wrote charty history 20 YEARS AGO ... it's the most successful single of all time. Preceded was, on September 6, 1997, the sumptuous funeral of the royal icon Diana Frances Spencer, the Princess of Wales. She been killed by a car accident just a few days before, at the age of only 36 years. As the highlight of the funeral celebration, which attracted at TV more than a billion people worldwide, Elton John sang his 'Candle In The Wind' as a kind of necrology, and thus probably hundreds of millions people were moved to tears... a global mass hysteria, which had not been existed before. The story of the song goes back to the year 1973: Bernie Taupin, lyricist of almost all Elton John songs, has just caught the phrase 'Candle In The Wind' in connection with the short life of the rock singer Janis Joplin, as he uses it as a title for a song about the equally wild and tragic life of the actress Marilyn Monroe. Elton John inserts this text into a fast-paced ballad that lands on his record 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road', and which is a no.1 hit in United Kingdom in 1973. A live version of that song climbs up the US-charts in 1987. On April 7, 1990, Elton John dedicates the title for the 18-year-old Ryan White at his appearance at the Farm Aid 4 Festival. White was infected with AIDS, innocent by a blood tranfusion... and he dies the next day. In the summer of 1997, fashion designer and good friend of Elton John, Gianni Versace, is shot. To the funeral, John goes with another good friend, Lady Diana. Just six weeks later, the English musician reaches the news that Diana has also died in a car accident. He is so shocked that at first he does not want to go to the funeral. Friends persuade him to do so, and so he even decides to play a song at the mourning ceremony. Bernie Taupin and he are aware that the brevity of time does not allow a new composition, so one decides to dedicate the hit 'Candle In The Wind' with an adapted text to the deceased. Beatles producer George Martin is won for the studio session. Elton John plays this version only once, on the day of the funeral. The pre-orders for the single explode, record label Rocket is completely overburdened due the gigantic demand and commissioned hecticly all available record-manufactures with the production. Temporary, every six seconds a copy is sold worldwide. In nearly every country 'Candle In The Wind 1997' effortlessly breaks the historic sales record brands. For example in United Kingdom with 4,93 million singles sales or in Germany with 4,75 million sold. In the United States, where the song was released nine days late, it started with whopping 3,5 million sales in its initial week and was certified with a diamond certification (10 mio shipments) some times later. On the Global Chart 'Candle In The Wind 1997' made a deep impact in the week 39 with 1,4 million points, based on the sales of only one day! The following two weeks the song peaked with 3,3 million, respectively 5,1 million points... a historic record! By the way, in the Guinness Book of Records 'Candle In The Wind 1997' is still listed behind 'White Christmas' by Bing Crosby. The latter is supposed to be the most successful song of all time with more than 50 million singles sold. What a colossal nonsense! Who deals somewhat more closely with sales data, like us as Media Traffic, knows that there is a huge discrepancy between guess and reality. Since its release in autumn of 1942, 'White Christmas' has certainly sold not more than 10 million times worldwide. The entry in the Guinness book is probably based on erroneous sources, but is repeated every year since the first edition of the publication in 1955, and thus also spreads diligently (for example at Wikipedia)... the same error principle, which was responsible for a long-lasting persistent myth, that spinach contains significantly more iron than other green vegetables.

USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
Rapper NF scores his first no.1 album on Billboard 200
Thuesday, October 17, 2017
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Rapper NF notches his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart -- and first top 10 -- as his third full-length studio album, Perception, debuts atop the list. The set was released on

Oct. 6 through NF Real Music/Capitol/Caroline and starts with 55,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Oct. 12, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 38,000 were in traditional album sales -- NF’s best sales week yet. Twenty-six-year-old NF (real name Nate Feuerstein) tops the list following initial industry forecasts suggesting he was vying for No. 1 with an estimated start of 50,000 alongside Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits and Lil Pump’s debut self-titled album. NF comes out on top by a sizable gap ahead of Petty at No. 2 (55,000 vs. 47,000) thanks to better-than-expected sales for Perception, aided in part by direct-to-consumer offers via NF’s official website. Still, Perception’s launch is the smallest for a No. 1-debuting album in 2017 and the fifth-smallest unit total for a No. 1 album overall since the chart began ranking titles by consumption units in late 2014. NF is also just the second act in 2017 to

