Rihanna this week becomes the first artist to amass five 3-million-selling digital hits (combining lead and featured credits). She scores with Eminem's "Love The Way You Lie," which has sold 3,000,000 digital copies in the past 11 weeks. Rihanna's four previous 3-million-sellers are: "Umbrella" (featuring Jay-Z), "Don't Stop The Music," "Disturbia" and T.I.'s "Live Your Life."
Fergie and will.i.am are runners-up to Rihanna, with four 3-million-sellers each. They each scored with three Black Eyed Peas hits: "Boom Boom Pow," "I Gotta Feeling" and "Imma Be." In addition, Fergie topped the 3-million-download mark with "Big Girls Don't Cry," while will.i.am scored with Usher's "OMG."
Four artists are next in line with three 3-million-sellers each: the just-mentioned Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Lil Wayne. (Lil Wayne's total includes his own smash "Lollipop" and featured roles on hits by Jay Sean and Kevin Rudolf.)
Why is Rihanna so popular? I can think of three reasons. She's very adaptable; equally adept at pop, R&B and dance. At 22, she comes across as the more approachable kid sister of Beyonce, 29, and Alicia Keys, 30. And her background (she was born in Barbados) gives her an exotic edge.
Akon's 2006 smash "Smack That," featuring Eminem, also tops the 3 million mark in sales this week. These are Em's first 3-million-sellers. His Oscar-winning smash "Lose Yourself" will become his third before long. It has sold 2,942,000 digital copies.
Speaking of Eminem, the rapper this week replaces B.o.B as the only lead artist with two songs in the top 10 for the year-to-date on Hot Digital Songs. Eminem's "Not Afraid" moves up to #10 on the year-to-date list, replacing B.o.B's "Nothin' On You" (featuring Bruno Mars), which dips to #11. Eminem is also listed in the top 10 with "Love The Way You Lie" (featuring Rihanna), which is #5. B.o.B's only entry in the top 10 is "Airplanes" (featuring Hayley Williams), which is #3.
Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" holds at #1 on Hot Digital Songs for the second straight week. The smash sold 221,000 copies this week, bringing its seven-week total to 1,287,000. The song jumps to #1 on the Hot 100. It's Perry's second #1 hit of the year on that chart, following "California Gurls" (featuring Snoop Dogg). Perry and Eminem are the only artists with two #1 singles in 2010. (What's more, both artists have hit the bullseye with one solo entry and one collabo.)
Pop Quiz: "Teenage Dream" is the second #1 hit on the Hot 100 to feature a variation of the word "teen" in its title. Name the first. Answer below.
Perry's Teenage Dream album debuts at #1 in the U.K. It slips from #1 to #3 in the U.S. Perry, 25, is the youngest artist to reach #1 in both countries since Leona Lewis, who was just 23 when she rang the bell on both sides of the Atlantic in 2008 with Spirit.
Disturbed's Asylum this week becomes the band's fourth consecutive album to debut at #1. It follows 2002's Believe, 2005's Ten Thousand Fists and 2008's Indestructible. The band's 2000 breakthrough album The Sickness peaked at #29, but it topped the Catalog Albums chart for 10 weeks in 2002. The sales tally for Asylum includes 54,000 digital copies. It's #1 on the Digital Albums chart.
Now 35 debuts at #2. It's the 40th Now installment to crack the top 10. All 35 regular Now volumes have made the top 10, as have five special editions: Now #1's and two volumes each of Now That's What I Call Christmas and Now That's What I Call Country. The Now phenomenon peaked between 2000 and 2006. At least one Now volume made the top 20 on Nielsen/SoundScan's year-end sales chart in each of those seven years.
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam rebounds from #22 to #9 in the wake of the TV movie's repeated airings on the Disney Channel over the Labor Day weekend. It's the #1 soundtrack for the fourth week in a row.
Heart's Red Velvet Car bows at #10. It's the band's seventh album to crack the top 10; its first to do so since Brigade in 1990. Heart first cracked the top 10 with Dreamboat Annie in October 1976. This gives the band, which is headed by sisters Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson, a nearly 34-year span of top 10 albums. That's a new record for the longest span of top 10 albums by a female-fronted band. Others FFBs (female-fronted bands) with long spans of top 10 albums include Fleetwood Mac (28 years), Sade (25 years) and Jefferson Airplane/Starship (18 years).
