On the Charts: Jack Johnson Dominates for Third Straight Week
The Big News: Rolling Stone cover star Jack Johnson continues his charts dominance, staying at number one for a third consecutive week with an additional 104,890 copies sold. Officially, Alicia Keys’ As I Am placed number two, despite being outsold by Michael Jackson’s twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Thriller, which is ineligible from chart placement because it’s a “catalog album.” Amy Winehouse’s post-Grammy hangover still hasn’t worn off, as Back To Black grabbed the third spot. Moviegoers found a soundtrack they liked more than Juno, as Step Up 2: The Streets stepped up to number five. Sara Bareilles’ Little Voice also had a big week, making the jump from fifteen to seven.
Debuts: Kidz Bop 13 debuted at four, further proving that little kids don’t know how to illegally download. Dipset’s Jim Jones’ Harlem’s American Gangster entered at nineteen despite being released as a mixtape last November. On the rock beat, the Raveonettes’ Lust Lust Lust placed 108, Ray Davies’ Working Man’s Cafe took 140 and the Mountain Goats’ critically-acclaimed Heretic Pride squeezed in at 195.
Last Week’s Heroes: The Grammy bloom blew off Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters as the album fell from five to sixteen. Predictably, the Grammys nominees compilation also dropped from four to seventeen. It was a pretty bad week on all fronts, with only one non-debuting album in top sixty (Sara Bareilles) actually experiencing a growth in sales from the previous week.