By PATRICK GOWER
Talk about a backbeat. Not only are the Beatles' toppermost of the poppermost yet again with their "new" album going straight to No 1 in New Zealand, they're helping to bring old folks back to the record shops.
Their collection of chart-toppers 1 has been on sale for a week and has already gone triple platinum, selling 50,000 copies.
The album containing their 27 British and American smash hits notched up 319,000 sales in its first week in Britain.
It has gone to ... well, No 1 around the world, in countries as diverse as Sweden, Portugal, Australia and Japan.
EMI NZ strategic marketing man-ager Dave Southgate said the album was still short of the company's other big sellers this year — the Venga Boys with 60,000 copies and Robbie Williams with 50,000 — but was closing fast.
"To sell that many in a week is incredible. This could be our fastest-selling album ever," he said.
"We always thought it would be a winner because people love the music, but it has sold a lot faster than we thought."
Justine Somerville, of Real Groovy Records in Auckland, said a lot of older, middle-aged people had been coming in to grab the album.
"But the other day we had the album playing in the store and I could see some younger people were getting interested. The Beatles can't lose."
Roger Marbeck, of Marbecks record store, said the interest in the album had been "pretty scary."
"It's certainly not dropping off. We're starting to see the younger generation getting into it now. This one will keep going."
The No 2 position by Irish band U2, who reached their commercial peak in the late 80s, also suggests that older music fans are heading back to record shops. As well as the Beatles, the New Zealand top 20 albums contain seasonal greatest hits collections by Lenny Kravitz, Harry Belafonte and John Farnham.
One is the loveliest number for the Fab Four
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