Morissette’s Long-Lasting ‘Pill’ a Sales Phenomenon

Not even Trevor Denman, the animated track announcer at Santa Anita, could make this race sound exciting.

Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” is so far ahead of the pack as the best-selling album of 1996 that not even a Spectacular Bid or a Secretariat could catch it at this point.

“We’re several lengths ahead,” says Freddy DeMann, co-CEO with Madonna of Maverick Records, which released the blockbuster hit in June of last year.

In fact, the U.S. debut from the 22-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter has nearly lapped the field, selling a whopping 6.2 million copies this year, according to SoundScan.

Running a distant second is the Fugees’ “The Score,” which has sold 4.3 million copies since its release in February.

And “The Score” is fading.

While the Fugees’ record dropped out of the Top 30 this month, “Pill” has been anchored in the Top 10 since July of 1995. Only last week, about 16 months after its release, “Pill” sold about 85,000 copies to place it fifth on the Billboard 200 chart. “The Score” sold 29,000 to rank 34th.

“Alanis is amazing in that every week the record continues to be so strong,” says Gary Arnold, vice president of marketing for the 261-store Best Buy chain. “There seems to be virtually no falloff.”

“Pill” sold 4.2 million copies last year, finishing third in the album sales race behind Hootie & the Blowfish’s “Cracked Rear View,” which sold 7 million copies in 1995, and TLC’s “CrazySexyCool,” which sold 4.8 million.

But while the Hootie and TLC records slowed in ‘96, “Pill” continued to sprint.

After Morissette won four Grammys in February, including one for album of the year, “Pill” sold at least 200,000 copies a week for seven consecutive weeks.

The album, which first reached No. 1 in October of last year, ascended to the top of the chart again in February, April, August and September of this year as the tireless Morissette continued a marathon world tour that is not scheduled to end until Dec. 14 in Honolulu.

“We knew we had something special at the get-go, but nobody could have predicted that it would sell like this,” says DeMann. “It’s an absolute phenomenon.”

With Recording Industry Assn. of America-registered sales of 13 million copies--the RIAA recognizes shipment numbers, while SoundScan monitors actual over-the-counter sales--”Pill” is the top-selling album ever by a female solo artist (not counting the Whitney Houston-dominated soundtrack to “The Bodyguard”).

“The bottom line is, her songs touched a nerve in a way that few artists have ever done before,” says DeMann. “Her thoughts are on everyone’s mind. She says what people think.”