Category: Charts

That may have been the worst pun I’ve ever made in my life.

So, as the headline suggests, Canuck crooner Michael Buble holds at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart with “Crazy Love”. The album sells 203,000 units in it’s first full week of release. It debuted early after his label pushed the release date up 4 days. I remember reading somewhere (of course, I can’t find the article now) that said that he and Norah Jones are the only artists in history to debut at #1 without having had a single Top 40 hit. Interesting.

Three albums debut in the Top 20 this week. The “New Moon” soundtrack enters at #2 with 115,000 copies sold. Of course, “New Moon” is the latest edition in the “Twilight” series. The “Twilight” soundtrack was a smash, selling over 2 million copies. It will be interesting to see if this soundtrack does as well. All indications point to it, considering the sales numbers are this high with a month till release. The other debuts in the Top 20 come from alt-rock legends The Flaming Lips (at #8) and R&B singer Mario (#9).

The Black Eyed Peas return to the Top Ten with a flourish. “The E.N.D.” jumps from #23 to #6 this week, thanks to rapidly increasing airplay for their latest single, “Meet Me Halfway”, which is #9 on the singles charts this week. Another act with a hot single to watch out for is Owl City. Thanks to the success of the single “Fireflies” (which my buddy Paul turned me on to, thanks!!), the one-man band project jumps from #32 to #20 this week.

It’s beginning to look a LOT like Christmas! Holiday albums from Bob Dylan (#23) and David Archuleta (#30) debut on this week’s chart.

On the singles side of things, Britney Spears drops out of the top spot after a single week with “3”. The racy single slips to #5 in its second week on the charts. Jay Sean’s “Down” advances one spot to reclaim the #1 spot after yielding to Britney last week.  Aside from the previously mentioned Black Eyed Peas jump, the other major news comes from John Mayer, who scores his highest Hot 100 debut ever with “Who Says”. John’s gonna have to count on a lot of downloads if he wants this to hit the top-radio’s not gonna be so crazy about a song whose first line is “who says I can’t get stoned?” Somewhat strangely, although many people think of John as a radio darling, he has never had a Top 10 hit. “Say” peaked at #12, “No Such Thing” stalled at #13 and “Waiting for the World to Change” ran out of gas at #14.

Below the Top 20, Chris Brown blasts 52-27 with his latest single, “I Can Transform Ya”.  We forgive easy, don’t we?

Next week, the “New Moon” soundtrack will do battle with Tim McGraw for the chart crown. We’ll see who wins in our next Chart Chat column.

Oh, here’s this week’s Top 20 albums. Scroll down to the end to see a special treat.

1) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”

2) Various Artists “Twilight-New Moon Soundtrack”

3) Jay-Z “The Blueprint 3”

4) Barbra Streisand “Love is the Answer”

5) Miley Cyrus “Time of Our Lives EP”

6) Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)”

7) “Fearless” Taylor Swift

8) “Embryonic” The Flaming Lips

9) “D.N.A.” Mario

10) “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel” Mariah Carey

11) “Sonic Boom” Kiss

12) “American Ride” Toby Keith

13) “Dear Agony” Breaking Benjamin

14) “Foundation” Zac Brown Band

15) “I Look to You” Whitney Houston

16) “Brand New Eyes” Paramore

17) “Number Ones” Michael Jackson

18) ‘Black Gives Way to Blue” Alice in Chains

19) “Only by the Night” Kings of Leon

20) “The Fame” Lady Gaga

In honor of the Black Eyed Peas’ new single, let’s retreat back to the year 1987, when another singer scored a huge hit with a song called “Meet Me Halfway”. That singer? Mr. Kenny Loggins.

Let’s start this week’s column with a pat on the back…for us. Not too long ago, we recorded our 1,000th post!! Yay us!! Now, back to the chart action.

Michael Buble makes an impressive bow at #1 on this week’s album chart with his new album, “Crazy Love”. It’s Buble’s second chart-topper, and it’s notable because “Crazy Love” was released on a Friday, which means that it rang up it’s total of 132,000 copies in only three days. Buble beats out rock legends KISS, who score the highest-charting album of their career with “Sonic Boom”. That Wal-Mart exclusive enters at the runer-up spot with 108,000 copies sold. It’s the band’s second-highest one week total of the SoundScan era.

Other notable debuts come from Toby Keith, whose new album enters at #3, the Backstreet Boys, who score their 7th consecutive Top 10 album at #9, and Bebe & Cece Winans, who return after a decade and a half off to land at #14 with their new album, “Still”. This week’s FAIL goes to Fat Joe. Despite allegedly making peace with Jay-Z while at the same time continuing his beef with 50 Cent, “Jealous Ones Still Envy 2” opens at an anemic #73, with just over 8,000 copies sold.

The real noise, however, is on the singles chart, where Britney Spears’ “3” debuts at #1. While it’s still climbing the airplay chart, it explodes onto the digital download chart at the top with 255,000 downloads sold this week. It’s the third #1 single of Britney’s career, and it’s also the first song to debut at #1 on the singles chart in three years, since Taylor Hicks’ “Do I Make You Proud”. It’s the first non-“American Idol” song to debut at the top this decade. While I must say that this song holds absolutely no appeal to me, I guess a congratulations are in order for Britney.

