No small talk this time! As usual, these charts are brought to you courtesy of the good folks at Billboard Communications.
Billboard Top 20 Singles
01-Whatever You Like (T.I.)
02-Live Your Live (T.I. feat. Rihanna)
03-So What (Pink)
04-Womanizer (Britney Spears)
05-Hot N Cold (Katy Perry)
06-Disturbia (Rihanna)
07-Let it Rock (Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil’ Wayne)
08-Miss Independent (Ne-Yo)
09-Fearless (Taylor Swift)
10-Can’t Believe It (T-Pain feat. Lil’ Wayne)
11-Better in Time (Leona Lewis)
12-Love Lockdown (Kanye West)
13-I’m Yours (Jason Mraz)
14-Love Story (Taylor Swift)
15-Paper Planes (M.I.A.)
16-Closer (Ne-Yo)
17-Gotta Be Somebody (Nickelback)
18-Mrs. Officer (Lil’ Wayne feat. Bobby Valentino & Kidd Kidd)
19-Right Now (Na Na Na)-Akon
20-One Step at a Time (Jordin Sparks)
Billboard Top 20 Albums
01-Lucky Old Sun (Kenny Chesney)
02-Paper Trail (T.I.)
03-Gossip in the Grain (Ray Lamontagne)
04-Death Magnetic (Metallica)
05-Jennifer Hudson (Jennifer Hudson)
06-Rock N Roll Jesus (Kid Rock)
07-Perfect Symmetry (Keane)
08-Year of the Gentleman (Ne-Yo)
09-Little Honey (Lucinda Williams)
10-Covers (James Taylor)
11-Something Else (Robin Thicke)
12-Tha Carter III (Lil’ Wayne)
13-Little Bit of Everything (Billy Currington)
14-The Recession (Young Jeezy)
15-A Little Bit Longer (Jonas Brothers)
16-Fearless (Jazmine Sullivan)
17-Good Girl Gone Bad (Rihanna)
18-Love on the Inside (SugarLand)
19-Appeal to Reason (Rise Against)
20-Spirit (Leona Lewis)
*On the album charts, it’s a veteran’s game. 9 of the top ten artists have made three albums or more, with the only newbie being Jennifer Hudson, who is technically not a new artist in the traditional sense of the term.
*Having two singles in the Top 20 simultaneously is not the province of R&B and hip-hop artists exclusively, as Taylor Swift joins herself with a #9 debut this week. Swift’s sophomore effort is quickly shaping up to be Nashville’s most anticipated release of the fall.
*Kenny Chesney’s latest release, “Lucky Old Sun”, places him firmly at #2 among male artists with the most #1 singles this decade. #1? Jay-Z.
*Not only did Britney Spears break a record by zooming 96-1 with “Womanizer” last week, she also scored her first #1 single in nearly a decade. Considering her success on the album charts, it’s pretty amazing to note that she has only had one Top 5 single between her debut and her most recent single, and that was last year’s “Gimme More”.
*I almost hate to give them this week’s Catch a Falling Star award because their star has faded tremendously in the last decade or so, but Oasis’s 5-36 drop for “Dig Out Your Soul” this week is still pretty epic and worthy of mentioning.
*How out of touch am I that I’ve only heard five of this week’s Top 10 singles more than once?
*It’s a rootsy kind of week in the Top 10 albums, as singer/songwriters Ray Lamontagne and Lucinda Williams score their first ever appearances in this particular echelon of the Billboard charts. Lamontagne’s #3 debut is particularly impressive, as his last album barely dented the Top 30 and his first album never even cracked the Top 100. Those of you who aren’t hip to Ray yet (and you should be), here’s a video for the title track to his first album, “Trouble”.
*With the all-star hip-hop collaboration “Swagga Like Us” at #32 on the singles chart and M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” at #15, would this be the first time ever that a song is in the Top 40 at the same time as another song that samples it?
*Impending flop alert: 50 Cent’s new single “Get Up” opens at a fairly weak #44, which does not bode well for his upcoming “Before I Self Destruct”. Somewhere, The Game sees that he’s about 20 spots higher on the same chart and is laughing to himself.
*Finally, Keane scores their second straight top 10 album debut with “Perfect Symmetry” (which, I must say, has been promoted horribly on these shores) and I figured now would be a good time to show you guys the video for “Spiralling”, which is my favorite song of the moment. Eightiestastic!!!
