Where do we go when we die? For the best recording artists taken from us too soon, it's back to the charts — at least for a brief moment of reflected glory.
When Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer of beloved Irish band The Cranberries, died suddenly on January 15th, it shocked her legions of fans. We felt something perfectly natural - we wanted to hear her lush, sultry voice again. So we went to Amazon and bought her albums.
New fans puchased a greatest hits package, casual fans finally got a copy of the band's most recent album, and hard-core fans snagged a replacement for their worn-out edition of the Cranberries' debut, 1990's "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?".
We track Amazon sales rankings here at Thinknum, so we have the data: Five Cranberries albums and one O'Riordan solo album made it back to the charts:
- "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" (1990) peaked at #46
- "No Need To Argue" (1994) came back in several different editions, peaking at #9
- "Stars: The Best of 1992–2002" (2002) peaked at #2
- O'Riordan's second solo album, "No Baggage" (2009) peaked at #38
- "Dreams: The Collection" (2013) peaked at #4
- "Something Else" (2017) peaked at #3
In all, the Cranberries stayed on the charts for 2 weeks; the day after O'Riordan died, the group held the #2, #3, #4, #9, #17, #18, #38 and #54 positions. (Although, sadly, their wonderful 1996 release, "To The Faithful Departed", did not make it back onto the charts....)