There’s some serious movement on the R&B singles chart this week as well, as several of the genre’s superstars make big jumps. Chris Brown’s “I Can Transform Ya” moves up to #18 in it’s third week on the chart, Usher’s “Papers” jumps from 60-17 in only it’s second week on the chart, and Michael Jackson’s “This is It” jumps onto the list at # 43 with only THREE HOURS of airplay in the tracking week. Looks for that to take a huge leap next week.

Also next week, look for the soundtrack to the “Twilight” sequel to make an impressive debut on the album chart, despite the fact that this is yet another Friday debut.

Oh, one more thing…congrats to Jay-Z, as “The Blueprint 3” becomes the 12th album to cross the million-sold threshold this week. Jay joins Taylor Swift’s “Fearless”, the “Hannah Montana” soundtrack, Eminem, Lady GaGa, The Black Eyed Peas, Nickelback, Kings of Leon, U2, the “Twilight” soundtrack and two Michael Jackson albums (“Number Ones” and “Thriller”) as the only albums to scan a million units so far in 2009.

Here are this week’s Top 20 albums, according to Soundscan.

1) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
2) Kiss “Sonic Boom”
3) Toby Keith “American Ride”
4) Barbra Streisand “Love is the Answer”
5) Jay-Z “The Blueprint 3”
6) Luke Bryan “Doin’ My Thing”
7) Mariah Carey “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel”
8) Miley Cyrus “Time of Our Lives EP”
9) Michael Jackson “Number Ones”
10) Backstreet Boys “This is Us”
11) Breaking Benjamin “Dear Agony”
12) Paramore “Brand New Eyes”
13) Alice in Chains “Black Gives Way to Blue”
14) Whitney Houston “I Look to You”
15) Bebe & Cece Winans “Still”
16) Relient K “Forget & Not Slow Down”
17) Pearl Jam “Backspacer”
18) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
19) Harry Connick Jr. “Your Songs”
20) Miranda Lambert “Revolution”

So you thought this week’s #1 album was gonna be Paramore, huh? Or maybe the new one from Mariah Carey? Thought Madonna might have a shot?

WELL, YOU’RE WRONG, SUCKERS.

In a week filled with divas, the Grande Dame of them all came out on top. Barbra Streisand’s “Love is the Answer” scans 180,000 units to land at #1 on this week’s Billboard album chart. It’s the legend’s first #1 in twelve years, and her 9th #1 album overall-tops among female artists.

Paramore settles for the #2 position. “Brand New Eyes” beats the sophomore jink by selling 175,000 copies, while Mariah Carey’s “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel” is shaping up to be a sales disappointment. Carey opens at #3 with 168K, less than half the total that greeted her in the first week of release of her last album, “E=MC2” just last year!!

Babs, Paramore and Mariah lead a pack of 8 new releases in the Top 10-a new record. The only holdovers from last week’s Top 10 are Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 3”, which slides 2-6, still riding the strength of two hit singles, and Pearl Jam’s “Backspacer”, which slides from the Number One spot to #10. The other releases debuting in the Top 10 come from Breaking Benjamin (#4), the reconfigured Alice in Chains (#5), Madonna (#7), Miranda Lambert (#8) and Selena Gomez (#9). How’s that for diversity? A little country, a little teen-pop, a little leftover grunge for ya.

Madonna’s album opens with a respectable 72K. Not bad when you consider that most people with a pulse have most of this material already and the two new songs aren’t especially memorable (and can be purchased a la carte on iTunes).

Further down the chart, AFI must be wondering where their fan base went. After scoring a chart-topper with their last album, Davey Havok and his crew manage a weak showing at #12 with their new one, “Crash Love”, only scanning 52,000 copies in it’s first week.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The first holiday album to debut on a chart this year is Michael McDonald’s “This Christmas”. The former Doobie opens at #95, with a whole 2 months to go before the holidays begin in earnest.

Next week, it looks like KISS will score the first #1 album of their career with “Sonic Boom”, underscoring the fact that the boomer generation is still buying records. This WalMart exclusive has been heavily publicized and it seems to be paying dividends.

Here’s a look at this week’s Top 20:

1) Barbra Streisand-Love is the Answer
2) Paramore-Brand New Eyes
3) Mariah Carey-Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel
4) Breaking Benjamin-Dear Agony
5) Alice in Chains-Black Gives Way to Blue
6) Jay-Z-The Blueprint 3
7) Madonna-Celebration
8) Miranda Lambert-Revolution
9) Selena Gomez-Kiss & Tell
10) Pearl Jam-Backspacer
11) Miley Cyrus-Time of Our Lives EP
12) AFI-Crash Love
13) Whitney Houston-I Look to You
14) Harry Connick Jr.-Love Songs
15) Metalocolypse:Dethklok-Deth Album II
16) The Avett Brothers- I and Love and You
17) Three Days Grace-Life Starts Now
18) Lynyrd Skynyrd-God & Guns
19) Taylor Swift-Fearless
20) Drake-So Far Gone EP