Blog Posts by Paul Grein

Michael Jackson's MICHAEL enters The Billboard 200 at #3 behind Taylor Swift's Speak Now, which returns to #1 for a third week, and Susan Boyle's The Gift, which dips to #2 after four weeks on top.  This is the first time that an album of new Jackson material hasn't debuted at #1 since Thriller opened at #11 in December 1982. More than just about any other artist, Jackson loved being #1. I think he'd be awfully disappointed to debut at #3.

Jackson debuted at #1 with his last four albums of new material: Bad, Dangerous, HIStory: Past Present And Future-Book I (which was half new, half old) and Invincible. Unless MICHAEL moves up to #1 in a subsequent week, this will be Jackson's first collection of new material to fall short of #1 since his 1979 smash Off The Wall, which peaked at #3.

MICHAEL sold 228,000 copies in its first week. Early reports called for the album to sell in the range of 400K in its first week, but those projections were revised downwards last week. I'm surprised that

Mariah Carey's zesty "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has sold more copies than any other holiday song in digital history. The song has sold 1,794,000 downloads since she introduced it in 1994.

Nielsen SoundScan maintains a list of the 200 holiday songs that have sold the most digital copies. I have extracted the top 30 for today's blog. Trans-Siberian Orchestra is the only act with more than one song in the top 30. The ensemble has three: "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" at #3, "Christmas Canon" at #4 and "Wizards In Winter" at #20.

The oldest song in the top 30 is the traditional "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." The oldest song whose authorship is known is "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town," which has been a holiday perennial since 1934. (Bruce Springsteen, whose version ranks #14, recorded the song in 1975.) The oldest song in the top 30 that was recorded by the original artist is Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," which he introduced in 1942.

[Related: Jessica Simpson Christmas song

Eminem made history in 2010. He became the first artist to have the year's best-selling album twice since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard in 1991. Eminem's seventh album, Recovery, sold 3,415,000 copies in the year that just ended, which was more than any album sold in a calendar year since 2007. The rap star's third album, The Eminem Show, was the best-seller of 2002.

[Photos: Dramatic photos of Eminem] 

The total for Recovery includes 852,000 digital copies. That's more digital copies than any album has ever sold in a calendar year. The old record was held by Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, which sold 617,000 digital copies in 2008.

Recovery has headed Nielsen SoundScan's year-to-date chart since Sept. 26, when it pulled ahead of Lady Antebellum's Need You Now. That country/pop smash is #2 for the year. Taylor Swift's Speak Now is #3. This marks the third time in Nielsen SoundScan history that country acts have been responsible for two of

As Christmas draws closer, it's becoming clear who's been naughty and nice this year. If the charts are any indication, Susan Boyle and Taylor Swift have been very nice. Boyle's The Gift is #1 for the fourth time in five weeks. Swift's former chart-topper Speak Now is #2 for the second week. It has been in the top 10 for seven straight weeks.

But it seems that T.I., Kanye West and the Black Eyed Peas have been a little naughty. T.I.'s No Mercy debuts at #4 with first-week sales of 159,000. The rapper's last three albums all debuted at #1 with first-week sales in the 450K to 575K range. West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy drops from #7 to #14 in its third week. (West's last album, 808s & Heartbreak, dropped out of the top 10 in its fourth week but later returned to the top 10 for an additional nine weeks.) The Peas' The Beginning drops from #6 to #16 in just its second week. The Peas' last album, The E.N.D., spent its first 12 weeks in the top 10.

All three of these albums could

"California Gurls," Katy Perry's summer smash with Snoop Dogg, edged out Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" as the #1 song of 2010. But it was extremely close. "California Gurls" sold just 84K more copies during the year than Train's "little tune that could." "California Gurls" sold 4,398,000 copies during the year. Only two songs in digital history have ever sold mroe copies in a calendar year. Both were by the Black Eyed Peas; both came last year.

"Hey, Soul Sister" headed the year-to-date chart from the beginning of April through the end of October. "California Gurls" pushed ahead in the week ending Nov. 7, though the lead switched back and forth in recent weeks.

California Gurls" exemplified one of the year's hottest trends: the collaboration. Five of the year's top 10 songs (and 10 of the top 20) pair two artists who don't normally record together.

[Photos: Katy Perry's Crazy Costumes]

"Hey, Soul Sister" also exemplified one of the year's notable trends: the name-drop. The song mentions

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. And it's expected to stay on top next week, giving it a fourth week in the lead. Swift's Speak Now has spent two weeks on top. Ke$ha's Animal, Katy Perry's Teenage Dream and Sara Bareilles' Kaleidoscope

John Lennon died 30 years ago December 8, but his impact, both on his own and with the Beatles, remains strong. Several Beatles songs that were written chiefly by Lennon have been among the group's most active in the three weeks since the band belatedly joined the digital revolution. These include "Come Together" and "All You Need Is Love."

Lennon's best-selling album since 1991, when Nielsen/SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard, is the 1998 compilation Lennon Legend-The Very Best Of John Lennon, which has sold 1,876,000 copies.

Lennon's 1971 classic Imagine is his top-selling original studio album of the Nielsen/SoundScan era, with sales of 497,000 since 1991.

Of course, Lennon's greatest and most enduring legacy is with the Beatles. The group has sold 61,712,000 albums in the U.S. since 1991. Only Garth Brooks has sold more albums (68,502,000) in this period.

The Beatles were also the second best-selling act of the 2000s, with sales in that decade of 30,477,000 albums. Only

Susan Boyle's I Dreamed A Dream is the #1 album on Billboard's year-end chart for 2010. This is the fourth time in the past five years that a female solo artist has had the #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 Billboard's #1 album of the year. In 1986, Whitney Houston's debut became the first album by a female solo artist to come out on top. Since then, this has become fairly commonplace, with albums by Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Alanis Morissette also being named the #1 album of the year.

This is the third time in the past five years that a reality TV contestant has had Billboard's #1 album of the year. Boyle rose to fame on Britain's Got Talent. American Idol winner Carrie Underwood had the #1 album of 2006. Daughtry, fronted by Idol contestant Chris Daughtry,