L-R: Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart of the rock group The … [+] Grateful Dead hang outside their practice studio the New Potrero Theatre in 1968 on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, California. The Grateful Dead’s new releases Friend of the Devils: April 1978 and Duke ‘78 both debut on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart…but that’s where the similarities end. (Photo by Malcolm Lubliner/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images).
While they’re not together in the traditional sense anymore, the Grateful Dead releases new albums every few months. The band is sitting on archives of countless hours of material, recorded during studio sessions and at hundreds of live shows that took place many years ago. Fans of the jam rockers never seem to grow tired of buying the latest from the legacy act, and the group’s selling power is crystal clear this week on the Billboard charts.
The Grateful Dead released two new live collections on the same day in late September, and this frame, they both debut on a number of tallies. The sets appear on one list in common, but beyond that, they also manage to reach different rankings from one another as well.
Both Friend of the Devils: April 1978 and Duke ‘78 debut on the Top Album Sales ranking this frame. The former title opens at No. 9, with 8,100 copies purchased in the title’s first tracking frame. Meanwhile, the latter effort starts its time on that tally at No. 20, with 4,000 sales, according to Luminate.
Friend of the Devils is the more successful of the Grateful Dead’s new offerings. That title lands on three Billboard charts this week, including the most important of them all.
The set brings the band back to the Billboard 200, where it opens at No. 196, barely cracking the 200-spot tally. It’s also present on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums list, as it starts its time on that roster at No. 49. That’s second-to-last place on the genre-specific ranking.
Duke ‘78, meanwhile, debuts on just two charts, including the one it shares with Friend of the Devils. The slightly less successful release does hit the Vinyl Albums ranking, launching at No. 19 on that tally.
The Grateful Dead has, throughout 2024, collected half a dozen new placements on the Top Album Sales chart. All of their new releases—except Duke ‘78—have cracked the top 10, including one of their two latest shares.
