Chart Watch

  • "Mercy" by Kanye West, Big Sean, Pusha T, 2 Chainz jumps to #1 on this week's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. While the charts these days are studded with collaborations, four-way collabos are still relatively rare. And four-way collabos that make it all the way to #1 are extremely rare. This is just the eighth recording involving four or more artists to reach #1 on the R&B chart in its nearly 70-year history.

    There have been even fewer #1 hits on the pop and country charts which involve four or more artists. There have been four on the Hot 100 and just one on Hot Country Songs.

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  • The Black Eyed Peas' 2009 smash "I Gotta Feeling" this week becomes the first song in digital history to top the 8 million sales mark in U.S. sales. To find the last song that has sold 8 million or more copies in the U.S. you have to go back to the pre-digital era for Elton John's "Candle In The Wind 1997," which he recorded in the wake of Princess Diana's shocking death on Aug. 31, 1997. The song, which was double-listed with "Something About The Way You Look Tonight," has sold 8,839,000 physical singles, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

    Both of these smashes topped the Hot 100 for 14 weeks. (They are two of only seven songs to hang on to the top spot that long since 1955.) Both artists won "performance Grammys" for these songs. Elton won for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The Peas won for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals.

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  • Justin Bieber's Believe enters The Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 374K. The number is off a bit from the overly rosy 400K-440K projections that were floated last week. Even so, it's the biggest first-week sales tally by any album so far this year. And it's the biggest one-week sales tally of Bieber's career. There's just one potentially awkward wrinkle. The album displaces the latest by Bieber's mentor, Usher. The R&B star's Looking 4 Myself drops to #6 after an uncharacteristically soft debut (128K) at #1 last week. That was Usher's slimmest first-week sales tally since 1997.

    Of course, it's a little unfair to compare to the two artists, who are at different points in their careers. Usher first cracked the top 10 (with My Way) in January 1998—when Bieber was three years old.

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  • To celebrate Black Music Month, I have for you today a list of the biggest white artists in the history of Billboard's R&B chart. That may seem to be an odd way to celebrate Black Music Month, but it dramatizes that black music has influenced countless artists in a wide range of genres. Elvis Presley, whose hits "Hound Dog" and "Crying In The Chapel" were remakes of earlier R&B hits, is the most successful white artist in the history of the R&B chart, which is now called Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

    Twenty-one white artists rank among the top 500 R&B hit-makers in chart history in chart researcher Joel Whitburn's indispensable book Hot R&B Songs 1942-2010. The roster includes numerous blue-eyed soul singers (George Michael, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake), a rap icon (Eminem), disco stars (KC & the Sunshine Band), a pop provocateur (Madonna), funk stars (Teena Marie, Average White Band), Latino crossover stars (Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Fat Joe, Jennifer Lopez, Angela Bofill) and instrumentalists (Herb Alpert, Kenny G).

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  • Justin Bieber's new album Believe is expected to sell in the 410K-440K range this week, which would be the year's heftiest first-week total by any album. It would be the strongest first-week tally since fellow Canadian artist Drake opened with sales of 631K copies of Take Care in November. This week's Hot 100 provides two indications of Bieber's strength. "Boyfriend" logs its 12th straight week in the top 10. That's twice as many weeks in the top 10 as Bieber's two previous top 10 hits combined. "Baby" (featuring Ludacris) spent five weeks in the top 10 in 2010. "Never Say Never" (Featuring Jaden Smith) spent one week in the top 10 in 2011.

    Also, this is the third straight week that Bieber has had the top new entry on the Hot 100 with a "preview track" from the album. "As Long As You Love Me" (featuring Big Sean), debuts at #21 (Digital sales rank: #5, 168K). "All Around The World" (featuring Ludacris) bowed at #22 last week. "Die In Your Arms" opened at #17 two weeks ago.

