Winter in America - Commercial Performance

Commercial Performance

Upon its original stereo LP release in May 1974, the album had a short supply and distribution due to the Strata-East label's independent distribution policy of their artists' releases. Consequently, Winter in America became considered by many fans to be the great "lost" Gil Scott-Heron album, before a proper reissue on compact disc thirty years following its original issue. The album served as the first of their collaborations to have Jackson receive co-billing for a release. Unlike Scott-Heron's previous albums, Winter in America experienced some commercial success with the help of promotional resources in the form of underground music deejays and club promoters, in spite of the album's limited distribution. While it did not chart on the U.S. Billboard Pop Albums chart, the album charted on the Top Jazz Albums chart and peaked at number six. Winter in America entered the Top Jazz Albums on June 29, 1974 and remained there for 40 weeks, until March 29, 1975. According to a 1990 Los Angeles Times article on Scott-Heron, the album ended up selling more than 300,000 copies.

Winter in America's only single release, "The Bottle", soon became an underground and cult hit following its issue. Despite its underground reputation, the song became one of Scott-Heron's most successful singles, as it reached the number 15 spot on the R&B Singles Chart. According to an article on Scott-Heron for a November 1974 issue of Billboard, the success of the single "has made his most recent album, 'Winter in America', a national best-seller and heralds his wide-ranging appeal." The success of "The Bottle" also helped lead to Jackson's and Scott-Heron's following recording contract with Arista Records, which had been established in late 1974, the label at which they would enjoy further success and a larger amount of commercial notice. Upon signing them, Arista executive Clive Davis said of Scott-Heron in an interview with Rolling Stone, "Not only is he an excellent poet, musician and performer—three qualities I look for that are rarely combined—but he's a leader of social thought." Along with approval from Arista executives, Winter in America was well received by the underground music scene, in which Scott-Heron earned the majority of his fan base, and added to Scott-Heron's reputation as a socially aware and conscious artist.