TORONTO -- Canada's insatiable appetite for the Tragically Hip sent the rock band's entire discography back onto the Billboard charts last week.
All 17 Hip albums, ranging from their 1987 debut EP to their most recent "Man Machine Poem," found spots on the Billboard Canadian Albums in the wake of the much-anticipated national broadcast of their final tour stop in Kingston, Ont.
Billboard's Canadian album chart is tallied by Nielsen Music and based on album sales, digital song sales and audio on-demand streams. In late 2014, the Billboard album chart tweaked its rules to qualify 1,500 song streams from an album as equivalent to one album sale.
Topping the list was the band's 2005 release "Yer Favourites," a greatest hits compilation that was chosen by their fans through a vote on the band's website, which climbed from second place a week earlier. The album sold 17,000 physical and digital copies, or 28,000 album equivalent units, which also takes into account a spike in plays on streaming music services.
Also finding positions in the Top 10 were this year's "Man Machine Poem," selling 6,000 equivalent album units, while holding steady at No. 6 was 1992's "Fully Completely," which climbed to No. 8 from 39 with 3,600 equivalent units.
The band's 1989 album "Up To Here" shifted to No. 9 from 28 last week with 3,300 equivalent units.
The Hip's other albums, which include a number of live concert recordings, also found spots on the chart.
Interest in the Hip skyrocketed earlier this year when frontman Gord Downie revealed he has terminal brain cancer, but planned to launch a tour across much of the country anyway.
Tickets to the shows sold out almost immediately, leading to CBC picking up a national broadcast of the final tour stop in Kingston. The concert quickly became a major event as fans made plans to host viewing parties and some local communities organized their own public screenings.
CBC's broadcast of the concert averaged just over four million viewers, according to the network.
Overall, the band's total album sales rose 157 per cent from the previous week, Nielsen Music reported, while digital song sales were up 342 per cent and online streams are up 185 per cent.
