DMB Crash the Charts
It took more than two months, but the music industry defibrillator finally boosted some life into what has been a dreary, boring year-to-date in album chart action. The Dave Matthews Band scoffed at the notion that they were so, like, ’98, by selling a whopping 732,720 copies of its new album Everyday, its first week in stores, according to SoundScan. Even in strictly DMB terms, the number is quite impressive, nearly doubling the 422,000 copies scanned of their previous studio album, 1998’s Before These Crowded Streets, which until this week was their sole Number One debut.
Matthews and Co. didn’t lead a sales surge across the board, but they certainly ushered in the first healthy wave of new names and titles since last November. Everyday was one of three debuts in the Top Ten, and one of twenty-five in the Top 200 (compared to three the previous week). A flurry of hip-hop made a run towards the top, with DJ Clue’s mix, The Professional: Part 2, scanning an impressive 239,159 copies to land in the Number Three slot, and Three 6 Mafia member Project Pat’s Mista Don’t Play moving a none-too-shabby 126,237 copies for the Number Four position. No Limit soldier Silkk the Shocker scored a Number Twelve debut with his My World, My Way, which moved 81,132; but it was a sharp downward turn from his previous album, 1999’s Made Man, which scanned 240,000 copies to debut Number One (ahead of Dave Matthews’ Live at Luther College).
Though Matthews registered the highest debut of the year thus far, he wasn’t the only big newsmaker in SoundScan’s Top 200. Pearl Jam shattered their own previous mark for most debuts in the Top 200 in a single week. The band’s second wave of authorized bootleg releases yielded seven entries (from shows in Jones Beach, N.Y.; Boston, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Tampa and Memphis), topping the five that set the previous record from their European series of boots last October.
As for last week’s Top Ten, this week’s newcomers sent Crazy Town’s Gift of Game and Ludacris’ Back for the First Time packing, but aside from J.Lo‘s ugly spill from Number Six to Number Seventeen, the rookies didn’t create any major tumbles. Shaggy’s Hotshot ended its run of four straight weeks on top, but a sales drop of only 2,214 copies secured a Number Two position, with sales of 269,438 (bringing it’s total sales up to nearly 4 million).
As for next week, the excitement should continue. Aerosmith’s Just Push Play and Eve’s Scorpion both arrive with buzz and track records that should secure Top Ten debuts, though dislodging the DMB, whose numbers suggest it’s more popular now than ever, looks to be a daunting task.
This week’s Top Ten: Dave Matthews Band’s Everyday (732,720 copies sold); Shaggy’s Hotshot (269,438); DJ Clue’s The Professional: Part 2 (239,159); Project Pat’s Mista Don’t Play (126,237); Dido’s No Angel (125, 226); the Beatles’ 1 (96,276); Save the Last Dance soundtrack (90,868); Ja Rule’s Rule 3:36 (84,283); Jim Johnston’s WWF the Music: Vol. 5 (83,065); and Lenny Kravitz’s Greatest Hits (82,379).