Billboard 200: 12/18/10: Susan Boyle #1: 272k

[areyoureadytojump]

www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/charts/chart_alert/e3ie20540bfc5c51d615f36037160bef2c4

Susan Boyle's Back At No. 1
December 08, 2010

Editor: Keith Caulfield; Editorial Director: Silvio Pietroluongo; Contributor: Alex Vitoulis

Susan Boyle rebounds to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with "The Gift" rising two spots with 272,000 (up 3%) while the fourth volume of the "Glee" soundtrack starts at No. 4 (129,000) and the new Black Eyed Peas album "The Beginning" bows at No. 6 (119,000). On the Digital Songs chart, Katy Perry's "Firework" holds at No. 1 with 212,000 (down 9%) while the Peas' "The Time (Dirty Bit)" rallies 4-2 with 198,000 (up 10%).

FLASH POINTS

• Weeks ago—on paper at least—it seemed like the Black Eyed Peas' "The Beginning" was a safe bet for a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200, especially considering how their last set, 2009's "The E.N.D.," blasted in atop the list with 304,000 in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

• But no, Susan Boyle returns to No. 1 with "The Gift" (272,000; up 3%) while the Peas debut at No. 6 with 119,000.

• Chalk up some of the soft start for "The Beginning" to the good-but-not-great response to its lead single, "The Time (Dirty Bit)," which has so far peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Last year, when "The E.N.D." entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 (June 27, 2009), the Peas were basking in the glow of their massive single "Boom Boom Pow," which was spending its 11th week at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

• On a brighter note, "The Beginning" gives the Peas their third top 10 set following "Monkey Business" (No. 2 in 2005) and the aforementioned "E.N.D."

• "The Beginning" is one of two new arrivals in the top 10 this week, as it's joined by the "Glee: The Music, Volume 4" soundtrack at No. 5 with 128,000. The next-highest new entries are found further down the tally: Jazmine Sullivan's sophomore album, "Love Me Back," begins at No. 17 with 57,000 while Chrisette Michele's third effort, "Let Freedom Reign," launches at No. 25 with 42,000.

• Among the non-debuts in the top 10, Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" moves up two slots to No. 2 with 182,000 (down 24%), Jackie Evancho's "O Holy Night" climbs 5-3 with 145,000 (up 2%), and the "Glee" Christmas album rises six rungs to No. 4 with 129,000.

• Columbia Records is home to Boyle, Evancho and the two "Glee" albums, thus giving the label four out of the top five albums (Nos. 1 and 3-5) this week—the first time a label has achieved the feat since Dec. 7, 1996, when Interscope held the entire top four.

• Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday" falls six slots to No. 8 with 103,000 (down 73%) in its second week, while last week's No. 1, Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," descends to No. 7 with 108,000 (down 78%). Rounding out the top 10 are Josh Groban's "Illuminations," rising three to No. 9 with 78,000 (down 21%), and Rihanna's "Loud," moving 6-10 with 77,000 (down 45%).

• Over on the Digital Songs chart this week, Katy Perry's "Firework" holds at No. 1 with 212,000 (down 9%) while the Peas' "The Time (Dirty Bit)" rallies 4-2 with 198,000 (up 10%). One new song debuts in the top 10: the "Glee" cast's cover of Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over," starting at No. 8 with 98,000.

• Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Dec. 5) totaled 9.2 million units, down 10% compared with the sum last week (10.2 million) and down 9% compared with the comparable sales week of 2009 (10.1 million). Year-to-date album sales stand at 281.2 million, down 13% compared with the same total at this point last year (321.9 million).

• Digital track sales this past week totaled 21.1 million downloads, down 5% compared with last week (22.2 million) and up 13% stacked next to the comparable week of 2009 (18.8 million). Year-to-date track sales are at 1.044 billion, up 1% compared with the same total at this point last year (1.038 billion).



MARKET WATCH

• Album units, current chart week: 9.2 million units
• Down 10% from last week's charts: 10.2 million units
• Down 9% from the comparable week in 2009: 10.1 million units.
• This week last year on the Billboard 200: Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" kept on dreaming at No. 1 for a second week, selling 527,000 (down 25%) while Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas" held firm at No. 2 with 428,000 (up 97%). The highest new entry was R. Kelly's "Untitled" at No. 4 with 114,000.


