New CD is Late Singer’s Fifth U.K. Top 5 Posthumous Release
Seattle-based independent Blix Street Records celebrates the 10th Anniversary of Eva Cassidy’s SONGBIRD CD reaching the #1 slot on the U.K. chart today (18) with the Gold certification of SIMPLY EVA, the newest collection from the late singer. SIMPLY EVA, which has scanned over 100,000 units in the U.K. since its release there on February 1st, rose to #4 on the U.K. chart and has been enjoying solid sales during the six weeks since its release, becoming the artist’s fifth Top 5 posthumous U.K. release. SONGBIRD reached #1 there on March 18, 2001 and remained in that position for two weeks.
Simply Eva coverIn the U.S., SIMPLY EVA, which comprises 12 acoustic versions of previously-unheard guitar and vocal only performances, has been the #1 best-selling album at Border Books and Music national chain and reached #8 on the Billboard Folk Chart. The songs on SIMPLY EVA are alternative acoustic versions of known Cassidy songs with the exception of the redefining performance of “San Francisco Bay Blues,” which is already picking up radio airplay in the U.S. It will be released as a single in the U.K., and video footage of Cassidy performing the song live at the now-defunct Pearl’s club in Annapolis, MD is available for viewing on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAgGyo3TseE
Born in Washington, DC, Eva Cassidy recorded and performed in the area for several years until her untimely death from melanoma in 1996. She left behind a small, but impeccable body of recordings that have been meticulously curated and compiled by Blix Street Records with the support of her parents, Barbara and Hugh Cassidy.
In April, 1998, Blix Street posthumously released SONGBIRD, a collection chosen primarily from two other Cassidy albums, LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY and EVA BY HEART. It featured Sting’s “Fields of Gold” and Eva’s unqualified signature performance of “Over the Rainbow,” the video of which triggered Eva’s rise to #1 on the U.K. charts in March, 2001. Eva Cassidy became an “overnight sensation.” By the end of that year, the album had been certified triple-platinum in England (for sales of more than 900,000 sold) and gold in the U.S. (more than 500,000 units); the album, now six times platinum in England and platinum in the U.S., eventually hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Internet Albums chart and topped the publication’s Pop Catalog survey for 32 weeks.
Eva Cassidy has now sold over 10 million records worldwide and achieved an unprecedented three consecutive posthumous U.K. No. 1 albums as well as the No.1 single, “What A Wonderful World” (a posthumous duet with Katie Melua).
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