reach No. 1 without ever charting a song on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, following alternative rock band Brand New. The latter saw its Science Fiction launch atop the Billboard 200 dated Sept. 9 with 58,000 units. As noted above, Petty and The Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits holds at No. 2 for a second week, earning 47,000 units (down 44 percent) and selling 29,000 in traditional album sales (down 45 percent). The album re-entered the chart a week ago, at its new peak, following the death of Petty on Oct. 2. Rapper Lil Pump premieres at No. 3 with his self-titled debut effort, earning 46,000 units (just 6,000 in traditional album sales). The effort was powered largely by streams, as the title earned 38,000 SEA units (equating to 56.8 million on demand audio streams of the album’s tracks). A further 2,000 were generated by TEA units. To put Lil Pump’s streaming figure in perspective, the album would have still debuted in the top 10 without any traditional album sales or TEA units. Lil Pump’s album was led by the hit single “Gucci Gang,” which currently ranks at No. 12 on the Hot Rap Songs chart (dated Oct. 21). Post Malone’s Stoney hits a new chart high -- and the top five for the first time -- after 44 weeks on the list, as the album rises 6-4 with 45,000 units (up 7 percent). The set debuted and initially peaked at No. 6 on Dec. 31, 2016-dated chart and has never left the top 25. The album’s top five ascent comes concurrent with the success non-album cut “Rockstar,” featuring 21 Savage, as well as the surprise viral hit of the Stoney track “I Fall Apart.” Stoney’s slow rise to the top five is the longest climb to the top five for a continuously charting album in over nine years, since Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black reached the top five in its 49th week. Kane Brown’s self-titled album also hits a new peak on the new Billboard 200, following its deluxe reissue on Oct. 6. The set zooms 56-5 with 43,000 units (up 332 percent) and 26,000 in traditional album sales (up 1,163 percent). The LP -- which initially debuted and peaked at No. 10 on the Dec. 24, 2016-dated list with 51,000 units -- was reissued on Oct. 6 with a handful of bonus tracks. On the Oct. 21-dated Hot Country Songs chart, the its “What If’s,” featuring Lauren Alaina, become brown’s first No. 1. (The song was on the original version of the album.) A Boogie Wit da Hoodie’s The Bigger Artist slips 4-6 in its second week on the chart (39,000 units; down 42 percent), while Lil Uzi Vert’s former No. 1, Luv Is Rage 2, holds steady at No. 7 (37,000 units; down 9 percent). Marilyn Manson debuts at No. 8 with Heaven Upside Down (35,000 units; 32,000 in traditional album sales), granting the rock act his ninth top 10 effort (and seventh in a row). Manson has been on a top 10 roll since 2003, when The Golden Age of Grotesque bowed at No. 1 (the act’s second leader, following 1998’s Mechanical Animals). Following Golden, he hit the top 10 successively with Lest We Forget: The Best Of (No. 9 in 2004), Eat Me, Drink Me (No. 8, 2007), The High End of Low (No. 4, 2009), Born Villain (No. 10, 2012), The Pale Emperor (No. 8, 2015) and now Heaven Upside Down. Before Mechanical Animals, Manson notched one more top 10 with Antichrist Superstar (No. 3 in 1996). Rounding out the top 10, Imagine Dragons’ Evolve descends one rung to No. 9 with 34,000 units (down 11 percent) and Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide) is stationary at No. 10 with 32,000 units (up 3 percent). Post Malone, whose "Rockstar," featuring 21 Savage, released on Republic Records, becomes the 1,068th No. 1 in the Hot 100's 59-year history. Post Malone (born Austin Richard Post) had previously peaked at a No. 8 high with "Congratulations," featuring Quavo, in July, while 21 Savage (Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph) had hit a No. 12 best with "Bank Account." No. 1 in Streaming: After spending its first three weeks on the Hot 100 at No. 2, "Rockstar" reigns as it logs a third (nonconsecutive) week at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart with 51.3 million U.S. streams, up 3 percent, in the week ending Oct. 12, according to Nielsen Music (without the benefit so far of an official proper video, for that matter). It rises 5-3 on Digital Song Sales (which it led for a week), up 11 percent to 48,000 downloads sold in the week ending Oct. 12, and debuts at No. 38 on Radio Songs with 35 million in all-format audience, up 36 percent, in the week ending Oct. 15. Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" drops to No. 2 on the Hot 100. In ceding the summit, it remains tied for the longest-leading Hot 100 No. 1 by a female artist in 2017, matching the three-week rule of the song it supplanted at the top spot, Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do." (No song by a lead female has led for more than three weeks since Sia's "Cheap Thrills," featuring Sean Paul: four frames in August 2016.) "Bodak" holds at No. 2 on Streaming Songs (46.1 million, down 3 percent). It drops 4-6 on Digital Song Sales with 40,000 downloads sold (down 13 percent) and 10-11 on Radio Songs (75 million, although up 4 percent). Logic's "1-800-273-8255," featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid, returns to its No. 3 Hot 100 peak, from No. 4. It's steady at No. 3 on Streaming Songs (31.2 million, down 5 percent) and reaches the Radio Songs top 10 (12-8; 76 million, up 11 percent). Logic and Khalid each earn their first Radio Songs top 10, while Cara collects her fourth.  COMPLETE CHARTS