Eddie Van Halen’s Death Sparks Increase In Sales Of Van Halen Songs And Albums

The untimely death of Eddie Van Halen on Tuesday has inspired fans to revisit the music of guitar legend’s namesake band in a big way. Billboard reports that Van Halen‘s catalog of albums and songs experienced a 6,198% sales increase in the U.S. that day.

According to information collected by Nielsen Music/MRC Data, sales of the group’s albums and songs jumped from under 1,000 copies on October 5 to 40,000 copies the next day.

Van Halen’s album sales increased by 5,835% during the one-day period, from a negligible number to 9,000 copies. The top-selling album on October 6 was the band’s 1978 self-titled debut, with 2,000 copies sold.

Sales of individual Van Halen tracks surged 6,317% from October 5 to October 6, from fewer than 1,000, to 31,000. The best-selling track was “Jump,” with about 3,000, followed by “Panama,” “Eruption,” “Runnin’ with the Devil” and the group’s cover of The Kinks‘ “You Really Got Me,” all of which had sales of about 2,000.

“Jump” was Van Halen’s only single to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, spending five weeks at #1 in 1984.

Eddie died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 65.

By Matt Friedlander
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