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  • Usher's Looking 4 Myself debuts at #1, but with sales of just 128K. That's a sharp drop from Usher's last full-length studio album, Raymond V. Raymond, which opened with sales of 329K in April 2010. This is the lowest first-week tally for a regular Usher studio album since My Way started with sales of 67K in September 1997.

    Everybody knows that sales aren't what they were in 2004, when Usher's Confessions sold 1,096,000 copies in its first week. But even compared to 2012 albums, this is a disappointing debut. Twelve albums have enjoyed greater first-week sales so far this year. And Justin Bieber's newly-released Believe is expected to sell in the 410K to 440K range this week. (It will debut at #1 next week.)

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  • You probably know that Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson were one of the most successful songwriting teams of the past 50 years. Their many hits include "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "You're All I Need To Get By" and "I'm Every Woman." But you may not know that Ashford & Simpson are also the most successful recording duo in the history of Billboard's soul chart, which is currently called Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

    Nineteen duos rank among the top 500 R&B hit-makers in chart history in chart researcher Joel Whitburn's indispensable book Hot R&B Songs 1942-2010. Ashford & Simpson isn't the only married couple on the list. Ike & Tina Turner, whose marriage was as turbulent as Ashford & Simpson's was harmonious, rank #2 among soul duos.

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  • "Girl groups" have been with us since the 1930s, when the Boswell Sisters and the Andrews Sisters stormed the charts. "Girl groups" with soul started to come on strong in the first half of the 1960s, with the success of the Shirelles (shown here), the Marvelettes, Patti LaBelle and Her Blue Belles, the Crystals, the Chiffons, Martha & the Vandellas and, most spectacularly, the Supremes.

    "Girl groups" (the term is dated, but let's just go with it, OK?) have been training ground for such top stars as Diana Ross, Patti LaBelle and Beyonce.

    Three leading soul girl groups are sister acts: the Pointer Sisters, The Emotions and Sister Sledge. Two others, Xscape and 702, each included a pair of sisters.

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  • Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" jumps from #2 to #1 on the Hot 100, displacing the biggest hit so far this year, "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra. That smash dips to #2, ending an eight-week run at #1. Jepsen is the first female artist to reach #1 with her first Hot 100 hit (as a lead artist) since Ke$ha scored with "TiK ToK" in January 2010.

    "Call Me Maybe" tops the 3 million mark in U.S. sales this week. This week, it becomes the best-selling hit by a lead female solo artist so far this year. It swipes the title from Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)."

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  • The surprise success this year of Lionel Richie's Tuskegee (which is the #2 best-seller so far this year) shows that veteran artists have an advantage in the chart wars. Older fans are probably the most loyal and reliable album buyers. This week, two albums debut in the top five by acts that have been around even longer than Richie. The Beach Boys' That's Why God Makes The Radio enters The Billboard 200 at #3. Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Americana debuts at #4. The Beach Boys first charted in November 1962; Young (with The Buffalo Springfield) in March 1967.

    This week's lofty debut gives the Beach Boys a 49-year span of top five albums. The group first made the top five on the mono chart with Surfin' U.S.A. on June 22, 1963. (The current chart will appear in the Billboard issue dated June 23, 2012.) Only Frank Sinatra has had a longer span of top five albums. Sinatra's top five albums span 62 years and two months, from The Voice Of Frank Sinatra (March 23, 1946) to Nothing But The Best (June 7, 2008). FYI, Tony Bennett is in third place, just a couple of weeks behind the Beach Boys. His top five albums span nearly 49 years, from I Left My Heart In San Francisco (Nov. 24, 1962) to Duets II (Nov. 5, 2011).

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News for You

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    BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans lamented their unexpectedly poor showing at the Eurovision Song Contest, blaming Chancellor Angela Merkel's tough stance in the euro zone crisis for their failure to win any points from 34 of the 39 countries voting. Denmark's Emmelie de Forest won the event, watched by around 125 million people across Europe, with 281 points while German act Cascada was 21st out of 26 countries, getting just 18 points from Austria, Israel, Spain, Albania and Switzerland. ...

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