Blog Posts by Paul Grein

Nearly 43 years after they first cracked The Billboard 200 with their eponymous debut album, Black Sabbath finally lands its first #1 album with 13. Only one act in chart history has had to wait longer to finally reach #1. That’s Tony Bennett, who took 54 years and six months between his first chart appearance in February 1957 with the album Tony and his first #1 in October 2011 with Duets II.

13 is Black Sabbath’s 19thstudio album; its first since 1995. It’s the band’s first studio album with original lead singer Ozzy Osbourne in 35 years and its first with original bassist Geezer Butler in 19 years.

13 also debuts at #1 on The Official U.K. Chart. It’s the band’s second #1 there, following Paranoid, which hit the top spot in October 1970. This allows Black Sabbath to break Bob Dylan’s record for the longest gap between #1 albums in U.K. chart history. Dylan had a gap of 38-1/2 years between New Morning (November 1970) and Together Through Life (May 2009).

Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album first entered the Billboard 200 in August 1970 (18 months after Led Zeppelin’s eponymous debut album charted). Each of Black Sabbath’s first six albums made the top 30, but, surprisingly, only one reached the top 10. Master Of Reality hit #8 in September 1971. This week’s debut gives Black Sabbath a nearly 42 year span of top 10 albums.

“Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell jumps from #6 to #1 in its eighth week. It’s Thicke’s first #1; T.I.’s fourth; Pharrell’s third. The sexy, slinky track sold 315K digital copies this week. That’s the greatest one-week tally since Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man” sold 340K in April. Sales of “Blurred Lines” shot up by 38% this week, so it will probably see even bigger weeks ahead. The song tops the 1 million mark in digital sales this week. It’s Thicke’s first million-seller. “Lost Without U” is up to 946K.

“Blurred Lines” also jumps to #1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It’s Thicke’s third #1 on this chart, following 2007’s “Lost Without U” and 2010’s “Sex Therapy.” It’s the fourth #1 on this chart for both T.I. and Pharrell. “Blurred Lines” ends Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ 21-week lock on the #1 spot on this chart. (“Thrift Shop,” featuring Wanz, headed the chart for 14 weeks, followed immediately by “Can’t Hold Us,” featuring Ray Dalton, which stayed on top for seven weeks.) Thus, this is the 22nd consecutive week that a white artist has been the lead artist on the #1 hit on this chart (though the featured artists in all three cases are African American.)

Queens of the Stone Age’s sixth studio album…,Like Clockwork, enters The Billboard 200 at #1. But it won’t be there for long. Black Sabbath is expected to debut at #1 next week with 13. That would be the first #1 for Black Sabbath (and/or for its star member, Ozzy Osbourne) in a chart career that dates back to 1970.

This is Queens of the Stone Age’s fourth studio album in a row to reach the top 20, but its first to rise above #5. The band first charted in 2002. The new album features guest turns by Elton John, Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl and Jake Shear of Scissor Sisters. The album sold 40K digital copies (out of 91K total), which enables it to also debut at #1 on Top Digital Albums.

Robin Thicke lands his first top 10 hit as “Blurred Lines” jumps from #12 to #6 in its sixth week on the Hot 100. Thicke’s mother, Gloria Loring, cracked the top 10 in August 1986 with “Friends And Lovers,” a collabo with Carl Anderson, an African American singer and actor. (The elegant pop ballad peaked at #2.) “Friends And Lovers” took off due to exposure on the soap opera Days Of Our Lives, on which Loring was a regular from 1980 to 1986.

Several other current stars who have landed top 10 hits are the offspring of parents who also had one or more top 10 hits. Among them: Enrique Iglesias, son of Julio Iglesias; Miley Cyrus, daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus; and Jaden Smith, son of Will Smith.

It’s interesting that Loring’s biggest hit was an interracial duet, because Thicke’s entire persona and musical style is based on blurring racial lines, to borrow his current song title. And he has been very successful at it, too. While this is his first top 10 hit on the Hot 100, he has had four top 10 hits on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, including the #1 hits “Lost Without U” and “Sex Therapy.”

