Cappadonna Debuts At No. 3
Another month, another Wu-Tang Clan Top 10 solo
release, right?
Well, this time it’s Cappadonna’s turn as he
steps out from the Staten Island rap dynasty with The
Pillage, this week’s highest charting debut on the music sales
chart. The album broke in at No. 3, selling 132,000 copies for the
week ending March 29, according to SoundScan.
Other than Cappadonna, it was a quiet week on the chart, with
only one other debut cracking the top 40: Aretha
Franklin’s Rose Is Still a Rose, which features
guest production by the Fugees’ Lauryn Hill, Puffy Combs,
Dallas Austin and others. It bows at No. 30.
On the soft side, Van Halen’s Van Halen
3 tumbles badly in its second week in stores, falling from No.
4 to No. 13, with sales dropping 65 percent.
From the top it was the soundtrack to Titanic at No. 1
(selling 476,000 copies), followed by Celine
Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love (216,000); The
Pillage; Madonna’s Ray of Light
(118,000); Savage Garden (117,000); The Backstreet
Boys (95,000); C-Murder’s Life or
Death (91,000); Eric Clapton’s
Pilgrim (88,000); K-Ci & Jo Jo’s
Love Always (76,000); and Usher’s My
Way (69,000).
Last week’s Academy Awards broadcast boosted sales for the
soundtrack to Good Will Hunting (it jumps from No. 146 to
No. 91), Trisha Yearwood’s Songbook
Collection, which features the Oscar-nominated “How Will I
Live” (No. 65 to No. 49), and of course Titanic,which
remains at No. 1 and, 16 weeks after its release, actually
increases its weekly sales by 5 percent.
A little perspective on the still-growing Titanic
sales: Through the first 12 weeks of 1998, the soundtrack along
with Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love (which also
boasts the movie’s theme song) have sold a combined 9.6 million
copies. Through the 52 weeks of 1997, the year’s two
best-selling albums, the Spice Girls’
Spice and Jewel’s Pieces of You,
sold a combined 9.6 million copies.