A LOOK AHEAD

• Among the albums released this week, due on next week's charts: T.I.'s "No Mercy," Daft Punk's soundtrack to "TRON: Legacy," Duffy's "Endlessly," Charlie Wilson's "Just Charlie," Hinder's "All American Nightmare," Natasha Bedingfield's "Strip Me" and Plain White T's "Wonders of the Younger."

• Next week's Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2009 when: Susan Boyle held at No. 1 with "I Dreamed a Dream," selling 582,000 (up 10%) as Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas" stayed steady at No. 2 with 400,000 (down 7%). The highest new entry was at No. 3—the "Glee: The Music, Volume 2" soundtrack (173,000).

[Joe1240]

Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" moves up two slots to No. 2 with 182,000 (down 24%),

Yeah!!! Go Taylor!! #2!!!

[microcuts]

haha, she's number two.

[Cerbius]

Ha, after weeks of overpredictions by HDD for Speak Now, looks like they underpredicted this time.

[passionformusic]

Dec 8, 2010 12:47:04 GMT -5 Cerbius said:

Ha, after weeks of overpredictions by HDD for Speak Now, looks like they underpredicted this time.

Not only this time. They underpredicted massively Thanksgiving week too.

[maria4hitz]

Country albums

4 2 Taylor Swift Speak Now 182,018 2,147,125
14 14 Keith Urban Get Closer 59,380 296,817
13 15 Rascal Flatts Nothing Like This 57,194 305,073
21 18 Jason Aldean My Kinda Party 47,750 437,725
17 20 Sugarland The Incredible Machine 46,957 570,575
NEW 25 Tim McGraw Number One Hits 40,409 40,455
22 27 Lady Antebellum Need You Now 36,084 2,887,026
48 35 Lady Antebellum A Merry Little Christmas 29,075 159,574
37 36 Kenny Chesney Hemingway's Whiskey 27,887 471,107
34 39 Alan Jackson 34 Number Ones 24,244 57,679
43 40 Zac Brown Band You Get What You Give 24,964 465,183
41 47 The Band Perry The Band Perry 22,014 215,847
50 57 Miranda Lambert Revolution 19,396 1,011,639
56 58 Taylor Swift Fearless 19,320 6,123,209
54 59 Darius Rucker Charleston, SC 1966 18,701 263,031
51 60 Reba McEntire All The Woman I Am 18,620 131,511
68 61 Brad Paisley Hits Alive 18,489 106,374
61 75 Carrie Underwood Play On 14,040 1,842,485
80 84 Zac Brown Band Foundation 12,795 2,390,475
86 85 Blake Shelton Loaded:The Best of… 12,256 66,313
71 87 Toby Keith Bullets in the Gun 11,882 205,135
117 112 Billy Currington Enjoy Yourself 7,634 155,819
128 124 Jamey Johnson The Guitar Song 6,522 203,063
126 126 Eric Church Carolina 6,140 328,377
158 142 Jerrod Niemann Judge Jerrod/Hung Jury 4,994 178,533
152 144 Blake Shelton All About Tonight 11,934 128,025
151 146 Loretta Lynn & Friends Coal Miner's Daughter 4,835 32,198
78 149 Lady Antebellum Lady Antebellum 4,761 1,800,924
165 153 Various Artist Now Country Vol 3 4,511 82,657
RE-Entry 166 Zac Brown Band Pass The Jar 4,136 167,873

www.roughstock.com/blog/sales-slump-in-week-after-thanksgiving-sales-high

[Cerbius]

Using these numbers above, Speak Now will need to outsell Need You Now by an average of more than 184,975.25 copies over the next 4 weeks to pass it for the year-end #2 album. I think it'll be very close as Taylor will likely experience considerable sales increases over the next few weeks.

