Ashlee Simpson Tops Chart
Ashlee Simpson wasted no time establishing herself as a pop presence in her own right. The little sister of singer Jessica Simpson sold 398,000 copies of her debut album Autobiography, according to Nielsen SoundScan, to reach Number One. At the risk of sparking a sibling rivalry, Ashlee pummeled the first-week sales of Jessica’s most recent effort, In This Skin, which sold 64,000 in its first week (at Number Ten) last August. Of course, with sales, distance runners fare better than the sprinters, and Jessica’s Newlyweds show helped pick up that lagging effort and took it to platinum sales.
Autobiography knocked Jimmy Buffett’s License to Chill out of the top spot after his first-ever week at Number One. Chill only fell one slot, though, selling 148,000 copies. Van Halen’s new collection, Best of Both Worlds, jumped in at Number Three with sales of 138,000. That trio of albums finally broke the stranglehold that Usher’s Confessions had on the Number One and Two slots. The album fell to Number Four with sales of 113,000. R&B singer Lloyd had the third-best debut at Number Eleven with 67,000 sales for Southside. Less dazzling was the Hives’ Tyrannosaurus Hives. The Swedish garage rockers were part of the nouveau garage class of 2002, a triumvirate of retro-minded rockers poised to bring a new take on classic rock back to the top of the charts. While the Strokes and White Stripes have both delivered Top Ten debuts since, the Hives’ latest sputtered a bit, selling just 33,000 copies in a Number Thirty-four debut.
Little else was shaking on the charts in a relatively quiet summer week. And don’t look for any great shakeups next week, as a live Pearl Jam album and the latest from Badly Drawn Boy and the Old 97’s are the highest profile releases this week.
This week’s Top Ten: Ashlee Simpson’s Autobiography; Jimmy Buffett’s License to Chill; Van Halen’s Best of Both Worlds; Usher’s Confessions; Gretchen Wilson’s Here for the Party; Lloyd Banks’ Hunger for More; Avril Lavigne’s In This Skin; Prince’s Musicology; Big and Rich’s Horse of a Different Color; and the Cinderella Story soundtrack.