Chart Watch

  • Katy Perry's "California Gurls" (featuring Snoop Dogg) enters the Hot 100 at #2, just one week after Eminem's "Not Afraid" debuted at #1. Next week, Miley Cyrus' "Can't Be Tamed" is expected to open in the top five. This flurry of high debuts puts a spotlight on the phenomenon of songs that get off to fast starts. In some years, it's common for songs to debut in the top 10. In other years, no songs started out in the top 40. So, the best way to look at top debuts is year-by-year. It's a fair comparison, whether the debuts in a particular year were high or low.

    Elvis Presley and the Beatles each had the year's highest-debuting song five times, more than any other artist. Presley had the top-debuting song of 1956 ("Love Me Tender"), 1957 ("Jailhouse Rock"), 1959 ("I Need Your Love Tonight"), 1960 ("Are You Lonesome To-night?") and 1961 ("Surrender").

    The Beatles had the top-debuting song of 1964 ("A Hard Day's Night"), 1966 ("Nowhere Man"), 1968 ("Hey Jude"), 1969 ("Get Back," with Billy

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  • Katy Perry's "California Gurls" (featuring Snoop Dogg) enters Hot Digital Songs at #1, eight months after "Empire State Of Mind" by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys reached the top spot. The pop confection enters the Hot 100 at #2. Perry sees "California Gurls" as a Golden State equivalent to that earlier valentine to the Big Apple. "California Gurls" sold 294,000 digital copies this week, which is more than "Empire State Of Mind" sold (205,000) when it topped Hot Digital Songs in September. ("Empire" sold 362,000 copies during Christmas week, when gift-cards cause sales to swell.) "California Gurls" still has a long way to go to catch "Empire State Of Mind" in total sales. The Jay-Z/Keys smash has sold 3,594,000 copies during its 36-week run.

    "California Gurls" and "Empire State Of Mind" are likely to square off in the Grammy competition for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration when the nominations are announced in December. The home-state pride communicated in these two records is authentic. Perry was

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  • It's not easy to come up with a #1 hit, much less a song that reaches #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K. But Usher and will.i.am clearly have the touch. Their ebullient collaboration "OMG" is the third song by both artists to reach #1 on both sides of the Atlantic. Usher previously topped the charts in both countries with "Yeah!" (featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris) and "Burn." will.i.am previously rang the bell with a pair of Black Eyed Peas hits, "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling."

    Usher and will.i.am are only the 13th and 14thartists to amass three or more transatlantic #1 hits since the inception of the British chart in 1952. "OMG" reached #1 on the U.K. singles chart, compiled by the Official Charts Co., a few weeks ago. The song topped Billboard's Hot 100 last week.

    The Beatles, not surprisingly, have had more transatlantic #1 hits than any other group. The Fab Four's 13 songs to reach #1 in both countries include some of the most classic recordings in pop history: "She Loves You,"

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  • Eminem's "Not Afraid," the first single from his upcoming album Recovery, enters the Hot 100 at #1. It's the first song to debut in the top spot since Britney Spears' "3" did it in October. It's only the second rap song ever to debut at #1, following "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy & Faith Evans (featuring 112) in 1997. "Not Afraid" is Eminem's third #1 on the Hot 100, following "Lose Yourself," his Oscar-winning smash from 8 Mile, and "Crack A Bottle," his all-star collaboration with Dr. Dre and 50 Cent.

    "Not Afraid" sold 379,000 copies in its first week. That's the biggest weekly sales tally so far this year.  Only three songs in digital history have sold more copies in their first week. All were 2009 releases: Flo Rida's "Right Round" (636,000), the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" (465,000) and the aforementioned "Crack A Bottle" (418,000).

    "Not Afraid" posted the biggest weekly sales total since Ke$ha's "Tik ToK" rang up sales of 394,000 in the week ending Jan. 3. (That was

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  • Bobby Ray Simmons, better known as B.o.B, has something in common with such major stars as Whitney Houston and Alicia Keys, as well as such short-lived phenomena as Kris Kross and Vanilla Ice.

    The 21-year old rapper from Atlanta is only the 24th act in the past 25 years to top The Billboard 200 with a debut album and also top the Hot 100 with a single from that album. B.o.B Presents The Adventures Of Bobby Ray debuts at #1 on this week's Billboard 200. The album's smash single, "Nothin' On You" (featuring Bruno Mars), spent two weeks at #1 on the Hot 100.