[Tea-why]

#6 for BEP? Eeeek

[Agent Yoncé]

The Boyle Monster is doing very well. She plat. now. Now, if she continues to have these steady & consistent sales, she'll be 2x plat. before the end of the year

[crystalphnx]

Dec 8, 2010 13:23:25 GMT -5 Cerbius said:

Using these numbers above, Speak Now will need to outsell Need You Now by an average of more than 184,975.25 copies over the next 4 weeks to pass it for the year-end #2 album. I think it'll be very close as Taylor will likely experience considerable sales increases over the next few weeks.

hmmm...almost 185k MORE than Lady A each week? doesn't look too likely, unfortunately but hey, No. 3 for the year is a lock, right? not too shabby!

[Diego]

1. Susan Boyle - The Gift - 272,000
2. Taylor Swift - Speak Now - 182,000
3. Jackie Evancho - O Holy Night - 145,000
4. Glee Christmas Album - 129,000
5. Glee, the Music Volume 4 - 128,000
6. Black Eyed Peas - The Beginning - 119,000
7. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - 108,000
8. Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday - 103,000
9. Josh Groban - Illuminations - 78,000
10. Rihanna - Loud - 77,000
17. Jazmine Sullivan - Love Me Back - 57,000
25. Chrisette Michele - Let Freedom Reign - 42,000

[Moneyman202]

Dec 8, 2010 13:36:07 GMT -5 crystalphnx said:

Dec 8, 2010 13:23:25 GMT -5 Cerbius said:

Using these numbers above, Speak Now will need to outsell Need You Now by an average of more than 184,975.25 copies over the next 4 weeks to pass it for the year-end #2 album. I think it'll be very close as Taylor will likely experience considerable sales increases over the next few weeks.

hmmm...almost 185k MORE than Lady A each week? doesn't look too likely, unfortunately but hey, No. 3 for the year is a lock, right? not too shabby!

But don't forget that the biggest week for CD sales is the week before Christmas. It could be possible if it gets big increases in the coming weeks.

[kt1990]

Miranda's finally passed a million copies.

:shaking+crying:

[malwaredie]

Congratulations to Miranda Lambert. Revolution deserves these numbers.

[Enigma.]

Did Glee have two Top 10 albums simultaniously earlier this year or in December last year?

[crystalphnx]

TOP 25 CURRENT ALBUMS:

1 BOYLE*SUSAN THE GIFT 271,567 3 262,865 1,133,898
2 SWIFT*TAYLOR SPEAK NOW 182,018 -24 240,530 2,147,125
3 EVANCHO*JACKIE O HOLY NIGHT 144,572 2 142,240 516,596
4 GLEE CAST MUSIC: XMAS 129,436 20 108,004 398,733
5 GLEE CAST GLEE: THE MUSIC,V4 128,160 999 158 128,327
6 BLACK EYED PEAS BEGINNING 118,704 999 292 119,033
7 WEST*KANYE MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANT 108,404 -78 495,835 605,493
8 MINAJ*NICKI PINK FRIDAY 103,149 -73 375,191 479,122
9 GROBAN*JOSH ILLUMINATIONS 78,085 -21 98,884 368,068
10 RIHANNA LOUD 77,040 -45 140,838 424,654
11 BIEBER*JUSTIN MY WORLDS ACOUSTIC 66,383 -43 115,467 181,850
12 CAREY*MARIAH MERRY CHRISTMAS II YOU 64,676 56 41,575 230,035
13 KID ROCK BORN FREE 63,498 -39 103,748 356,256
14 URBAN*KEITH GET CLOSER 59,380 -22 75,909 296,817
15 RASCAL FLATTS NOTHING LIKE THIS 57,194 -31 82,808 305,073
16 SULLIVAN*JAZMINE LOVE ME BACK 55,648 999 81 55,731
17 PERRY*KATY TEENAGE DREAM 48,593 -33 72,020 724,977
18 ALDEAN*JASON MY KINDA PARTY 47,750 -19 58,858 437,725
19 VARIOUS NOW 36 47,102 -24 61,795 253,573
20 SUGARLAND INCREDIBLE MACHINE 46,957 -26 63,428 570,575
21 BURLESQUE SOUNDTRACK 45,385 -28 63,173 108,623
22 EMINEM RECOVERY 43,563 -9 48,033 3,096,441
23 MICHELE*CHRISETTE LET FREEDOM REIGN 42,039 999 91 42,130
24 BIEBER*JUSTIN MY WORLD 2.0 40,483 -33 60,801 2,092,800
25 MCGRAW*TIM NUMBER ONE HITS 40,409 999 36 40,455

the #'s are courtesy of oldbloke @ UKMix!

