Best Buy expects to take full advantage of the Thanksgiving week shopping sprees, assigning a Sunday release date for Guns N' Roses' first album in 15 years.
“Chinese Democracy,” which GNR leader Axl Rose started work on more than 10 years ago, is now slated for an exclusive release on Nov. 23 at the big box retailer. Best Buy reports sales to SoundScan on a Sunday-Saturday week, which will give the release a seven day tally. Most albums are released on Tuesdays and first week sales reports are for five days.
Thanksgiving is historically the best time for superstar releases and high expectations have been pinned on “Chinese Democracy,” which Interscope is releasing.
The Tuesday before the 23rd, Nov. 18, will see a superstar deluge led by Nickelback’s “Dark Horse” and the debut from “American Idol” winner David Cook  in the rock arena. The Killers’ “Day and Age” will be released Nov. 25. It is possible that the Nielsen SoundScan report for the week ending Nov. 30 will have a very rare list of rock albums in the top three slots.
Only one week this year has any release topped 1 million in sales — Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” — and GNR, Nickelback and Beyonce appear to be the three candidates to add to that list. Improbable as having three albums top the seven-digit mark is, what is likely is the three albums topping 2 million sales by the end of the year.
Last year’s Thanksgiving week found Josh Groban’s “Noel” at No. 1 selling 405,000 copies, nearly double the business it had done the week before on its way to a 3.7 million tally. Alicia Keys’ “As I Am” sold 349,000 in its second week to come in at No. 2 as 11 albums topped 100,000 in sales. Only one of those, a Keith Urban album, was in its first week of release.
The Keys release is probably the best parallel for the three albums. “As I Am” had an opening week of more than 725,000 and finished the year at 2.54 million sold.
GNR fans will get their first taste of the bands new material via "Shackler's Revenge" appearing in the video game "Rock Band 2" and "If the World" playing over the credit roll in the pic "Body of Lies."
That time of year is also crucial for artists to work the TV appearances. Obviously, Nickelback and Beyonce will games for shows such as the American Music Awards and the talk-show circuit. Imagine the coup — on both sides — if Axl would agree to go on “Oprah.” That would sell records.