Blog Posts by Paul Grein

Johnny Cash was a country legend, and he died just as the music downloading era took off, so it's not surprising that he has four of the country oldies that have sold the most digital copies. The surprise is that he doesn't have the #1 most active country oldie. That distinction is held by Charlie Daniels Band's 1979 smash "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," which has sold 1,213,000 digital copies. The zesty recording has been featured on the hit soundtracks to Urban Cowboy and Coyote Ugly.

The 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards airs Sunday night, which prompted this look back through country classics. In January, Nielsen/SoundScan introduced running lists of the top 200 songs in digital history in a variety of genres, including country. I combed through the country list and pulled out all songs that were released at least 15 years ago. There were an even dozen.

These are the 12 country oldies that are most active and relevant in the modern era, as measured by their digital

Justin Bieber's My World 2.0 returns to #1 on The Billboard 200, replacing Usher's Raymond V Raymond, which debuted in the top spot last week. Bieber, 16, is the youngest male solo artist ever to top the chart for two or more weeks. Ricky Nelson was 17 in 1958 when he topped the chart for two weeks with Ricky. Bobby Brown was 19 in 1989 when he headed the chart for three weeks with Don't Be Cruel. (He had turned 20 when the album returned to #1 for three additional weeks). Stevie Wonder's Little Stevie Wonder/The 12 Year Old Genius, released in 1963 when he was 13, managed just one week on top.

My World 2.0 has sold 676,000 copies in its first three weeks. It took Bieber's My World EP seven weeks to sell that many copies. My World 2.0 has sold more copies in three weeks than Jonas Brothers' latest studio album, Lines, Vines And Trying Times, has sold in its entire run. JoBros' album has sold 635,000 copies since its release in June.

"Baby," the biggest hit from Bieber's current album,

"Telephone" was destined to be a smash from the moment Lady Gaga's people called Beyonce's people and said, "Let's do this." The superstar summit session tops the 1.5 million mark in digital sales this week, a new record for an all-female collaboration. The song has been listed in the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 for four weeks (it's currently #5). It spent two weeks at #1 in the U.K. and is near the top of the chart in many other countries, including Canada and Australia.

It just goes to show what can happen when red-hot divas come together. The female superstar collaboration genre was born in 1979, when disco queen Donna Summer, then the hottest female singer in the business, teamed with Barbra Streisand, already a legend at age 37, on "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)." The song was no "People" (or "Last Dance," for that matter) but the record shot to #1 in just six weeks.

In 1998, R&B crossover stars Brandy and Monica teamed for "The Boy Is Mine," which held the #1 spot for 13

Usher played a key role early in Justin Bieber's career, helping the teenager land a record deal with L.A. Reid and Island Def Jam. He even joined Bieber on "First Dance," a track from the young star's debut EP, My World. This week, Usher boots his young protégé out of the #1 spot on The Billboard 200. Usher's Raymond V Raymond debuts at #1, sending Bieber's My World 2.0 down to #2 (even though Bieber's album sold more copies in its second week than it did in its first; more on this later).

This isn't the first time a mentor has knocked a protégé out of the top spot. In 1974, a red-hot Elton John signed '60s star Neil Sedaka to his Rocket Records. The following year, Elton sang a background vocal on Sedaka's "Bad Blood." The song topped the Hot 100 for three weeks, a career best for Sedaka, but it was replaced in the top spot by....Elton's "Island Girl." In both of these cases, I'm sure it was nothing personal. It's just that nothing comes between a hit-maker and the #1 spot.

And

It's hard to feel sorry for Lady Gaga, who has stormed pop charts around the world for the past 18 months, selling millions of albums and tens of millions of song downloads. But for all her success, one signal accomplishment has eluded her: hitting the #1 spot on The Billboard 200. Her debut album, The Fame, has been listed in the top 10 for 40 weeks, but has yet to climb higher than #2.

The Fame is one of only 10 albums to log 37 or more weeks in the top 10 without hitting #1 since August 1963, when Billboard combined its separate mono and stereo charts into one comprehensive listing. All of these albums, it goes without saying, were smash hits. They just never quite made it to the top spot. In some cases, they had the misfortune of going up against long-running #1 hits like Susan Boyle's I Dreamed A Dream (the album that blocked The Fame), Michael Jackson's Thriller and M.C. Hammer's Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em.

The "unluckiest" of these 10 albums was probably Whitesnake's 1987

Teen dream Justin Bieber this week becomes the youngest male solo artist to land a #1 album since Stevie Wonder scored in August 1963, at age 13, with Little Stevie Wonder: The 12 Year Old Genius. (Wonder was 12 when he recorded the album, 13 when it was released.) Bieber, who turned 16 on March 1, scores with My World 2.0.

Two other male teen solo artists have topped The Billboard 200, but they were both older than 16. Ricky Nelson was 17 in 1958 when he topped the chart with Ricky. Bobby Brown was 19 in 1989 when he led the way with Don't Be Cruel.

Bieber's album sold 283,000 copies in its first week, which constitutes the best showing for an album by a teen act since Taylor Swift's Fearless, which sold even better in two of its first six weeks in November and December 2008. It's the best showing by a teen heartthrob type of act since Jonas Brothers' A Little Bit Longer started with sales of 525,000 in August 2008. (JoBros' subsequent Lines, Vines And Trying Times sold 247,000 copies

It's not every day that an ordained minister debuts in the top five on the Billboard 200, but that's what happens this week. Marvin Sapp, the founder and senior pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., enters the chart at #2 with Here I Am. This is the highest-charting album ever by a gospel artist, topping an eponymous album by God's Property, a group organized by Kirk Franklin, which hit #3 in 1997, and Franklin's own The Rebirth Of Kirk Franklin, which reached #4 in 2002.

Sapp, who was born in Grand Rapids in 1968, has been singing since he was four years old. His focus, however, is on his pastoral work. His website (www.marvinsapp.com) characterizes him as "not a singer that happens to preach but a preacher called by God who is gifted to sing."

Gospel star Fred Hammond gave Sapp his big break in 1991, when he invited Sapp to join the gospel group Commissioned. Sapp went solo in 1995. Here I Am is his eighth solo album. With this week's debut, Sapp has

The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Valleys Of Neptune enters The Billboard 200 at #4, putting the rock legend back in the top five nearly 40 years after he died at the tragically young age of 27. No other artist has cracked the top five this long after his death. Elvis Presley is in second place. His Elvis: 2nd To None debuted at #3 in October 2003, a little more than 26 years after his death.

Hendrix is the second music legend to make the top five posthumously in the past two weeks. Johnny Cash bowed at #3 two weeks ago with American VI: Ain't No Grave. But Cash died less than seven years ago. It's more remarkable for an artist who died four decades ago to make significant chart waves.

Valleys Of Neptune is, incredibly, Hendrix's 34th posthumous album to make The Billboard 200.

Hendrix was a star for just three years, from June 1967, when he played the Monterey International Pop Festival, to September 1970, when he died in London of a drug overdose. The guitar hero had four top five albums