[Diego]

Yes, Mariah sold even more on SoundScan!

[Caviar]

She should easily pass gold.

[Deleted]

Week Ending Dec. 5, 2010: The "Gift" That Keeps On Giving
Posted 6 minutes ago by Paul Grein in Chart Watch
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Susan Boyle's The Gift returns to #1 for the third time in its four-week run. This represents sweet vindication for Boyle, whose first-week sales tally a few weeks ago was pooh-poohed by some because it wasn't up to the blockbuster level of her 2009 debut, I Dreamed A Dream. It also suffered by comparison because it was released just two weeks after Taylor Swift's Speak Now. But Boyle's album has held its ground nicely. It has sold 250K or more copies in each of its first four weeks. The album is already #9 for the year-to-date. This will be the second year in a row that Boyle has ranked in the top 10 on Nielsen/SoundScan's year-end chart. I Dreamed A Dream was the #2 seller of 2009.

The Gift is the first album by a female solo artist to log three weeks at #1 since I Dreamed A Dream. Speak Now has so far spent two weeks on top. Ke$ha's Animal, Katy Perry's Teenage Dream and Sara Bareilles' Kaleidoscope Heart each had a single frame at #1.

This fan support may ease the disappointment Boyle must have felt last week when she was passed over for a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Given her massive sales, that felt like a diss. I suspect that Boyle's reality TV background (she was the runner-up on Britain's Got Talent) hurt her. After all these years, only one American Idol contestant (Carrie Underwood) has been nominated for Best New Artist. Even such worthy artists as Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry and David Cook were left off the final ballot.

Speak Now has already proven that Boyle is no one-hit-wonder. If the album had been released just a week or two earlier, its impact would have been felt before the Grammy panel selected the final Best New Artist nominees. (I suspect they voted just before Speak Now dropped.) Timing is everything, as they say.

Tomorrow, Billboard will release its full menu of year-end charts. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but it's pretty obvious that I Dreamed A Dream will be their #1 album of the year. Boyle's album sold 3,840,000 copies during Billboard's chart year, which extended from Dec. 5, 2009 through Nov. 27. (That corresponds to Nielsen/SoundScan's charts for the weeks ending Nov. 22, 2009 through Nov. 14.) Boyle's album sold 81% of that total in the last six weeks of 2009. But it gets the Billboard crown for 2010 because of the magazine's November to November eligibility period (which is necessitated by the time needed to produce its massive year-end issue).

This is the fourth time in the past five years that a female solo artist has had Billboard's #1 album of the year. Taylor Swift's Fearless was cited last year. Alicia Keys' As I Am came out on top in 2008. Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts scored for 2006. This marks a major change from the way it used to be. From 1956 to 1985, no female solo artist had the #1 album of the year. In 1986, Whitney Houston's blockbuster debut became the first album by a female solo artist to come out on top.

To mark Boyle's achievement, I scrolled back through Billboard's #1 albums of the year all the way back to 1956, which was the year the magazine launched its weekly album chart. I suppose I could have just scrolled back to 1980 or 1970 and called it a day. But then I heard Katy Perry sing, "Let's go all the way tonight," and I took it as a sign that I was meant to go all the way back to the beginning. And so I did. The piece went up on Monday. If you missed it, here's a link.

Taylor Swift's Speak Now jumps from #4 to #2 in its sixth week. It moves up to #3 on Nielsen/SoundScan's year-to-date chart. This will be the third year in a row that Swift has appeared in their year-end top three. No other artist since 1992 (the first full year that

Nielsen/SoundScan tracked sales for Billboard) has ever placed in the year-end top three for three years running.

There are two Glee albums in the top five this week. Glee: The Music: The Christmas Album jumps from #10 to #4. Glee: The Music, Volume 4 bows at #5. It's the eighth Glee album or EP to reach the top 10. No previous TV series has spawned more than five top 10 albums (during the run of the show). (If you combine the sales of these two Glee albums, they still don't add up to Boyle's impressive total this week.)