    To mark the occasion, I prepared this list of the 24 acts from the past 25 years who have started their careers with this double chart victory. While most of these acts went on to substantial careers, a few flamed out. Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice never put another studio album on the chart. Neither, remarkably, has Lauryn Hill, whose one and only solo studio album won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

    Hill is one of three artists on

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  • B.o.B Presents The Adventures Of Bobby Ray debuts at #1 on this week's Billboard 200. The album's smash single, "Nothin' On You" (featuring Bruno Mars), spent the past two weeks at #1 on the Hot 100. B.o.B is the first rap or hip-hop performer to pull off this double chart victory (a debut album that hit #1 and included a #1 single) since Puff Daddy way back in 1997, when B.o.B (real name: Bobby Ray Simmons) was just 8 years old.

    Puffy scored with No Way Out and its #1 singles "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" (featuring Ma$e) and "I'll Be Missing You" (with Faith Evans and featuring 112). Puff won two Grammys that year and was nominated for Best New Artist.

    In the history of hip-hop, only two other artists have reached #1 with a debut album that featured a #1 single. Vanilla Ice scored in 1990 with To The Extreme and its big hit "Ice Ice Baby." The teen duo Kris Kross scored in 1992 with Totally Krossed Out and its smash "Jump."

    With its touches of pop, soul and hip-hop, "Nothin' On You" is

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  • Adam Lambert's "Whataya Want From Me" this week becomes the 27th song by an American Idol contestant to sell 1 million or more digital copies. The striking pop-rock ballad got a big boost from Lambert's appearances on the show two weeks ago as mentor and performer. Kris Allen, who beat Lambert in the Season 8 finale, also has a digital million-seller. The spry "Live Like We're Dying," which was released nine weeks before Lambert's song, has sold 1,350,000 copies.

    Of the 27 million-sellers by Idol contestants, eight are by Season 1 champ Kelly Clarkson. That's twice as many as her closest rivals. Carrie Underwood, the Season 4 winner; Jordin Sparks, the Season 6 champ; and the band fronted by Chris Daughtry, who finished fourth in Season 5, have each landed four million-selling downloads. David Cook, the Season 7 champ, has had two.

    Clarkson has also had the most consecutive million-sellers of any Idol contestant. She had six million-sellers in a row from "Breakaway" through "Never

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  • Glee: The Power Of Madonna enters The Billboard 200 at #1. The album from the recent prime-time salute to Her Madgesty is outselling Madonna's current CD/DVD combo, Sticky & Sweet Tour. The Glee album sold 98,000 copies this week. Sticky & Sweet Tour has sold 41,000 copies in its first three weeks. In fairness to Madonna, her hits have been repackaged on numerous compilations over the years. The Glee versions are new.

    All seven selections from the EP are listed on Hot Digital Songs. "Like A Prayer" bows at #10, followed by "Borderline"/"Open Your Heart" at #41, "Like A Virgin" at #51, "4 Minutes" at #55, "Express Yourself" at #90, "What It Feels Like For A Girl" at #117 and "Vogue" at #153. Two of Madonna's original recordings return to Hot Digital Songs. "4 Minutes" (featuring Justin Timberlake) bows at #127. "Like A Prayer" (which is starting to feel like her most classic recording) bows at #135.

    Madonna's Celebration album returns to The Billboard 200 at #86. The two-disc greatest

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  • It's not everyday that a 71-year old song appears on a top 20 album. It's even more remarkable when the same 71-year old song appears on two albums that crack the top 20 the same week. "Over The Rainbow" is featured on Jeff Beck's Emotion & Commotion, which enters The Billboard 200 at #11, and on the expanded version of the eponymous debut album by Jason Castro, which bows at #18.

    Castro's rendition of the Oscar-winning classic is also listed on Hot Digital Songs this week, as is a 1993 recording of the song by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. That recording, which couples "Over The Rainbow" with another standard, Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World," has sold an impressive 2,288,000 digital copies.

    Dozens of artists have recorded "Over The Rainbow" since Judy Garland introduced it in the 1939 classic The Wizard Of Oz. The list includes Ray Charles, Patti LaBelle, Willie Nelson, Barbra Streisand, Placido Domingo, Tony Bennett, Tori Amos and Eva Cassidy. And the song remains active. In just

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  • 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

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