www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6875126/grease-live-movie-soundtracks-billboard-200-chart-movesBillboard 200 Chart Moves: 'Grease Live' & 'Grease' Movie Soundtracks 'Go Together' Up the Chart2/12/2016 by Keith Caulfield
On the most recent Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Feb. 20), Rihanna’s Anti zipped to No. 1 after debuting a week earlier at No. 27, while Kevin Gates, Sia and Charlie Puth all debuted in the top 10 with their latest albums.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the week’s most popular albums based on their overall consumption. That overall unit figure combines pure album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the action on the latest Billboard 200 chart:
— Tedeschi Trucks Band, Let Me Get By - No. 15 — Blues/rock act Tedeschi Trucks Band motors onto the Billboard 200 at No. 15 with Let Me Get By, with a little over 25,000 equivalent album units (nearly all from traditional album sales). It’s the first effort from the group on Fantasy/Concord after three releases on Masterworks.
On the Blues Albums chart, the new album starts atop the list, marking the third No. 1 for the act (led by husband and wife team of Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi). Married since 2001, the two combined forces in 2010 professionally. Before then, Tedeschi had led the Blues Albums list three times (between 2002 and 2008), while Trucks crowned the tally twice (in 2006 and 2009).
— David Bowie, Blackstar - No. 17 — Blackstar spends a fourth consecutive week within the top 20 of the chart, as it dips 6-17. In four weeks, the former No. 1 album has sold 316,000 copies in the U.S. It is his biggest selling studio album released since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991. (His second biggest in that span of time? 2002’s Heathen, with 251,000.)
— Troye Sivan, Blue Neighbourhood - No. 47 — As the album’s single “Youth” begins to take off on top 40 radio stations (it climbs 37-30 on the Pop Songs airplay chart), Blue Neighbourhood moves 53-47 with a 29 percent unit gain. The album tallied 12,000 equivalent album units for the week, with 5,000 of those in pure album sales. The set was also up in TEA (2,000 units; up 9 percent) and SEA (4,000 units; up 11 percent). Also helping sales of the album: it was released on vinyl, prompting a No. 6 debut on the Vinyl Albums chart with a little over 1,000 vinyl LPs sold during the week.
— Grateful Dead, Dave’s Picks, Volume 17: Selland Arena, Fresno, CA 7/19/1974 - No. 31 — The band lands its first entry on the chart of 2016 with this archival release (14,000 units — all from pure album sales). In 2015, the group logged more debuts on the chart — seven — than any other act.
— Tori Kelly, Unbreakable Smile - No. 42 — After its reissue on Jan. 29 with two bonus songs, the set returns to the chart at No. 42 with 12,000 units (up 251 percent) and 7,000 sold (up 331 percent). One of those new tracks, “Hollow,” hits a new high (25-22) on Mainstream Top 40.
— Soundtrack, Grease Live! - No. 37 — Fox TV’s Grease Live! soundtrack hand jives its way to a No. 37 start (13,000 units; 9,000 in album sales). The companion piece to Fox’s Jan. 31 live staging of the hit musical is joined by the movie’s soundtrack at No. 61 (9,000 units; up 539 percent and 5,000 sales; up 667 percent), with its best sales week since Dec. 23, 2007 (8,000). The Grease film soundtrack spent 12 weeks at No. 1 in 1978. The two albums also hold down the Nos. 1 and 3 positions on the Soundtracks chart
— Yanni, Sensuous Chill - No. 173 — Yanni collects his 18th charting effort on the Billboard 200 — and 16th No. 1 on New Age Albums — with the arrival of his new release Sensuous Chill. It bows with 4,000 equivalent album units (nearly all from pure album sales). With 16 No. 1s on the New Age Albums chart, only two acts have more leaders: Jim Brickman, with 20, and Mannheim Steamroller, with 19.