The chart showing of Red Velvet Car marks a big improvement over Heart's last studio album, Jupiters Darling, which debuted and peaked at #94 in June 2004. It opened with sales of 12,000 copies. (Here's a depressing tidbit: That same sales total would have placed the album at #31 on this week's chart.)
Quiz Answer: The only song before "Teenage Dream" with a variation of the word "teen" in its title to top the HOt 100 was Mark Dinning's 1960 smash "Teen Angel." Six other "teen" songs have made the top 10. Ricky Nelson recorded two of them: "A Teenager's Romance" and "Teen-Age Idol." The others were Gale Storm's "Teen Age Prayer," Tommy Sands' "Teen-Age Crush," Sandy Nelson's "Teen Beat" and Dion And The Belmonts' "A Teenager In Love."
Here's the top 10 on Hot Digital Songs, as calculated by Nielsen/SoundScan. Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" holds at #1 for the second week (221K). Bruno Mars' "Just The Way You Are" jumps from #4 to #2 (175K). Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" holds at #3 for the second week (165K). Eminem featuring Rihanna's "Love The Way You Lie" drops from #2 to #4 (156K). Usher featuring Pitbull's "DJ Got Us Falling In Love" holds at #5 for the second week (136K). Enrique Iglesias featuring Pitbull's "I Like It" holds at #6 for the second week (129K). Nelly's "Just A Dream" holds at #7 for the second week (127K). Ke$ha's "Take It Off" jumps from #9 to #8 (120K). Taylor Swift's "Mine" rebounds from #12 to #9 (108K). B.o.B featuring Rivers Cuomo's "Magic" drops from #8 to #10 (106K).
Cee Lo Green's "F**k You!" vaults from #69 to #19 on Hot Digital Songs. (I'm old enough to remember when Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good" was considered a sharp rejoinder.) There is a tamer version titled "Forget You," but I suspect the racier version will prove more popular. "F**k You!" vaults from #96 to #33 on the Hot 100. It's Cee Lo's first top 40 hit on that chart as a solo artist, though he has made it as a member of Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley and as a featured artist on a hit by Trick Daddy.
Shameless Plug: The ageless Tina Turner has been a mainstay on the Billboard charts for half a century. Fifty years ago this week, Ike & Tina Turner were scaling the Hot 100 for the first time with "A Fool In Love." To mark the anniversary, I posted a Chart Watch Extra that listed 25 milestones in the career of a legend. If you missed it, here's a link.
Shameless Plug II: I also posted a blog about this year's recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. This is the second time that Paul McCartney has been announced as a recipient. (Paul, this time, check your schedule.) Did you know that four of the five honorees have been on the cover of TIME? You do now. Here's a link.
Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 albums.
1. Disturbed, Asylum, 179,000. This new entry is the band's fourth consecutive #1 album. Two songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Warrior," which debuts at #56.
2. Various Artists NOW 35, 105,000. This new entry is the 32nd consecutive regular Now installment to debut in the top five.
3. Eminem, Recovery, 93,000. The former #1 album holds at #3 in its 11th week. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Love The Way You Lie" (featuring Rihanna), which drops from #2 to #4.
4. Katy Perry, Teenage Dream, 88,000. The former #1 album drops from #1 to #4 in its second week. Three songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Teenage Dream," which holds at #1 for the second week.
5. Fantasia, Back To Me, 40,000. The album drops from #2 to #5 in its second week. The album has sold 157K copies in its first two weeks.
6. Lyfe Jennings, I Still Believe, 36,000. This new entry is the R&B star's third top 10 album in a row, following 2006's The Phoenix and 2008's Lyfe Change.
7. Goo Goo Dolls, Something For The Rest Of Us, 34,000. This new entry is the rock trio's third studio album in a row to crack the top 10, following 2002's Gutterflower and 2006's Let Love In. "Notbroken" enters Hot Digital Songs at #86.
8. Justin Bieber, My World 2.0, 31,000. The former #1 album dips from #7 to #8 in its 24th week. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Somebody To Love," which drops from #42 to #62.
9. Various Artists, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, 28,000. The album rebounds from #22 to #9 in its third week. This is its second week in the top 10. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by Nick Jonas' "Introducing Me," which debuts at #58.
10. Heart, Red Velvet Car, 27,000. This new entry is the band's seventh top 10 album. Gerald Ford was President when it landed its first.
