Luther Vandross Tops Chart
Luther Vandross’ dance with death served as a reminder to fans that
the R&B singer was still in the business. Vandross’ new album,
Dance With My Father sold 442,000 copies, according to
SoundScan, to debut at Number One just a week after he left the
intensive care unit of a New York City hospital following an April
stroke that left him nearly comatose for more than a month.
According to Carmen Romano, Vandross’ business manager, the singer
continues to improve and grow more responsive with each day. “I
feel as though I’m watching a modern-day miracle,” Romano said.
Dance gave Vandross the first Number One of his
twenty-plus-year solo career, during which he has been something of
an R&B Forrest Gump. Over the past three decades, Vandross
penned a song for the musical The Wiz, appeared on David
Bowie’s Young Americans (for which he wrote
“Fascination”), sang in commercials for the U.S. Armed Forces and
Burger King, and provided backing vocals and arranging for an array
of artists including Carly Simon and Ringo Starr. Vandross first
stepped out from behind the curtain with the 1981 release of
Never Too Much, which charted at Number Nineteen. A hit
machine through the Eighties and Nineties, Vandross regularly
appeared in the Top Ten.
Unlike some recent Number One albums, which have taken the top
spot amid tepid sales, Dance had some competition.
Metallica’s St. Anger sold a hearty 363,000 copies in its
first full week in stores, putting the album at 781,000 in under
two weeks of sale. The return-to-rock publicity surrounding
Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief paid off. The band’s latest
sold 300,000 copies at Number Three, the lowest debut chart
position (but highest selling) of their past three albums. Kid
A hit Number One in 2000 and Amnesiac jumped in at
Number Two a year later, but the albums sold 207,000 and 231,000
copies in their first week of sales, respectively.
Annie Lennox was welcomed back with a Number Four slot for
Bare, her first album of new material in over a decade,
which sold 153,000 copies. Country music mainstay George Strait
fell one slot behind, selling 143,000 copies of
Honkytonkville. Rap newcomer Joe Budden and rock oddballs
Steely Dan also bounced into the Top Ten, selling 94,000 and 91,000
copies of Joe Budden and Everything Must Go,
respectively. The Beach Boys’ Sounds of Summer (Number
Sixteen, 69,000) was the summeriest release to find its way onto
the charts. Instead of the typical party-anthem fodder that comes
with the season, soft was selling: Pop idol Justin Guarini’s
self-titled debut (Number Twenty, 57,000), Sarah Brightman’s
Harum (Number Twenty-nine, 40,000) and Kenny G’s
Ultimate Kenny G (Number Forty-two, 29,000) all worked
into the Top Fifty.
This week’s chart offers one of the first optimistic glimmers of
2003 for album sales. While the release docket was loaded,
twenty-five older albums inside the Top 100 enjoyed sales spikes.
Yesterday saw far fewer new albums on record store shelves, but
releases by Monica and Steve Winwood are capable of posting steady,
if not chart-topping, figures.
This week’s Top Ten: Luther Vandross’ Dance With My
Father; Metallica’s St. Anger; Radiohead’s Hail
to the Thief; Annie Lennox’s Bare; George Strait’s
Honkytonkville; the 2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack;
50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’; Joe Budden’s Joe
Budden; Steely Dan’s Everything Must Go; and Norah
Jones’ Come Away With Me.