Eddie Van Halen Death Prompts Huge Surge in Van Halen Music Sales

This week, a giant swell in Van Halen album and song sales followed in the days after Eddie Van Halen's death. The band saw an uptick of over 6,000 percent when it came to the consumption of their catalog.

After all, it was a shock to the music world when the renowned guitarist and Van Halen co-founder died at the age of 65 on Tuesday (Oct. 6). But, among the many tributes that subsequently emerged, it appears that listeners have remembered the rocker by enjoying the creative legacy he left — his music.

The hard numbers bear that out. According to a new report from Billboard, Van Halen's catalog of albums and songs posted a 6,198-percent sales increase in the U.S. on the day the guitarist died. MRC Data (Nielsen Music), the company that provides Billboard's music sales data, compiled the figures.

The total rise came from 40,000 copies of collected Van Halen albums and songs sold on Oct. 6, compared to just under 1,000 on the day before. That's quite a jump in sales for the group variously fronted on their recorded efforts by singers David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone.

Going by just album sales, Van Halen's catalog reportedly sold 9,000 copies on Oct. 6, an increase of 5,835 percent when compared to a negligible amount from Oct. 5. The band's top-selling album of the day was their classic debut release, 1978's Van Halen, at 2,000 copies sold.

As far as songs, the group sold 31,000 single tracks on Oct. 6. (Up 6,317 percent compared to under 1,000 on Oct. 5). Van Halen's top 10 highest-selling tunes that day were "Jump" (3,000), "Panama" (2,000), "Eruption" (2,000), "Runnin' With the Devil" (2,000), "You Really Got Me" (2,000), "Dance the Night Away" (1,000), "Why Can't This Be Love" (1,000), "Hot for Teacher" (1,000), "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" (1,000) and "Jamie's Cryin'" (1,000).

The above figures were all rounded to the nearest thousand. Billboard noted that the sales surge would likely find Van Halen impacting several Billboard charts next week, which will reflect the sales on the tallies dated Oct. 17.

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