Happy Sunday folks. We’ve just taken the first day off in recent MHW history, and I’m back, refreshed, and ready to do another Chart Chat column! YEAHHHHHHH!!!
Overexcitement aside, here be this week’s charts. Courtesy of the fine folks at Billboard Magazine.
- Top 20 Singles
#1) Whatever You Like-T.I.
#2) So What-P!nk
#3) Love Lockdown-Kanye West
#4) Disturbia-Rihanna
#5) Love Story-Taylor Swift
#6) Paper Planes-M.I.A.
#7) Closer-NeYo
#8) Can’t Believe It- T Pain feat. Lil’ Wayne
#9) Hot N Cold-Katy Perry
#10) American Boy-Estelle feat. Kanye West
#11) Forever-Chris Brown
#12) Got Money- Lil Wayne feat. T-Pain
#13) I’m Yours-Jason Mraz
#14) Miss Independent- NeYo
#15) Crush-David Archuleta
#16) Viva La Vida-Coldplay
#17-Dangerous-Akon feat. Kardinal Offishall
#18) Better in Time-Leona Lewis
#19) One Step at a Time-Jordin Sparks
#20) In the Ayer- Flo Rida feat. will.i.am
- Top 20 Albums
Darius Rucker. Photo by Master Sgt. Val Gempis.
#1) Death Magnetic-Metallica
#2) Year of the Gentleman-NeYo
#3) Brass Knuckles-Nelly
#4) Rock & Roll Jesus-Kid Rock
#5) Learn to Live-Darius Rucker
#6) The Recession-Young Jeezy
#7) We Global-DJ Khaled
#8) Black Butterfly-Buckcherry
#9) Tha Carter III- Lil’ Wayne
#10) L.A.X.-The Game
#11) A Little Bit Longer-Jonas Brothers
#12) All Hope is Gone-Slipknot
#13) Mamma Mia Soundtrack-Various Artists
#14) Good Girl Gone Bad-Rihanna
#15) Love on the Inside-Sugarland
#16) Overcome-All that Remains
#17) Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends-Coldplay
#18) Do You Know-Jessica Simpson
#19) The Way I See It-Raphael Saadiq
#20) Breakout-Miley Cyrus
*Looks like most of the action this week is on the album charts, but it’s definitely worth noting that Kanye’s “Love Lockdown” is the highest debut of Mr. West’s career, crashing in at #3 without a full week of sales. As radio play grows, it should challenge to become ‘Ye’s fourth #1 single in the next couple of weeks. If it hits the top, it will put Kanye in the unique position of having at least one song from each of his first four albums hit the #1 spot on the singles chart. I’m not sure that anyone other than Mariah Carey can claim that, unless you count “The Bodyguard” as a Whitney Houston solo album and not a soundtrack.
*Raphael Saadiq makes the highest debut of his career on the album chart with his third solo studio album, “The Way I See It”. Saadiq is celebrating the 20th year of his career in 2008. The Oakland native also had four hit albums as the lead singer and bassist of Tony Toni Tone. Beware…the attached video has nekkid folks in it.
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*Archie’s back!! David Archuleta zooms back into the Top 20 with “Crush”, thanks to the new video premiering. Is it wrong that I keep hearing Clay’s “Invisible” whenever I listen to Archuleta’s song?
*Success is apparently better the second time around. Rihanna’s “Good Girl Gone Bad” has now officially spent more time in the Top 20 the second go-round than it did when it was initially released in summer ’07.
*Darius “Hootie” Rucker claims a nice little double play. On the same week he becomes the first black artist in 20 years to claim the #1 spot on the country singles chart, he also debuts at the top of the country albums chart. If you’d said five years ago that Hootie would be knocking Jessica Simpson off the top of the country charts, I probably would have stabbed you with a pitchfork and walked away laughing.
*T.I. reclaims the top spot on the singles chart from P!nk. The world sighs.
*The charity compilation “The Imus Ranch Project” debuts at #59 on this week’s chart. I wonder if the album was purchased by any nappy-headed hoes.
*Despite not debuting with huge numbers, Natasha Bedingfield’s “Pocketful of Sunshine” has hung around for quite some time and jumps back into the Top 100 this week. A steady stream of hit singles, and voila-someone who you wouldn’t expect to have a second hit album is quickly approaching Gold status. The catalyst for this week’s move is the video premiere for her new single “Angel”.
*A THIRD version of Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long” enters the charts this week at #30. I’m sure Kid Rock doesn’t mind, as he’s collecting those publishing checks. Well-check that. I’m sure the estates of Warren Zevon and Ronnie Van Zant don’t mind, considering the song is basically “Werewolves of London” in a collision with “Sweet Home Alabama”.
Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. This week’s “Catch a Falling Star” Award goes to…Nelly. “Brass Knuckles” debuts at #3, which is a solid achievement on paper, but it does so with only 85,000 units.His last three studio albums combined debuted on the albums charts with combined sales of 1.4 million copies. So 85K is barely a drop in the bucket for this guy. His label, Universal, burned four singles trying to get a song to catch on, and all failed miserably. Ah well, sorry Nelly. I’m sure Band-Aid might still be calling with that endorsement deal.