Here today, gone tomorrow: Two albums that were in the top 10 last week free-fall out of the top 50 this week. Randy Rogers Band's Burning The Day plummets from #8 to #59. The Devil Wears Prada's Zombie EP dives from #10 to #51.
Four other albums drop out of the top 10 this week. Usher's Versus drops from #4 to #13, Little Big Town's The Reason Why drops from #5 to #25, Kem's Intimacy drops from #6 to #11, and Ray LaMontagne And The Pariah Dogs' God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise drops from #9 to #15.
Pop Quiz: Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" returns to #1 on Top Country Albums. (It holds at #12 on The Billboard 200.) This is its 28th week on top of the country chart. Only one album by a group or duo in the 46-year history of this chart has had a longer run at #1. Name that group. Answer below.
10 Years' Feeding The Wolves debuts at #17. It's the hard rock band's second top 20 album in a row. Division hit #12 in 2008...Ryan Bingham's Junky Star bows at #19. Mr. Bingham is having a pretty good year. On March 7, he and T-Bone Burnett won an Oscar for Best Song for "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart. Bingham's 2009 (thus, pre-Oscar) album Roadhouse Sun peaked at #65. This shows what a little global TV exposure can do for a fellow.
Casting Crowns' 2007 album The Altar And The Door vaults from #83 to #36. It's #1 on the Catalog Albums chart for the second straight week. Why the surge? The Family Christian chain sale-priced the album for $5. This is Casting Crowns' second #1 album on the catalog chart in less than a year. The group's 2008 Christmas album, Peace On Earth, headed the chart for three weeks in November.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is the #1 soundtrack to a theatrically-released movie for the third week in a row. It drops from #41 to #69 on The Billboard 200. (Come on, theatrically-released soundtracks. Come alive.)
The American, starring George Clooney, was #1 at the box-office over the weekend. There is no soundtrack album.
Quiz Answer: The only group or duo to log more than 28 weeks at #1 on Top Country Albums is Dixie Chicks. Their 1999 album Fly headed the chart for 36 weeks. Two Alabama albums, Feels So Right and Mountain Music, each logged 28 weeks at #1, a mark tied this week by Lady Antebellum. Alabama's albums were back-to-back releases in 1981 and 1982, which gives you some idea of how hot the group was at the time.
I bet some of you guessed Rascal Flatts. Sorry, no. But the trio's 2004 hit "Bless The Broken Road" tops the 2 million mark in paid downloads this week. It's Rascal Flatts' third song to reach that mark, following "Life Is A Highway" (2,420,000) and "What Hurts The Most" (2,147,000). Only one other country act has amassed more than one 2-million-seller. That's Taylor Swift, who leads the pack with four such hits.
Olly Murs' "Please Don't Let Me Go" debuts at #1 in the U.K. Murs was the runner-up in last year's The X Factor competition.
Michael Jackson is the only artist with two of the top 10 music video titles for the year-to-date. Here's the top 10 for the year-to-date, along with their 2010 sales tallies, as calculated by Nielsen/SoundScan.
#1: Jackson's Live In Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour (94K); #2: Rush's Beyond The Lighted Stage (83K); #3: U2's 360 Degrees At The Rose Bowl (79K); #4: Jackson's Number Ones (74K); #5: Celine Dion's Celine: Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert (66K), #6: Celtic Woman's Songs From The Heart: Live From Powerscourt House And Gardens (65K); #7: Bon Jovi's Live At Madison Square Garden (62K); #8: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's London Calling: Live In Hyde Park (59K); #9: Beyonce's I Am...Yours: An Intimate Performance At Wynn Las Vegas (54K); #10: Barbra Streisand's One Night Only: At The Village Vanguard: Sept. 26, 2009 (51K).
Heads Up: Sara Bareilles' sophomore album Kaleidoscope Heart, has a good chance of entering next week's chart at #1. Her 2007 debut album, Little Voice, peaked at #7. Also due: Stone Sour's Audio Secrecy, Anberlin's Dark Is The Way. Light Is A Place, Interpol's Interpol, Atmosphere's To All My Friends and Robyn's Body Talk Pt. 2.
Useless Information: Disturbed's Asylum debuts at #1. Lyfe Jennings' I Still Believe, which is on the Asylum label, bows at #6. This has to be the first time in chart history that two albums have entered the top 10 the same week, where the title of one album was the same as the record company of another. (I think that redefines the word "useless.")
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