Sugarland beats Miley to top of charts this week

Sugarland and Miley Cyrus duked it out for the top spot on the album chart again, this time with different results. Last week’s winner, Cyrus, dropped to No. 2, selling 163,000 of her Breakout, a reasonable 56 percent decrease. Sugarland, the Georgia-based country-rock duo, moved 171,000 units of Love on the Inside, earning the top spot, with a smaller decline of 45 percent. The latter act had some help from a unique release strategy. Last week, they put out the higher-priced deluxe version of their album; this week, they had the lower-priced standard edition out as well, which appealed to more bargain-minded shoppers. (Nielsen SoundScan is counting both the deluxe and standard Sugarland CDs as one album, in this instance.)

The Mamma Mia! soundtrack held strong at third, selling an ABBA-riffic 138,000, down only 18 percent. The sole sales bump among holdovers in the top 10 belonged to Kid Rock, whose Rock N Roll Jesus really is destined to keep selling “All Summer Long” (to reference the radio hit that’s driving sales). The Kid was up 3 percent to 96,000, the latest in an unbroken series of weekly increases and the best weekly tally his resurgent project has had since it came out last October. 

It may come as a revelation to secularists that Christian rockers Third Day are as popular as they are. Their 11th studio album, Revelation, has the week’s best debut figures, opening at No. 6 with 75,000. Other first-timers on the chart include Kidz Bop 14 at No. 8 with 58,000 units, and the self-titled debut album by Scars on Broadway (a side project from two System of a Down members) at No. 17 with 24,000.

Meanwhile, for the first time in what seems like a girl-on-girl eternity, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” doesn’t sit atop the digital songs chart. Which new charttopper rubbed her the wrong way? And how many Jonas Brothers tunes are on the chart now? Find out as we continue…

On SoundScan’s digital songs chart, Rihanna’s “Disturbia” moved up a spot to claim the No. 1 position, selling 139,000 this week for a new total of 765,000 downloads. The recently indomitable “I Kissed a Girl” fell two slots to No. 3. But don’t cry for Katy Perry: Her smash just passed the 2 million mark.

Debuting auspiciously at No. 2, with 131,000 sales, was the Jonas Brothers’ “Tonight.” The Jonases have undertaken an interesting pre-release singles campaign, releasing a new song a week on iTunes for the four weeks leading up to the release of their third album. There’s one more to go — the ballad “A Little Bit Longer,” which came out Tuesday and will show up on next week’s chart. Meanwhile, their “Burnin’ Up” continues to smolder. That song is down two spots to No. 5, with sales this week of 102,000. Joe Jonas’ Camp Rock duet with Demi Lovato, “This is Me,” falls to No. 42 with 28,000 downloads this frame.

Not doing so hot: Mariah Carey’s “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time” is turning out to have a very short shelf life indeed. This week it sold 9,000, good enough only to push it to No. 145 on the digital songs chart. One spot behind, Jennifer Hudson’s “Spotlight” sold about the same amount, suggesting that the Oscar winner doesn’t yet have a lock on the hit pop career some were predicting for her. It turns out Paris Hilton was no dummy when it came to picking which R&B diva would be her VP choice this week.

On SoundScan’s digital songs chart, Rihanna’s “Disturbia” moved up a spot to claim the No. 1 position, selling 139,000 this week for a new total of 765,000 downloads. The recently indomitable “I Kissed a Girl” fell two slots to No. 3. But don’t cry for Katy Perry: Her smash just passed the 2 million mark.

Debuting auspiciously at No. 2, with 131,000 sales, was the Jonas Brothers’ “Tonight.” The Jonases have undertaken an interesting pre-release singles campaign, releasing a new song a week on iTunes for the four weeks leading up to the release of their third album. There’s one more to go — the ballad “A Little Bit Longer,” which came out Tuesday and will show up on next week’s chart. Meanwhile, their “Burnin’ Up” continues to smolder. That song is down two spots to No. 5, with sales this week of 102,000. Joe Jonas’ Camp Rock duet with Demi Lovato, “This is Me,” falls to No. 42 with 28,000 downloads this frame.

Not doing so hot: Mariah Carey’s “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time” is turning out to have a very short shelf life indeed. This week it sold 9,000, good enough only to push it to No. 145 on the digital songs chart. One spot behind, Jennifer Hudson’s “Spotlight” sold about the same amount, suggesting that the Oscar winner doesn’t yet have a lock on the hit pop career some were predicting for her. It turns out Paris Hilton was no dummy when it came to picking which R&B diva would be her VP choice this week.