Ask Billboard is updated every week. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.


KATY PERRY'S SWEET 'DREAM'

Hi Gary,

I just read the billboard.com article regarding "The Complete Confection," Katy Perry's deluxe/special edition re-release of her "Teenage Dream" album. The article mentioned that the new set will contain "three new songs, as well as four re-workings of her 'Dream' hits, along with the original album in its entirety." The article goes on to say, "Perry and [Michael] Jackson will remain tied for the most Billboard Hot 100 toppers from any album regardless of the performance of any singles from 'Confection.' Should any song released from 'Confection' reach No. 1, it would count as a Hot 100 No. 1 from 'Confection' and not 'Dream'."

I'm confused. Has there been a change in Billboard chart policy? This special edition is constructed in a way no different than those that were released in recent years by Rihanna, Beyonce, Usher and many more artists. In all those cases, singles that served as new material were credited as part of their original album's chart statistics when they eventually charted. For instance, Rihanna's tally of Hot 100 top 10s from "Good Girl Gone Bad" stands at five - three from the original version of the album ("Umbrella," "Hate That I Love You," "Don't Stop the Music") and two from the "Reloaded" edition ("Take a Bow," "Disturbia").

I don't see how Perry's special edition is any different from those of these other artists. Since Perry has caused such a brouhaha by tying Michael Jackson's record of most No. 1 songs from a single album - five from "Dream"; six from "Bad" in 1987-88 - and attempting to break the same with the sixth single, "The One That Got Away," I'm sure there will be much attention paid to the chart fortunes of any of the three new tracks on "Confection," including first single "Part of Me."

Thanks, Gary, for shedding light on this interesting new twist in the Perry/Jackson derby.

Cheers!

Christopher Brisson
Los Angeles, California


Hi Christopher,

Thanks for the e-mail. I asked Billboard's director of charts, Silvio Pietroluongo, to address how Billboard will consider the angle going forward.

Essentially, Billboard never analyzed the issue as thoroughly as until Perry matched Jackson and the possibility arose that Capitol Records would re-release of "Dream" in expanded form. At that point, the charts department considered that, as the practice of releasing deluxe editions has become fairly common in recent years, our commentary going forward will always need to be spell out exactly what feats we're highlighting. ("Part of Me" is due to debut on next week's Hot 100).

Here is Pietroluongo's response:

Billboard has attempted to do its best when linking singles to their appropriate parent albums but it has admittedly become a difficult task.

As you know, the past few years have seen an increase in the practice of re-released or re-packaged albums, which have taken on many different forms. Some labels have tacked on one additional track to an album early in its chart life. Some even do so just for a digital release (i.e., Universal Republic's recent strategy for Jessie J's "Domino" on the digital version of "Who You Are").

Then, we see albums with just a few tracks tacked on in a modified version (think: Rihanna's "Reloaded"). Other albums receive a more extensive makeover, like Perry's upcoming "Dream" redux.

So, I'm not going to say that Billboard has changed its policy on how we count such sets, since we really did not have a hard and fast rule to begin. However, when a record such as most No. 1s from an album comes into question, we do need to closely examine how we treat the situation, probably much more than was needed when we were tallying Rihanna's top 10 count from "Girl/Reloaded."

We believe that the proper course of action going forward is to clearly qualify chart counts from either being from an album's initial release or its re-released version; and, keep the chart records separate, accordingly. Unfortunately, it's likely not going to end some of the murkiness, especially when a song or songs are added to an album relatively early in its existence.

So, if we say that, "Perry and Jackson are tied for the most Hot 100 leaders from an album over one release," we're at least qualifying the parameters of the statistic. If Perry's new single, "Part of Me," hits No. 1 on the Hot 100, we could also say that, "Perry has tallied six Hot 100 No. 1s from 'Teenage Dream' and its re-released version. She remains tied with Jackson for the most toppers from an album over one release."

(I also hope that whomever is tasked to do this research, say, 20 years from now will be able to tell all these album versions apart because we can tell you that keeping track of the many variations that have been released in the past few years has proven to be among our more difficult chores).


Capitol and Perry, too, are content to have matched Jackson's esteemed milestone.

"It was an incredible honor to tie the King of Pop's Billboard Hot 100 record, but I'm moving forward and had a few things left to get off my chest," she said in a press release promoting "Confection." "This is the complete special edition of my album for my fans."


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