On the Charts: Springsteen Easily Bests Matchbox Twenty, Soulja Boy to Claim Number One
The Big News: Bruce Springsteen coasted to the top of the Billboard charts for the eighth time, as his Magic debuted at number one with 335,000 copies sold. It was Springsteen’s best-selling week since The Rising took the top spot in 2001 with 525,000 copies. Last week’s champ, Rascal Flatts’ Still Feels Good, dipped to number two thanks to a sixty-nine percent sales decrease. She isn’t in the top ten — yet — but Canadian singer Feist continues to hang around the thirties on the strength of her iPod-ad-aided single “1 2 3 4” (she checks in at number thirty-nine after twenty-three weeks on the chart).
Debuts: Mom-rockers Matchbox Twenty’s new compilation Exile on Mainstream had a strong showing at number three, thanks to 131,000 copies sold and the single “How Far We’ve Come.” Two more rookies rounded out the top five: Seventeen-year-old rapper Soulja Boy’s debut album Souljaboytellem.com came in at number four with 117,000, while R&B singer J.Holiday’s Back of My ‘Lac entered strongly in the fifth spot. The three-disc Bob Dylan collection Dylan bowed in at number thirty-six. Dashboard Confessional hit the chart at eighteen, PJ Harvey arrived at sixty-five and Mick Jagger’s solo comp debuted at seventy-seven.
Last Week’s Heroes: Besides the Flatts drop, Keyshia Cole’s second album Just Like You descended from last week’s two spot to this week’s six spot. The Foo Fighters crashed mightily, as their Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace fell from three to sixteen after a sixty-eight percent sales drop. Kanye West has sailed past the platinum mark (he’s at number seven this week), but 50 Cent still has a few more albums to move before he hits one million (he comes in at seventeen).