Blog Posts by Paul Grein

Josh Groban has yet to score a top 40 hit on the Hot 100, but that hasn’t held him back in album sales. This week, he lands his third #1 album on The Billboard 200 with All That Echoes. He’s only the second solo artist in chart history to land three or more #1 albums before landing a top 40 single. He follows Garth Brooks, who had amassed seven #1 albums before he finally cracked the top 40 in 1999 with “Lost In You.” (The artist billing, you may remember, was Garth Brooks as Chris Gaines.)

Two groups—both hard rock bands—have, like Groban, amassed three or more #1 albums without yet scoring a top 40 hit. Disturbed has amassed four #1 albums. Godsmack has had three.

Most pundits expected Mumford & Sons’ Babel to win Album of the Year. The shocker was that the album didn’t win its “home genre” award: Best Americana Album. The album lost that award to Bonnie Raitt’s Slipstream.

How rare it that—for an album to lose its “home genre” award and then turn around and win Album of the Year? Very rare. It’s only happened once before since the Recording Academy introduced genre album awards in most of the key genres in 1994 and 1995.

Unlike last year, when Adele swept the Grammy Awards, this year the marquee awards were spread around. Mumford & Sons’ sophomore album Babel was voted Album of the Year. It was the second year in a row that a British artist has won that award. Adele took it last year for 21. Mumford & Sons, which has spearheaded a comeback for folk/rock, also won for Best Long Form Music Video for Big Easy Express.

“Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye featuring Kimbra took two awards, including Record of the Year. The classy breakup ballad echoes Sting’s best work. It was the best-selling song of 2012. (This marks the second year in a row that the year’s best-selling song has also won Record of the Year. Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” earned both distinctions last year.) Gotye won a third award: Best Alternative Music Album for Making Mirrors. (This should make up for the curious fact that Gotye was passed over for a nomination as Best New Artist.)

[ Photos: Grammys red carpet report card ]

The Black Keys won two awards in the pre-telecast portion of the 55th annual Grammy Awards: Best Rock Album for El Camino and Best Rock Song for “Lonely Boy.” They beat Bruce Springsteen, Jack White and Muse’s Matthew Bellamy in both categories.

In addition, the rock duo’s Dan Auerbach was voted Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

The duo’s strong showing in the pre-telecast awards increases the chances that it could be an upset winner for Album of the Year. It is competing for that award with Mumford & Sons’ Babel, .fun’s Some Nights, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange and Jack White’s Blunderbuss.

[ Photos: Grammys red carpet report card ]

fun. and Mumford & Sons both have a chance to land in the Grammy record book on Sunday. Both groups received six nominations this year. If either group wins them all, it will become just the second group or duo in Grammy history to win six or more awards in one night. Santana swept eight awards in 2000.

fun. is nominated for Best New Artist; Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Some Nights; and Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “We Are Young,” its smash collabo with Janelle Monae.

Can Adele squeeze out one more Grammy for a song from her blockbuster album 21? The British singer swept six awards last year, tying Beyonce’s record for the most Grammys won by a female artist in a single night. Adele is nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance this year for “Set Fire To The Rain,” which was the album’s third #1 single. (She’s nominated for the live version from her best-selling DVD Live At The Royal Albert Hall.)

Her chief rival for the award is Kelly Clarkson, who is nominated for her #1 single “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You).” The panel of Grammy insiders that determined the final nominations in the “Big Four” categories favored Clarkson. They put “Stronger” in the Record of the Year finals, but not “Set Fire To The Rain.” (“Stronger” is also a Song of the Year nominee, but “Set Fire To The Rain” wasn’t eligible in that contest).

The 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton was one for the history books. Now, their spouses are engaged in a contest that is similarly close, if perhaps a tad less consequential. Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton are competing for Best Spoken Word Album at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. Obama is nominated for American Grown; Clinton for Back To Work: Why We Need Smart Government For A Strong Economy. Both are books-on-tape released by Random House Audio.

This would be Bill Clinton’s second Grammy. He won for 2004’s My Life. This would put him in a tie with Barack Obama for most Grammys by a U.S. President. Obama won for 2005’s Dreams From My Father and 2007’s The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream. (The obvious difference: Obama won both of his Grammys before he became President. Clinton won his first after he left the White House.)

“Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz holds at #1 for the third week. It’s #1 on Hot Digital Songs for the fourth week. Impressively, the song’s sales have increased in each of those four weeks, from 236K to 279K in its first week at #1, then to 341K, then to 357K, and now to 381K. It’s the first song in the nine-year history of the Hot Digital Songs chart to post a sales increase in each of its first four weeks at #1.

The genial song about bargain-hunting has a shot at another sales record. This is the fourth time the song’s weekly sales have topped 300K. (It first reached that mark in the week that included Christmas). The song may match fun’s record for the most weeks above 300K in weekly sales. “We Are Young” (featuring Janelle Monae) topped that mark seven times.

“Thrift Shop” holds at #1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for the fourth week. This is the longest run at #1 on the R&B chart for a song by a white artist since Robin Thicke’s “Lost Without U” spent 11 weeks on top in 2007. The song is #1 on Hot Rap Songs for the fifth week.

Needless to say, it’s the best-selling song so far this year. It will probably be up for a Grammy for Record of the Year at next year’s ceremony.

Two more songs by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis debut this week. “Can’t Hold Us” opens at #97. “Same Love” bows at #99.