Blog Posts by Paul Grein

All that female artists wanted for Christmas, it seems, was near-total chart domination. For the first time in more than 11 years, female solo artists hold down four of the top five spots on The Billboard 200. Taylor Swift's Fearless logs it third week at #1, Keyshia Cole's A Different Me debuts at #2 and former #1 albums by Britney Spears and Beyonce dip to #4 and #5, respectively. Jamie Foxx is the only male artist who could compete with these red-hot "Single Ladies." His Intuition debuts at #3.

Fearless is in a five-way tie for the longest run at #1 so far in 2008. If it holds the top spot next week, it will break the tie and become the only album to top the chart four times in this calendar year. Fearless has sold 1,850,000 copies in just six weeks, which is nearly half of the total (3,780,000) that Swift's smash debut album, Taylor Swift, has sold in 113 weeks.

Fearless is the #4 best-seller for the year-to-date-with one week to go before Nielsen/SoundScan closes the book on

If someone asked you to name the #1 album of the year in Billboard's just-published year-end issue, you might say Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III. That is, indeed, the best-selling album so far in 2008 (with two weeks to go). Or you might remember back to last year's surprise blockbuster, Josh Groban's Noel, and, figuring that Billboard's chart year might not conform exactly to the calendar year, guess that. Noel was the best-selling album of 2007 and, as we approach the holidays, is back in the top five on the weekly "comprehensive" chart (which includes both current and "catalog" product). Both would be good guesses, but both would be wrong. Instead, Alicia Keys' As I Am is Billboard's #1 album of the year. As I Am was #4 on Nielsen/SoundScan's year-end chart for 2007 and is #18 on the firm's year-to-date chart for 2008. Since the Billboard weekly and year-end charts are based on Nielsen SoundScan sales data, you may well wonder how this can be. (I wondered that myself.)

It's a question

A couple of years ago, Britney Spears' career was on the slide. Her life itself was careering out of control. This week, she's back at #1 with Circus, which sold 505,000 copies. It's Spears' biggest sales week in more than five years, since her fourth album, In The Zone, opened with sales of 609,000 in November 2003. This week's tally marks a substantial improvement over Spears' last album, Blackout, which opened at #2 in November 2007 with first-week sales of 290,000.

Spears' revival echoes Mariah Carey's comeback from a similar meltdown. After the failure of her movie Glitter and some erratic public moments in 2001, Carey's days as a superstar seemed numbered. But she came back in 2005 with The Emancipation Of Mimi, which wound up as that year's #1 album.

In both cases, the public embarrassments humanized the stars; made them seem more real and relatable. Far from imperiling the artists' careers, the struggles seem to have strengthened the artists' bonds with their fans.

Circus is

This is the 32nd holiday season since Elvis Presley went to trim that big Christmas tree in the sky, but he still has the most popular holiday album of all time. Elvis' Christmas Album, originally released in 1957, has sold more than 12 million copies, allowing it to beat out Kenny G's 1994 smash Miracles-A Holiday Album. (So in addition to being the eternal king of rock'n'roll, Presley kept the mellow, but much-maligned, saxophonist from claiming the top spot.)

Presley's album logged three weeks at #1 in December 1957, before surrendering the top spot to Bing Crosby's holiday perennial Merry Christmas. But Elvis returned to #1 the following week, in what seemed very much like a passing of the torch-or in this case, a Christmas candle. The Bing-to-Elvis hand-off represented a move from old to young, from Tin Pan Alley to rock'n'roll, from "White Christmas" to "Blue Christmas."

Christmas albums have been an integral part of the holidays for more than 60 years.  Yet there was no

A concise, one-hour Grammy show, heavy on performances and with no acceptance speeches. Many of you doubtless wish that this were the format for the regular Grammy telecast in February. Dream on. But it was the winning formula for a special in which the Grammy nominations were announced, for the first time, in prime time.

The Wednesday night show on CBS, co-hosted by LL Cool J and Taylor Swift, was smartly produced. The best decision was to have the performers pay tribute to other artist's songs. Christina Aguilera stepped out of her comfort zone on a tender, jazz-shaded reading of "I Loves You, Porgy," a hit for Nina Simone. Celine Dion toned down her chest-thumping power on a surprisingly effective version of Janis Ian's poignant "At Seventeen." Taylor Swift was unimpressive on Brenda Lee's "I'm Sorry," but sounded more sure on her own current hit, "White Horse." The red-hot Swift was the only performer to get to perform two songs. (Her co-host didn't perform at all.)

There were, as

Kanye West's fourth album, 808s & Heartbreak, debuts at #1 with first-week sales of 450,000. That's less than half of what West's last album, Graduation, sold in its first week in September 2007. Graduation sold 957,000 copies out-of-the-chute, boosted by West's high-profile face-off with rival 50 Cent and by a monster single, "Stronger," which hit #1 on the Hot 100 the same week the album debuted at #1. West's second album, Late Registration, opened with sales of 860,000 in September 2005, boosted by similar factors. West had stirred national controversy on Sept. 2 with explosive comments ("George Bush doesn't care about black people") during a post-Katrina telethon on NBC-TV. Also, his single "Gold Digger" hit #1 on the Hot 100 the week the album topped the chart.

West hasn't picked a fight with anybody lately, and his recent singles, while successful, haven't reached #1 on the Hot 100. "Love Lockdown" has climbed as high as #3; "Heartless" has reached #4.

The fall-off can't be

It's said that every U.S. Senator looks in the mirror and sees a future President. In much the same way, every group member sees an eventual solo superstar. For a lucky few, that dream comes true. For even fewer, the solo career exceeds the group's achievements.

Beyonce joins the short list of one-time members of major groups who have done even better on their own. I Am...Sasha Fierce this week becomes her third consecutive studio album to debut at #1. Dangerously In Love and B'Day also opened in the top spot. Beyonce has now had more #1 albums on her own than she did with Destiny's Child. That group notched two #1 albums--Survivor in 2001 and #1's in 2005.

Beyonce also has the top two songs this week on Hot Digital Songs. The sassy "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" debuts at #1, dethroning her striking ballad "If I Were A Boy," which slips to #2. Beyonce has had five #1 hits on this chart, putting her in a tie with Rihanna for the most #1 digital hits ever by a lead artist.

"Single

Most music lists are so flattering that any artist would love to be on them. The most #1 hits! The longest-running #1 albums! The most Grammys! It's an endless orgy of the first, the fastest, the longest and the greatest.

This is a list that no artist would want to be on. These are the worst-selling #1 albums between May 1991, when Nielsen/SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard, and the end of 2006. (I excluded 2007 and 2008 albums on the theory that they're still adding to their totals. Also, singling out low-selling albums from the past two years, when sales have been down industry-wide, would be like shooting fish in a barrel.)

Let me reiterate that all of these albums reached #1. (In fact, they all debuted at #1.) For one week (tellingly, none managed a second week on top) each of these albums was the best-seller in America. But they didn't sustain over the long haul. None of these 25 albums has sold more than 830,000 copies over the course of its entire run. Lil' Wayne did