about. Well, anyways, on the show, they asked me about a broken watch that I wear, but I got lucky and won, so I got another show and when I taped the next one, Alex Trebek asked me about the EDA's - I was totally flustered because I wasn't expecting it, and also because, obviously, appearing on the show is very nerve racking- so I don't even know what I said- just like we were a Jewel fan based internet group and did charity work as well- lol- I hope it didn't sound too goofy. Alas, I didn't win show #2. Anyways, the bummer is that they're so backed up with tape delay and upcoming tournaments and stuff that I won't be on until March 17th and 18th, 1999- with the EDA's being mentioned on the 18th. I'll post about it again in March. Peace - Lone Wolf ------------------------------ End of jewel-digest V3 #708 ***************************