It may be history, but Led Zeppelin still soars

By Richard Cromelin

June 5, 2003 12 AM PT

“How the West Was Won,” a three-CD collection of live performances by Led Zeppelin, sold more than 220,000 copies to debut at No. 1 on the national sales chart Wednesday. But the ‘70s hard-rock titans, who disbanded in 1980, are likely to be unseated by some modern-day hard-rock titans.

Metallica’s “St. Anger” was originally scheduled to be released next Tuesday, but in an effort to thwart Internet piracy of the recording, Elektra Records will have the album in stores today.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. June 7, 2003 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday June 07, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Led Zeppelin -- An article in Thursday’s Calendar Weekend about last week’s album sales gave the wrong total for Led Zeppelin’s “How the West Was Won.” The album sold 154,000 copies last week, not 220,000.

Even with just four days to log sales for next week’s chart, “St. Anger” figures to easily outdistance both Zeppelin and the albums that came out earlier this week, including new collections by Jewel, Sugar Ray and Train. Metallica’s last album, “S&M;,” a live concert set recorded with an orchestra, opened with sales of 300,000 in 1996. Earlier 1996’s “Load” sold nearly 700,000 copies in its first week.

The only other album to debut in the Top 10 (or in the Top 50, for that matter) this week is the “2 Fast 2 Furious” soundtrack, a hip-hop collection that includes tracks by Tyrese and Ludacris, who appear in the upcoming action film.

The “2 Fast 2 Furious” album sold 76,000 copies last week to enter the national sales chart at No. 9, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

-- Richard Cromelin