Tom Petty was a powerful seller in life, and he remains one, even years after his passing. The singer-songwriter is back on the Billboard charts with one of his older collections, which explodes in popularity after being recently re-released.
The musician's 1982 project Long After Dark returns to one Billboard tally this frame. The set also debuts on four other rankings, thanks to a huge sales sum -- one that is significantly larger than the week prior.
In the past tracking week, Long After Dark sold another 10,000 copies throughout the United States, according to Luminate. The period prior, the title wasn't purchased by even 100 people in the same country.
One week before Long After Dark was reissued, becoming a collectible for longtime Petty fans, the title sold fewer than 50 copies. That means that from one tracking frame to the next, Petty's decades-old studio effort saw its sales total grow by a little more than 25,000%.
Long After Dark was recently re-released as a deluxe edition, complete with previously unreleased material and other special goodies and pieces of content that Petty followers are sure to enjoy. Those additions made the title a must-have, and it was a very strong seller among a large audience.
Petty's project debuts inside the top 10 on a pair of Billboard charts, thanks to the reissue. Long After Dark coincidentally opens at No. 6 on both the Vinyl Albums and Top Album Sales lists. The title marks the rocker's eighth project to reach the loftiest tier on the vinyl-only list, and his lucky thirteenth on the roster that tracks the bestselling albums and EPs of any style or via any format.
Long After Dark doesn't fare quite as well on two rock lists, but it still manages to debut, earning Petty and his band the Heartbreakers another win -- and one more posthumous win for him. The title is new at No. 14 on the Top Rock Albums chart, and No. 19 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums list.
The same effort is also back on the Billboard 200, the all-encompassing ranking of the most-consumed albums in the country. Long After Dark re-enters that race at No. 106 with 11,400 equivalent units shifted, with almost all of those being actual purchases.