By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Chris Olson, a sales clerk at Tower Records in Kahala,
holds 25 compact discs of Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997"
tribute to Princess Diana purchased by one customer. Shortly
before 6 p.m. yesterday, the Kahala store had sold 822 of the
1,500 CDs ordered and all 60 cassette tapes. At the Kapiolani
Tower Records, 1,800 of the 2,000 CDs were sold.
The CDs went on sale at midnight Monday.

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Sales of Elton John’s
tribute ‘extraordinary’

Isle residents converge on record
stores by the thousands to buy
the song he sang at Di's funeral

By Veronica Fajardo
Star-Bulletin

Island residents touched by the legacy of the late Princess Diana converged on record stores to snap up thousands of copies of Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997," the musical tribute he sang at her funeral.

The $2.99 CD single went on sale early yesterday, and some stores reported selling out in a matter of hours. The Keeaumoku Tower Records sold all of its 1,650 copies and has ordered 2,300 copies, which should arrive by the end of the week. The Aiea Tower store sold all of its 1,120 copies by 4 p.m. yesterday. They expect a shipment of 500 by Friday.

About 400 copies were available this morning at the Kahala Tower store, which expected to sell out by afternoon.

About 20 people lined up outside Tower Records Keeaumoku before the store opened at 8:30 a.m. yesterday. "It was like a mob. People were buying as many as 30 pieces," said Gina Batungbacal, regional secretary for Tower Records.

"We usually average $2,000 in sales on singles. For this single alone, we hit $8,000 in just one day, and this is only the first batch."

Telephones at some record stores have been ringing nonstop with inquiries. Store employees chucked their usual phone greetings and answered the phones with: "Yes, we do have the Elton John tribute song available."

"This is extraordinary," said Roy Fukushima, general manager of the Kahala Tower store. "There's nothing that compares with this."

He said those buying the CDs are in their late 20s to early 50s, older than the usual CD buyer.

"No one here expected this kind of response," he said.