The Black Eyed Peas' The Beginning debuts at #6. This is a little low for the Peas. Monkey Business opened at #2 in 2005. The E.N.D. bowed at #1 in 2009. The group's current single, "The End (Dirty Bit)," is basically "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" with a light hip-hop flavor. It's nice, but it's not as bold and distinctive as "Boom Boom Pow," the first single from The E.N.D. And while it's a hit, it's not the mega-hit that "Boom Boom Pow" was. The week The E.N.D. debuted at #1, "Boom Boom Pow" was in its 11th week at #1 on the Hot 100 (with another week still to come).

(Incidentally, this is the second time the Peas have released back-to-back albums with titles that seem thematically linked. They followed their breakthrough album Elephunk with Monkey Business.)

There are five female solo artists in the top 10, plus two Glee albums and a Black Eyed Peas album. Do you think women bought the bulk of the albums this week?

Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy slips from #1 to #7 in its second week. That's the biggest tumble from the top spot since Toby Keith's Bullets In The Gun dropped from #1 to #9 in October. West's last two albums also spent just a single frame at #1. 808s & Heartbreak dropped to #4 in its second week. Graduation dipped to #2. West's tally for this week includes 47K digital copies, which put it at #1 on the Digital Albums chart for the second week.

Katy Perry's "Firework" tops Hot Digital Songs for the second straight week. It sold 212K copies this week, bringing its eight-week total to 1,031,000. It's Perry's sixth million-seller. Bruno Mars has two songs in the top 10. "Grenade" jumps from #6 to #3 (173K). "Just The Way You Are" dips from #8 to #9 (97K). The Glee Cast's cover of Florence + the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over" debuts at #8 (98K). It's the 12th Glee song to make the top
10 on Hot Digital Songs. (The original version vaults from #40 to #11.)


Here's the rest of the top 10 on Hot Digital Songs. The Black Eyed Peas' "The Time (Dirty Bit)" jumps from #4 to #2 (198K). P!nk's "Raise Your Glass" drops from #2 to #4 (147K). Rihanna featuring Drake's "What's My Name?" holds at #5 (143K). Ke$ha's "We R Who We R" drops from #3 to #6 (134K). Cee Lo Green's "F*** You (Forget You)" jumps from #10 to #7 (110K). Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj's "Bottoms Up" jumps from #11 to #10 (93K).

Coldplay's "Christmas Lights" enters Hot Digital Songs at #12, displacing Mariah Carey's perennial "All I Want For Christmas Is You" as the week's top holiday song. Last week, I posted a list of the 30 best-selling holiday songs of the digital era. I just updated it to incorporate this week's sales numbers into all the tallies. If you missed it, or want to get the very latest info, here's a link.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death. Yesterday, I posted a piece on his chart and sales achievements. I also just updated that piece to incorporate this week's sales numbers. If you missed it, here's a link.

Three chart-topping artists are listed in the top 10 on another kind of chart-Publishers Weekly's list of the nation's top 10 nonfiction books. Jay-Z's Decoded is #2, Keith Richards' Life is #4, Barbra Streisand's My Passion For Design is #10. Nice going, artists. Now get back in the studio.

Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 albums.

1. Susan Boyle, The Gift, 272,000. The album returns to #1 for the third time in its four week run. The album has sold 1,134,000 copies.

2. Taylor Swift, Speak Now, 182,000. The former #1 album jumps from #4 to #2 in its sixth week. Two songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs. "Back To December" drops from #39 to #52. "Mine" drops from #51 to #81.

3. Jackie Evancho, O Holy Night, 145,000. The EP/DVD combo rebounds from #5 to #3 in its third week. The title has sold 517,000 copies.


4. Various Artists, Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album, 129,000. The album jumps from #10 to #4, a new high, in its third week in the top 10. Three songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "O Holy Night," which jumps from #125 to #110.

5. Various Artists, Glee: The Music, Volume 4, 128,000. This new entry is the eighth Glee album or EP to reach the top 10. Six songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life)," which debuts at #19.

