Well, at least Kelly Clarkson is singing on one No. 1 album this year. Her remake of her previous pop hit “Because of You” with Reba McEntire has been burning up the country radio charts, and it helped McEntire’s Duets collection to debut at the top of the sales chart with 301,000 units moved last week. Additional celebrity couplings with everyone from Kenny Chesney to Justin Timberlake — and massive exposure on the Oprah and Larry King shows — didn’t hurt when it came to giving Reba her best opening week since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. (You suppose that The WB is finally getting around to harboring regrets over canceling McEntire’s decently-rated sitcom? Nah, probably not.)
So now that Reba is firmly ruling the roost, which rapper will feel compelled to retire? Predictably, both Kanye West and 50 Cent took huge hits after their huge debuts last week. West’s Graduation slid 76 percent to end up with second-week sales of 226,000. 50′s Curtis was down 79 percent, to 143,000. Last week’s No. 3, Kenny Chesney’s Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates, was off by close to that amount (71 percent) to sell 112,000.
The West/50 Cent/Chesney perfect storm of last week had pundits calling their Sept. 11 release date “Super Tuesday.” But Sept. 18 turned out to be sorta super-ish in its own way, just in terms of offering a plethora of new releases from mid-level stars (many of them trying to get their albums out in time to beat the end-of-September deadline for 2008 Grammy consideration). After Reba, the top bow belonged to Barry Manilow, who rode a QVC appearance and a View-related controversy to 113,000 in sales for The Greatest Songs of the Seventies, landing him at No. 3. Sounds good, but his last release, Greatest Songs of the Sixties, fared even better with a 202,000-copy entrance. James Blunt’s sophomore album, All the Lost Souls, was just beautiful enough with 92,000 at No. 7. Right behind Blunt was a nearly unbroken string of chart newcomers. Chamillionaire debuted at No. 8 with 79,000 — a big comedown from his last album’s 130K first week; KT Tunstall’s second effort sold 50,000 to land at No. 9; Twista was in at No. 10 with 41K, way, way down from his previous 129K opening; Eddie Vedder’s Into the Wild song score came in at No. 11 with 39,000 — not bad for the soundtrack to a movie that hasn’t yet opened in more than a half-dozen theaters.
Also making a debut in the top 30: H.I.M. at No. 12; Motion City Soundtrack at No. 16; Diana Krall’s best-of at No. 19; Dropkick Murphys at No. 20; Gloria Estefan at No. 25; and Mark Knopfler at No. 26.
Commandeering the charts next week, with little competition, will be Rascal Flatts, whose Sept. 25 release is expected to sell over a half-million by this time next week, but probably not get into the 700K-plus territory that their last album did. Meanwhile, Keyshia Cole is said to be a lock for No. 2 while first-day reports from retailers about the solo debut from Black Eyed Peas leader will.i.am suggest that he’s delivered a will.i.dud.
The West/50 Cent/Chesney perfect storm of last week had pundits calling their Sept. 11 release date "Super Tuesday." But Sept. 18 turned out to be sorta super-ish in its own way, just in terms of offering a plethora of new releases from mid-level stars (many of them trying to get their albums out in time to beat the end-of-September deadline for 2008 Grammy consideration). After Reba, the top bow belonged to Barry Manilow, who rode a QVC appearance and a View-related controversy to 113,000 in sales for The Greatest Songs of the Seventies, landing him at No. 3. Sounds good, but his last release, Greatest Songs of the Sixties, fared even better with a 202,000-copy entrance. James Blunt’s sophomore album, All the Lost Souls, was just beautiful enough with 92,000 at No. 7. Right behind Blunt was a nearly unbroken string of chart newcomers. Chamillionaire debuted at No. 8 with 79,000 — a big comedown from his last album’s 130K first week; KT Tunstall’s second effort sold 50,000 to land at No. 9; Twista was in at No. 10 with 41K, way, way down from his previous 129K opening; Eddie Vedder’s Into the Wild song score came in at No. 11 with 39,000 — not bad for the soundtrack to a movie that hasn’t yet opened in more than a half-dozen theaters.
Also making a debut in the top 30: H.I.M. at No. 12; Motion City Soundtrack at No. 16; Diana Krall’s best-of at No. 19; Dropkick Murphys at No. 20; Gloria Estefan at No. 25; and Mark Knopfler at No. 26.
Commandeering the charts next week, with little competition, will be Rascal Flatts, whose Sept. 25 release is expected to sell over a half-million by this time next week, but probably not get into the 700K-plus territory that their last album did. Meanwhile, Keyshia Cole is said to be a lock for No. 2 while first-day reports from retailers about the solo debut from Black Eyed Peas leader will.i.am suggest that he’s delivered a will.i.dud.
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