RUSH’s 2112 Climbs Rolling Stone 200 Chart After NEIL PEART’s Death
January 21, 2020, 4 years ago
In the wake of Neil Peart’s death, interest in Rush — the band that featured his virtuosic drumming and thought-provoking lyrics for more than 40 years — has surged, propelling their 1976 prog-rock masterpiece 2112 onto the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart.
From January 10 through January 16, the band sold 24,600 albums in the U.S., an increase of more than 1,000 percent compared with the previous week. The 2112 LP led the way, making it to Number 45 on the RS 200, moving 12,800 total album units last week. (The Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart tracks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. by a combination of digital and physical album sales, digital song sales, and audio streams.)
Overall, the band’s on-demand audio streams jumped 340 percent week on week, totaling more than 16 million from January 10th through January 16th. Synth-rock anthem “Tom Sawyer” led with 3.1 million, while FM staples “Limelight” and “The Spirit Of Radio” followed with 1.8 million and 1.6 million, respectively. The wildly technical instrumental “YYZ” pulled in just under 1.6 million streams last week. Song sales also jumped by a whopping 1,575 percent, with the band selling 28,000 track downloads.
Rush bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson posted the following message in the wake of flood of tributes honouring Neil Peart:
