Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s album Works Volume 1 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on this day in 1977.
A RIAA Gold certification at this time apparently signified 500,000 units sold in the US.
Incredibly, this album, the first studio effort from ELP released since November of 1973, had only been released twelve days prior. The fact that it took such a short time to sell 500,000 copies speaks to the incredible demand for ELP which hadn’t been slowed by their hiatus. No other album in the band’s catalogue managed to be certified as quickly as this one.
ELP began touring in support of both this album in late May of 1977. They added the forthcoming Works, Volume 2 to the second and third legs of the tour.
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- Edit on 2020-06-04: Added exact date of release.
- Edit on 2020-09-17: Added more information. Optimized for new site.