Thursday, November 25, 2010

Rihanna Lands 9th #1, Glee & Boyle Stay Atop Charts

Updated: Posted this week's top 20 albums on the Billboard 200

It was only two weeks ago when Rihanna scored her 8th #1 with "What's My Name", her second single from her new album "Loud", due to strong first week sales and I thought then that it was making up for the lead single "Only Girl (In The World)" failing to top the Hot 100 but well after closely making it last week, "Only Girl" finally top the Hot 100 this week as reported by Billboard. This is Rihanna's 9th #1 and 4th #1 this year. It was a tight race for #1 between "Only Girl" and Pink's "Raise Your Glass" but the former's commanding lead on airplay towered over Pink's track which settles for #2 this week on the Hot 100, it still has a chance to top the Hot 100 next week though. Here is this week's Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 (full chart will be posted tomorrow plus more chart comments)

1. Rihanna - "Only Girl (In the World)"
2. P!nk - "Raise Your Glass"
3. Far East Movement feat. The Cataracs and Dev - "Like a G6"
4. Ke$ha - "We R Who We R"
5. Nelly - "Just a Dream"
6. Katy Perry - "Firework"
7. Bruno Mars - "Just the Way You Are"
8. Rihanna feat Drake - "What's My Name?"
9. Cee Lo Green - "F**k You (Forget You)"
10. Trey Songz feat Nicki Minaj - "Bottoms Up"


Almost making it to the top 10 is Glee's cover of Cee Lo Green's "Forget You" which enters the Hot 100 at #11. The cover featured the vocals of Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow who was the guest star of last week's episode. Glee's cover of "Forget You" sold 192k this week topping the Hot Digital Songs chart this week and it's also the second highest first week sales of any Glee track next to last week's #1 "Teenage Dream" which sold 214K last week (but drops to #19 this week as expected for Glee tracks). This is the second week in a row that Glee topped the Hot Digital Songs chart but it is interesting to note that both covers of "Teenage Dream" and "Forget You" featured vocals from someone not on the regular cast. In a matter of two weeks, Glee's cover of "Don't Stop Believin" went from the #1 to #3 on the list of top selling first-week sales of Glee tracks, a record it held for over a year (it sold 177K in May 2009). Time will tell if the Glee's covers of "Teenage Dream" and "Forget You" would surpass "Don't Stop Believin" over all sales which is over a million and by far the best selling Glee track to date. Another Glee track from last week's episode sold well., their mash up of "Singing in the Rain" and "Umbrella" enters the Hot Digital Songs track at #7 selling 140K.

Thanks to the Glee exposure Cee Lo Green's "F*ck You (Forget You)" soared from #12 to #2 on the Hot Digital Songs chart selling 191K and helping it land in the Top 10 on the Hot 100. Billboard counted both the sales for the original 'explicit' version and the 'radio-friendly' version into one so that's why even though neither version cracked the Top 3 on iTunes last week (the largest share of the digital songs sales) the combined sales were enough to land in the top 2. But they are basically the some song with a one word difference.

Here is this week's Top 10 on the Hot Digital Songs chart courtesy of Paul Grein's Yahoo! Chart Watch
  1. Glee Cast - "Forget You" (192K)
  2. Cee Lo Green - "F*ck You / Forget You" (191K)
  3. Ke$ha - "We R Who We R" (189K)
  4. Katy Perry - "Firework" (175K)
  5. P!nk - "Raise Your Glass" (171K)
  6. Rihanna - "What's My Name?" (147K)Numbered List
  7. Glee Cast - "Singin' in The Rain/Umbrella" (140K)
  8. The Black Eyed Peas - "Time (The Dirty Bit)" (170K)
  9. Rihanna - "Only Girl (In The World)" (131K)
  10. Far*East Movement feat. Cataracs & Dev - "Like A G6" (130K)
***

A total of 8 new album storms in on the Top 10 of this week's Billboard 200 albums but Susan Boyle remained unbeatable as her holiday album "The Gift" spends a second week at #1 atop the chart selling 355K this week. The Gift's sales are up 5% from last week when it debuted with 318K, it's a rare feat for an album to increase in sales from its debut week. Leading the pack of new entries is 10-year old Jackie Evancho with her holiday set "O Holy Night" debuting at #2 selling 239K. Evancho is a runner up from this year's America's Got Talent and at 10 years old, she is the youngest person to land a top 10 album, the previous record holder was the late Michael Jackson. Jackson was 11 years old when Jackson 5 land their first top 10 album. Far below. Let's see if fellow 10 year old Willow Smith, who already made splash this year with her single "Whip My Hair", could land a top 10 album next year. At #3 is Rihanna's 4th studio album "Loud" which sold 207K, the highest first week sales for any Rihanna album. Rihanna has 9 #1 songs on the Hot 100 but she has yet have a #1 album, her highest peaking album was Good Girl Gone Bad at #2. The next set of new entries in the top 10 are comprised of Josh Groban's "Illuminations" (#4), Kid Rock's "Born Free" (#5), Rascall Flatt's "Nothing Like This" (#6), Keith Urban's "Get Closer) (#7), Glee's "Glee The Music: The Christmas Album" (#8) and Nelly's "5.0" (#10). Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" is the only other leftover from last week's top 10 ,it lands at #9. All but the #10 album outsold the albums on the same positions last year and over all sales are up from last year for the first time this year! There's a wide sales gap from the #9 album (146K) to #10 album (64K) though. Nelly's sales are disappointing considering he has a hit this time with "Just a Dream" and is an established artist, it would have been great if all the top 10 albums sold 100K+. This year's American Idol winner Lee DeWyze debuted at #19 selling 39K, somewhere Kris Allen is happy as someone took his "record" of lowest selling first week sales of an Idol winner. Allen's self-titled first album debuted and peaked at #11 last year selling~80K. Lastly, Eminem's "Recovery" is the first album to sell 3 million copies this year, unless Susan Boyle (or any other album) will suddenly sell ~500K a week until December, "Recovery" is on course to be 2010's Top Seller. I will update this post if any Billboard 200 sales chart for this week are posted on Pulse Music Board already so watch out :)

Here is this week's Top 20 albums on the Billboard as originally posted at Pulse Music Board:

1 SUSAN BOYLE THE GIFT 334505 631058
2 JACKIE EVANCHO O HOLY NIGHT 239234 239234
3 RIHANNA LOUD 206530 206776
4 JOSH GROBAN ILLUMINATIONS 191226 191337
5 KID ROCK BORN FREE 188788 189010
6 RASCAL FLATS NOTHING LIKE THIS 164926 165071
7 KEITH URBAN GET CLOSER 161515 161528
8 GLEE CAST MUSIC: XMAS 161198 161293
9 TAYLOR SWIFT SPEAK NOW 146358 1724577
10 NELLY 5.0 63476 63568
11 DAY TO REMEMBER WHAT SEPARATES ME FROM YOU 58103 58240
12 JASON ALDEAN MY KINDA PARTY 57609 331117
13 VARIOUS NOW 36 55894 144676
14 PINK GREATEST HITS SO FAR 52651 52750
15 SUGARLAND INCREDIBLE MACHINE 48507 460190
16 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN PROMISE 46858 47725
17 CHRIS TOMLIN AND IF OUR GOD IS FOR US... 45170 45737
18 BON JOVI BON JOVI GREATEST HITS 39127 126959
19 LEE DEWYZE LIVE IT UP 38581 38596
20 KID CUDI MAN ON THE MOON2: THE LEGEND 35973 205772

No comments: