Yahoo Music - Chart Watch

Calvin Harris lands his first top 10 album as Motion, his fourth studio album, enters The Billboard 200 at #5 (35K). Harris’s previous album, 18 Months, peaked at #19. Two songs from the new album have made the top 20: “Summer” and “Blame” (featuring John Newman). Motion enters The U.K.’s Official Albums Chart at #2.

Trivia note: Harris is the third artist with that surname to land a top five album. Jazz saxophonist Eddie Harris hit #2 in 1961 with Exodus To Jazz. Actor and singer Richard Harris hit #4 in 1968 with A Tramp Shining.

Taylor Swift’s 1989 sold 402K copies in its second week, which tops the first-week sales of every other album so far this year. (Swift’s closest competition is Coldplay’s Ghost Stories, which sold 383K copies in its first week in May.) I wrote about this in a separate blog which we posted today. If you missed it, here’s a link.

Now 52 holds at #2 for the second week (59K).

Bette Midler’s 14th studio album, It’s The Girls!, debuts at #3 (40K). It’s her sixth top 10 album. She scored her first, The Divine Miss M, in March 1973. Midler has now put an album in the top 10 in five consecutive decades. This is her highest-charting album since the Beaches soundtrack peaked at #2 in June 1989. I wrote a separate blog about Midler’s album, which we posted on Monday. If you missed it, here’s a link.

Jason Aldean’s Old Boots, New Dirt rebounds from #5 to #4 in its fifth week (35K). Aldean sang his #1 country hit “Burnin’ It Down” on last week’s Country Music Assn. Awards. The album tops the 500K sales mark this week. Aldean’s previous album, Night Train, took just two weeks to reach 500K. His album before that, My Kinda Party, took seven weeks. So this is more or less in line. Old Boots returns to #1 on Top Country Albums. This is its second week on top of that chart.

Three other country albums are listed in this week’s top 10. Florida Georgia Line’s Anything Goes holds at #6 for the second week in its fourth week (30K) … Brantley Gilbert’s Just As I Am rebounds from #62 to #9 in its 25th week (26K). There was a 99-cent sale on the album in the Google Play store … Sam Hunt’s Montevallo drops from #3 to #10 in its second week (25K). “Leave The Night On” is a top 30 hit on the Hot 100.

Barbra Streisand’s Partners rebounds from #11 to #7 in its eighth week (28K). Trivia note: This marks the first time that Streisand and Bette Midler have had albums in the top 10 in the same week … Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour rebounds from #14 to #8 in its 21st week (27K). The album goes over 750K this week.

The Frozen soundtrack rebounds from #19 to #13 in its 50th week. It’s #1 on Top Soundtracks for the 40th week.

The Doobie Brothers’ 14th studio album, Southbound, debuts at #16. The group performed on the CMA Awards. The group had eight consecutive top 10 albums between 1973 and 1980.

Ed Sheeran’s x, which debuted at #1 in June,holds at #27 in its 20th week. The album returns to #1 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart. This is its ninth week on top of that chart. That’s the longest run at #1 for an album by a male artist since James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam spent 10 weeks on top in 2005-2006. The two other albums since 2006 that have spent nine or more weeks at #1 in the U.K. have been by female artists: Adele’s 21 (23 weeks) and Emeli Sande’s Our Version Of Events (10 weeks).

Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV drops from #7 to #28 in its 271st chart week. The album is #1 on Top Catalog Albums for the second straight week.

Paul McCartney & Wings’ Venus And Mars re-enters the chart at #31. Wings At The Speed Of Sound re-enters at #45. Both were #1 albums; both spawned #1 singles: “Listen To What The Man Said” and “Silly Love Songs,” respectively. Wings At The Speed Of Sound logged seven weeks at #1 in 1976, longer than any other album by McCartney and/or Wings.

Bob Dylan and The Band’sThe Basement Tapes Raw: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11 debuts at #41. The Complete edition debuts at #42. If sales of the two editions had been combined, it would have debuted at #13. The original double-disk The Basement Tapes reached #7 in September 1975, 18 years after the album was recorded. Dylan’s The Bootleg Series was launched in 1991.

Coming Attractions: Look for Foo Fighters’s Sonic Highways to debut at #2 next week, with first-week sales in the 180K range. (Taylor Swift’s 1989 will probably hold on at #1 for the third week, with sales as high as 300K.) Pink Floyd’s The Endless River will probably debut at #3 (140K), followed by Garth Brooks’s Man Against Machine at #4 (125K). Big K.R.I.T.’s Cadillactica and Nick Jonas’s Nick Jonas will open around #6 and #7 (each with 35K).

Follow Paul on Google+