6. The Black Eyed Peas, The Beginning, 119,000. This new entry is the Peas' third top 10 album. Two songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs. "The Time (Dirty Bit)" jumps from #4 to #2. "Love You Long Time" debuts at #143.

7. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 108,000. The former #1 album drops from #1 to #7 in its second week. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Runaway" (featuring Pusha T), which drops from #34 to #51.

8. Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday, 103,000. The album drops from #2 to #8 in its second week. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Right Thru Me," which dips from #38 to #42.

9. Josh Groban, Illuminations, 78,000. The album rebounds from #12 to #9 in its third week. The album has sold 368,000 copies.

10. Rihanna, Loud, 77,000. The album drops from #6 to #10 in its third week. Two songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs. "What's Your Name?" (featuring Drake) holds at #5. "Only Girl (In The World)" drops from #7 to #16.

Three albums drop out of the top 10 in their second week on the chart. Justin Bieber's My Worlds Acoustic drops from #7 to #11. My Chemical Romance's Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys plummets from #8 to #60. Ne-Yo's Libra Scale drops from #9 to #34. Ne-Yo's last album, Year Of The Gentleman, spent its first six weeks in the top 10.

Andrea Bocelli's 2009 album My Christmas vaults from #32 to #14. It's #1 on this week's Catalog Albums chart...Jazmine Sullivan's second album, Love Me Back, bows at #17. Sullivan's debut album, Fearless, debuted at #6 in 2008. What do these two artists have in common? Practically nothing. But both artists were nominated for the Grammys as Best New Artist.

The Burlesque soundtrack drops from #18 to #23. It's the #1 soundtrack to a theatrically-released movie for the second week in a row. The movie stars Cher and Christina Aguilera, who both rose to fame when they were still in their teens. Cher was 19 when she first topped the Hot 100 with Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe". Aguilera was 18 when she first topped the chart with "Genie's In The Bottle." Aguilera won a Grammy as Best New Artist of 1999. Sonny & Cher were nominated as Best New Artist of 1965, but lost to Tom Jones. Cher didn't finally win her first Grammy until her 1999 smash "Believe" took Best Dance Recording. (Yes, that was the same year that Aguilera won her first Grammy.)

Chrisette Michele's third album, Let Freedom Reign, bows at #25. Michele's Epiphany debuted at #1 in 2009...Tim McGraw's Number One Hits debuts at #27...Eric Benet's Lost In Time bows at #33. The R&B artist's last album, Love & Life, hit #11 in 2008.

Ron Isley's Mr. I bows at #50. This is Isley's first solo album to crack The Billboard 200. He previously charted with 30 Isley Brothers albums and one collabo with Burt Bacharach. Isley and his brothers amassed nine top 10 albums from 1973 to 2006. He stepped up to featured billing with the group in 2001.

El DeBarge's Second Chance bows at #57. DeBarge was the Bruno Mars of the ‘80s, a singer who oozed sincerity on such romantic hits as "All This Love." Counting hits he recorded with the family group DeBarge, DeBarge had five top 20 hits on the Hot 100 between 1983 and 1986. DeBarge's career and personal life subsequently went into a tailspin. He served time in federal prison in 2008 and 2009 on a drug-related conviction. He seems to have gotten his life and career back on track. Welcome back, El.

Rick Warren's The Purpose Of Christmas debuts at #74. Warren is a prominent evangelical Christian pastor and author. This package consists of a DVD with an audio message from Warren and a CD with songs by such stars as Steven Curtis Chapman, Sarah McLachlan, Martina McBride, Vince Gill and Amy Grant.

The soundtrack to Tangled jumps from #135 to #126 in its second week. The movie was #1 at the box-office over the weekend.

