This Day In Music History: October 17th, 2000 – Limp Bizkit sells a million albums in a week with ‘Chocolate Starfish’

On October 17th, 2000, Limp Bizkit were preparing for what would become one of the biggest weeks in their lives – at least as far as popularity went. Their Chocolate Starfish album was preceded by a tour sponsored by filesharing giant Napster, which was also notably free as a gift to the band’s burgeoning fanbase. Ever ahead of the industry curve, Durst famously quipped that “I would think the only people worried about that are people that are really worried about their bank accounts”.

The band’s uber-successful Chocolate Starfish album, buoyed by huge singles like “Rollin'”, “My Way”, and the M:I2 soundtrack song “Take A Look Around”, became the only album of the nu-metal + Soundscan era – and metal, period – to sell a million copies in one week of release. It puts Limp Bizkit right there with Taylor Swift, Lil’ Wayne, and some of music’s biggest ever stars at a time where nu-metal had essentially reached its mainstream apex – though interestingly Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory would reach even greater heights just a week later.

Still, no matter what you think about this album, it was indeed a successful one. And for all the criticism the band often gets, there’s an artistic statement in “Boiler” – one of the band’s most underrated tracks. It’s almost undeniably good, with the band’s rhythm section shining through with a much longer song length – and the video still holds up even today. It, along with Hybrid Theory, may well be considered the last truly huge album of the nu-metal era.