Heavy streaming of Foo Fighters’ songs following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins has sent the band back into the charts.
Foo Fighters have cancelled their 2022 tour dates and urged fans to take time to “appreciate all the music and memories we’ve made together”. They have also pulled out of a performance at this weekend's Grammys, which will now feature a tribute to Hawkins.
In the week since the tragic death of Hawkins in Colombia, there has been a huge spike in sales of the band’s catalogue.
As revealed in Music Week’s charts analysis by Alan Jones, consumption of Foo Fighters’ singles increased week-on-week by 378.17% to 131,387, while albums consumption was up 367.83% to 16,491.
Much of the album increase was channelled towards the band’s 2009 No.4 Greatest Hits set, which moved 76-5 (7,461 sales), appearing in the Top 10 for the first time since 2017. Sales increased by 382.4% week-on-week.
Foo Fighters’ Greatest Hits is their biggest-selling album with sales to date of 1,508,974 copies, according to the Official Charts Company.
Foo Fighters also re-enter the singles chart with 1997 No.18 hit Everlong returning at No.68 (6,322 sales), with sales up 230.9% week-on-week. The track was streamed 1,382,031 times in the UK during the past seven days.
The single actually features Dave Grohl on drums, as the recording of parent album The Colour And The Shape pre-dates Hawkins’ membership of Foo Fighters.
Everlong was the last song ever performed live by Taylor Hawkins, prior to his death on March 25. It was the finale of Foo Fighters’ set at Lollapalooza Argentina.
Everlong is the band’s second biggest selling single with overall consumption of 1,131,807 units, placing it behind only 2007 No.8 hit, the Pretender (1,173,221 units).
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