stiff

v. especially describing a music recording, to fail to sell well. Subjects: English, Entertainment, Music, Jargon

Editorial Note: This sense of the verb is intransitive.

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Citations: 1972 Ken Barnes Phonograph Record (Aug. 1) “The Hollies Revisited”: There was another single, “Listen To Me” (on which Nash probably participates), a fine commercial record which was (as usual) an English smash and an American stiff.…A slow-paced single called “The Baby” was released in March of this year, gaining the distinction of not only stiffing out in the U.S., as usual, but bombing rather badly in England as well. 1973 Metal Mike Saunders Phonograph Record (Oct.) “Charlie Rich”: Like the two previous 45s, it stiffed totally. 1978 Mark Kernis Washington Post (Apr. 7) “‘Beatlemania’: More Mania Than Beatle” p. 4: The soundtrack album “All This and World War II”…is made up solely of Beatle songs performed by heavyweights like Elton John, Leo Sayer and the Bee Gees. It stiffed. 1981 Steve Pond Los Angeles Times (Feb. 22) “U.S. Picks Up Styx In A Big Way” p. N64: The fourth album stiffed, and the band gave up sizable past and future royalties to escape their Wooden Nickel contract and sign with A&M. 1981 Alan Niester Globe and Mail (Toronto, Can.) (Aug. 1) “Singer gets boost from BBC” p. E9: Interestingly, when Modern Girl had been released prior to the special, it stiffed. Once the show was shown, however, both songs rocketed into the top 10. 1985 Gene Triplett Sunday Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Okla.) (June 16) “Night’s Sleep Small Price to Pay for Chat With Smilin’ Jack”: It didn’t make a damn to him if “Prizzi’s Honor” didn’t please the critics or if it stiffed at the box office. 1994 Larry LeBlanc Billboard (Apr. 9) “Lori Yates revives career with new Virgin album” vol. 106, no. 15, p. 10: Despite Yates’ opening tour dates for Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the album stiffed. The first single, “Scenes Of The Crime,” stopped at No. 77 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. 1999 Adelaide Advertiser (Australia) (Jan. 21) “Not ill, just a Gough” p. 46: I sort of got into it in case the album did stiff and I’d have a job. But it went well so I’ve never had to work there. 2002 Entertainment Weekly (Oct. 18) “Power 101” p. 26: If Santana’s follow-up to the 14-times-platinum Supernatural clicks, Davis, who helped steer this project as well, gets props; if it stiffs, he won’t take the fall, since it’s on his old label, Arista. 2005 Billy Sloan Sunday Mail (U.K.) (Oct. 2) “Our Tiger Baby”: Texas release Red Book—their sixth studio album. It’s their first CD since 2003’s Careful What You Wish For, which—in music-biz parlance—stiffed, big time.…“It was crystal clear people weren’t ready for another Texas record. It just wasn’t working. I don’t know why.”

Posted 11 Oct 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

I would guess this originated in Hollywood (as in the 1985 cite above or the MWCD11 example, “the movie stiffed at the box office”). Here’s an early cite for the general sense of “fail”:

1976 Craig Karpel Playboy “Failure Is Its Own Reward” in Dazed and Confused (1993) 40 I am here to say a few words about how everything has bombed, flunked, stiffed, flopped and otherwise gone down the tube.

by Ben Zimmer 11 Oct 05, 0833 GMT

So you say this just to tweak me for missing it in Merriam-Webster’s 11th edition? : )

Your guess is a good one; this is one of those areas where access to all the old LA trade rags would come in handy.

by Grant Barrett 11 Oct 05, 0939 GMT

Another rockcrit cite from 1973… from Robert Christgau’s “Consumer Guide” review of Billy Joel’s The Piano Man (as it appears in his Rock Albums of the ‘70s (searchable on Amazon):

In 1971, Joel’s Cold Spring Harbor was recorded in the vicinity of 38-rpm to fit all the material on — he’s one of these eternal teenagers who doesn’t know how to shut up. Stubborn little bastard, too — after his bid stiffed, he worked a Los Angeles cocktail lounge soaking up Experience.

The original CG review from the Village Voice has not yet been posted to Christgau’s website, so it’s possible that this was subsequently edited for the record guide (published in 1981).

by Ben Zimmer 12 Oct 05, 1256 GMT

I did see that and had the same doubts about it you do. The temptation of fiddling with one’s own writing from the past is too great, as I well know.

by Grant Barrett 12 Oct 05, 0107 GMT

I think you missed an example of “stiff out” from that 1972 piece in Phonograph Record:

He was replaced in reasonably short order by a Swedish singer named Mickael Rikfors, and a slow-paced single called ‘The Baby’ was released in March of this year, gaining the distinction of not only stiffing out in the U.S., as usual, but bombing rather badly in England as well (relatively, that is; it did make the top 30).

by Ben Zimmer 12 Oct 05, 0130 GMT

Ben, you’re a cite-hunting machine. I’ve amended the 1972 quotation.

by Grant Barrett 12 Oct 05, 0141 GMT