Thicke’s style used to be called “blue-eyed soul,” but that sound is no longer the semi-novelty that that term suggests. With Thicke joining Justin Timberlake and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, it may well be the hottest sound of the year.

John Fogerty’s Wrote A Song For Everyone enters The Billboard 200 at #3, just behind Daft Punk’s returning champ Random Access Memories and Alice In Chains’ new The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. Fogerty’s album features the rock legend teaming with such artists as Foo Fighters, Kid Rock, Brad Paisley and Zac Brown Band on a set of his best-known songs. With this week’s debut, Fogerty has a more than 44-year span of top 10 albums. He first hit the top 10 in April 1969 with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s second album, Bayou Country.

True to the title, Wrote A Song For Everyone includes a broad range of artists—rock, country and even R&B (Jennifer Hudson takes the lead on “Proud Mary,” which was famously covered by Ike & Tina Turner.) The album isn’t listed on Top Country Albums, even though it includes duets with five country superstars.

Zach Sobiech’s “Clouds” is the week’s top new entry on the Hot 100 at #26, a week after the aspiring singer-songwriter died of osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. He had just turned 18. Sobiech, who was first diagnosed with the disease at age 14, wrote the song as a way of saying goodbye. It would have been easy (and forgivable) for the song to be maudlin, but it isn’t. It has the light, almost buoyant, touch of such hits as Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours.”

Mraz was among 30 stars to participate in a tribute video, in which they mime Sobiech’s recording. Others include Colbie Caillat, Sara Bareilles, Phillip Phillips, The Lumineers and Jason Derulo. At the end of the video, Mraz says, “Thank you Zach. You’ve written a great song, dude. It’s a real pleasure to sing it, and sing it with you. Thank you.”

Daft Punk’s fourth studio album, Random Access Memories, enters The Billboard 200 at #1 with first-week sales of 339,000. That’s the second best opening so far this year, trailing only Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience, which opened with sales of 968K in March. While Timberlake has been putting up these kind of numbers for 15 years, dating back to his days with *NSYNC, this is a breakthrough for Daft Punk. The duo’s biggest sales week before this week came when its soundtrack to TRON: Legacy sold 71K in its first week in December 2010.

These two albums have something in common besides their blockbuster first weeks. Both albums were made available for free streaming on iTunes for a week prior to being released commercially. The idea behind this strategy is that the buzz and word-of-mouth created during the free streaming period offsets the lost sales. And it seems to be working. Billboard’s Alex Phem reports that more than 30 other artists have participated in Apple’s promotional program since it began in August 2011 with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ I’m With You. Other outlets have gotten in on the action, including YouTube, Spotify and Pandora.

American Idol winner Candice Glover’s coronation song “I Am Beautiful” enters the Hot 100 at #93. That’s the lowest chart debut ever for a coronation song by an Idol winner. That title was formerly held by Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson, whose “A Moment Like This” debuted at #60. (It shot to #1 in its third week.) Every other coronation song has debuted in the top 30.

Six of them, from Ruben Studdard’s “Flying Without Wings” to Phillip Phillips’ “Home”, have debuted in the top 10. Nine have debuted in the top 15. The only other one (besides “I Am Beautiful” and “A Moment Like This”) to fail to debut in the top 15 was Lee DeWyze’s cover of U2’s “Beautiful Day” (#24).

“I Am Beautiful” sold just 48K copies in the week following the show’s finale. That’s the lowest first-week sales tally for the coronation song by an Idol winner since Taylor Hicks’ “Do I Make You Proud” started with sales of 38K in 2006—when overall digital sales were much lower than they are today.

By contrast, Phillips’ “Home” started with sales of 278K copies last year, which set a new record for the fastest start for an Idol winner’s coronation song. (The previous record was held by David Cook’s “The Time Of My Life,” which started with sales of 236K in 2008.