Man, is it hard to get excited about the charts when they change so little from week to week. Here’s what we’ve got going on this week. All charts are listed courtesy of the good folks at Billboard Magazine.
Top 20 Singles:
01-Live Your Life (T.I. feat. Rihanna)
02-Whatever You Like (T.I.)
03-Hot N Cold (Katy Perry)
04-Heartless (Kanye West)
05-If I Were a Boy (Beyonce)
06-So What (P!nk)
07-Womanizer (Britney Spears)
08-Let it Rock (Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil’ Wayne)
09-I’m Yours (Jason Mraz)
10-Right Now (Na Na Na) (Akon)
11-Miss Independent (Ne-Yo)
12-You Belong with Me (Taylor Swift)
13-Love Lockdown (Kanye West)
14-Love Story (Taylor Swift)
15-Disturbia (Rihanna)
16-Can’t Believe It (T-Pain feat. Lil’ Wayne)
17-Mrs. Officer (Lil’ Wayne feat. Bobby Valentino)
18-Better in Time (Leona Lewis)
19-Gotta Be Somebody (Nickelback)
20-Addicted (Saving Abel)
Top 20 Albums
01-Twilight Soundtrack (Various Artists)
02-Black Ice (AC/DC)
03-High School Musical 3: Senior Year Soundtrack (Various Artists)
04-Take it to the Limit (Hinder)
05-Funhouse (P!nk)
06-Evolver (John Legend)
07-Paper Trail (T.I.)
08-Incanto (Andrea Bocelli)
09-Play (Brad Paisley)
10-Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (Rascal Flatts)
11-The Renaissance (Q-Tip)
12-Death Magnetic (Metallica)
13-That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy (Toby Keith)
14-Rock ‘n Roll Jesus (Kid Rock)
15-Lucky Old Sun (Kenny Chesney)
16-Jennifer Hudson (Jennifer Hudson)
17-My Love: the Essential Collection (Celine Dion)
18-Year of the Gentleman (Ne-Yo)
19-The Carter III (Lil’ Wayne)
20-Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy & Peace (Yo-Yo Ma)
*The presence of Yo-Yo Ma’s album at #20 means it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. It is the cellist’s highest charting album ever. Also on the holiday album front, Faith Hill’s seasonal record is knocking on the door of the Top 20, at #22.
*The album charts are pretty country-centric this week (especially if you include Kid Rock into the mix). Expect all the charted albums to take a leap next week once the effect of sales from the Country Music Awards is factored in…hell, there might even be a bump for Lil’ Wayne, who “played guitar” alongside Kid during his performance of “All Summer Long”.
*Speaking of summer, there’s a good chance that Kid Rock and Lil’ Wayne will get bounced out of the Top 20 by a slate of new releases for the first time since the beginning of the summer, a pretty lengthy streak.
*Unless someone blows him out of the water with sales performance in the next 6 weeks, it looks like Lil’ Wayne has also clinched 2008’s Top selling album, with almost 3 million copies of “The Carter III” sold. This puts him about a million copies ahead of his closest competitor, Coldplay.
*The soundtrack to the vampire movie “Twilight” is the first soundtrack to debut at #1 in quite some time. I’m pretty sure the last one to debut at the top was “8 Mile” six years ago.
*Down at #91 on the singles chart, Rihanna debuts with “Rehab”. If this song cracks the Top 40, it will be the seventh charting single from “Good Girl Gone Bad”. The only other artists to chart seven Top 40 songs from one album? Michael Jackson (from “Thriller” and “Bad”), Janet Jackson (from “Rhythm Nation” and “janet.”) and Bruce Springsteen (from “Born in the U.S.A.”). Here’s a preview of the video, which features the ubiquitous Justin Timberlake.
*Another fact for Kanye to crow about? “Heartless” is his third song to debut in the Top 5 this year, following “Love Lockdown” and “Swagga Like Us”. This bodes well for “808s and Heartbreak”, which arrives a week from Monday. Yes, I said Monday.
*While I would love to crow about Hinder’s new album flopping (it debuts with just over 80K sold), it may not be time to count the boneheaded rockers out yet. Their debut album stayed charted for well over a year and sold steadily to arrive at it’s multi-platinum sales.
*Finally, this week’s “Catch a Falling Star” award, sadly, goes to the Irish lads in Snow Patrol, whose new album slides from 9-35 this week. A shame, because Snow Patrol is a fantastic band, and while I haven’t been able to give the new album a listen yet, I’m sure it’s better than half the shit charted above it. Anyways, here’s their new video. Enjoy.