Owl City's 2009 smash "Fireflies" tops the 4 million mark in paid downloads this week... Kings of Leon's "Sex On Fire" tops the 2 million mark. The band's Grammy-winning "Use Somebody" is up to 3,457,000...Cali Swag District's "Teach Me How To Dougie" tops the 1 million mark.
Ludacris' "How Low" tops the 2 million mark in paid downloads. It's the rapper's first 2 million seller as a lead artist, though he has reached that level with four hits as a featured artist. He was featured on Taio Cruz's "Break Your Heart" (3,137,000), Usher's "Yeah!" (2,867,000), Fergie's "Glamorous" (2,837,000) and Justin Bieber's "Baby" (2,556,000).
What album from the 1970s has sold the most copies in the modern era? That's an easy question. Pink Floyd's 1973 classic The Dark Side Of The Moon has sold 9 million copies (as of this week) since Nielsen/SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard in 1991. This tally doesn't count the album's first 18 years of sales. Pink Floyd's opus is the 27th best-selling album of the Nielsen/SoundScan era. Only two other albums from the 1970s are listed in the top 100: James Taylor's Greatest Hits (1976) at #66 and the Grease soundtrack (1978) at #98.

Take That's Progress holds at #1 in the U.K. for the third straight week. The album has sold more than 900K copies, which is very good considering the population of the U.K. is about 62 million. An album would have to sell 4.5 million in the U.S. to be an equivalent success. No album has sold that many copies in the U.S. in a calendar year since 2005.


Coming Attractions: T.I.'s No Mercy is expected to be next week's top new entry. Also due: Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy soundtrack, Natasha Bedingfield's Strip Me, Charlie Wilson's Just Charlie, Duffy's Endlessly, Hinder's The All American Nightmare, Plain White T's' "Wonders Of The Younger," Redman's Redman Presents Reggie and Flyleaf's Remember To Live.

[malwaredie]

Paul Grein is missing numbers from Christian outlets.

[3m3r7c]

Does anybody know what is looking to be the 6th best seller of the year?
From what I can tell it is looking like eminem, lady A, taylor, justin bieber and susan boyle will have the top 5 and most likely will all clear 2 million by the years end.

[HolidayGuy]

Yes- The Gift is up to some 1.187 million, counting all sales. I also advised him that when talking about SuBo, he referenced "Speak Now" when he meant "The Gift."

Jackie Evancho's release did notably better in the final numbers.

I gather that aside from Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban's is the other catalog title to rank in the top 20? Chris Tomlin probably not far behind, either.

At least Mr. West's album finished with less than an 80% drop. :)

[badrobot]

Interesting that after nearly all year, digital singles sales <1% below last year, but in the past few weeks we've seen notable year-over-year gains to the point where 2010 is now ahead of 2009.

Wonder what triggered that shift? Was the loss a temporary blip in response to increased single prices?

[Kishi KCM]

NOT surprised at all with 119k for the Peas.

[kt1990]

Dec 8, 2010 13:52:34 GMT -5 malwaredie said:

Congratulations to Miranda Lambert. Revolution deserves these numbers.

+1

[ingrownhairdyke]

21 BURLESQUE SOUNDTRACK 45,385 -28 63,173 108,623

only a -28%, better than expected. Hopefully it increases within the next coming weeks and passes Bionic's 250k. I still can't find the soundtrack at any Best Buy, Walmart, or Target near me here in Miami. Still havent shipped enough copies or wtf is going on

[pnobelysk]

Dec 8, 2010 13:07:27 GMT -5 passionformusic said:

Dec 8, 2010 12:47:04 GMT -5 Cerbius said:

Ha, after weeks of overpredictions by HDD for Speak Now, looks like they underpredicted this time.

Not only this time. They underpredicted massively Thanksgiving week too.

and the first week. they didnt see the million plus coming on the first day. they havnt over predicted the album that much...

[pnobelysk]

Dec 8, 2010 13:23:25 GMT -5 Cerbius said:

Using these numbers above, Speak Now will need to outsell Need You Now by an average of more than 184,975.25 copies over the next 4 weeks to pass it for the year-end #2 album. I think it'll be very close as Taylor will likely experience considerable sales increases over the next few weeks.

not happening. at least i dont think it will.

glee has two top 5 albums, what other acts have managed this?

[crystalphnx]

Dec 8, 2010 17:28:26 GMT -5 pnobelysk said:

glee has two top 5 albums, what other acts have managed this?

the most recent examples are Justin Bieber with My World + My World 2.0 and Nelly with Suit + Sweat, but I'm sure there's been more in the history of the BB200

[badrobot]

Gaga came within a hair with Fame Monster/Fame at #5/6.