Eclipse generates record sales for Pink Floyd, Bonnie Tyler

The excitement over this week’s total eclipse has been a boon for acts as Pink Floyd, Bonnie Tyler and Ozzy Osbourne.

Sales of Floyd’s 1973 The Dark Side Of The Moon album jumped 160% on the day of the August 21 eclipse, Billboard reported, putting it on top of U.S. iTunes Store’s album chart.

The record, which has remained in the US Top 200 since its release and holds the record for most (932) weeks in the chart, piled on an additional 18,000 downloads.

Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, who performed her 1983 #1 single Total Eclipse Of The Heart on Royal Caribbean’s luxury cruise ship Oasis of the Seas when the sky went dark, saw U.S. sales for the track rise 390% on the day.

It topped the U.S. iTunes chart on the day.

Tyler said she had to cut her six-minute song in half to fit in with the two-minute eclipse.

“The crowd went nuts!” she related. “It was an obvious song to play on the day, but their response still amazed me.”

The organisers of the four-day Moonstock Festival in Illinois got Ozzy Osbourne to perform his Bark At The Moon. The timing was perfect: two minutes into his performance, the moon completely blocked out the sun.

Elsewhere through the United States, radio dusted off copies of relevant songs.

These included the Floyd and Tyler tracks, as well as Len’s Steal My Sunshine, Sheryl Crow’s Soak Up The Sun, The Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun, Smash Mouth’s Walkin’ On The Sun, Stevie Wonder’s You Are The Sunshine Of My Life, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising and ZZ Top’s Cheap Sunglasses.

Social media went lunar-tic for the eclipse. It had 10.9 million mentions before the moment.

Total Eclipse Of The Heart was mentioned more than 131,000 times online.

A clip from the last total solar eclipse on February 26, 1979 went viral on Twitter, with 807,000 becoming engaged.

Miley Cyrus declared on Instagram that the eclipse was a tool for unity and peace: her post reached 71.1 million and engaged with 672,000.

Also taking to Instagram was Katy Perry who put up a photo of fake glasses made up of Eclipse gum wrappers. It drew 300,000 views.

“The celestial show was expected to be the most observed and photographed eclipse in history, with millions staking out prime viewing spots and settling into lawn chairs to watch, especially along the path of totality — the projected line of shadow created when the sun is completely obscured,” reported The Chicago Sun Times.