Garth Tops Charts, Breaks Records
The “Super Tuesday” votes … er, receipts … are in, and
Garth Brooks has made good on his threat to move a
million copies of his Double Live in its first week of
release. |Thanks no doubt to a massive publicity campaign —
Wal-Mart telecasts, an NBC special and an entire week of talk show
appearances — Brooks ran rings around what on paper seemed stiff
competition: Method Man, Jewel and Mariah
Carey, to name but three of the superstars with new albums
out last week.
Brooks moved 1,085,000 copies of Double Live, beating the
previous SoundScan record-holder for most sales in a week,
Pearl Jam‘s 1993 album Vs., which sold
950,000. Perhaps Pearl Jam can reclaim their title next week with
their own live album, Live on Two Legs, but don’t hold
your breath. Wu-Tang‘s Method Man, whose Tical
2000: Judgement Day came in at No. 2 this week, was a strong
but distant 411,000 to Brooks’ million plus. Jewel’s sophomore
effort, Spirit, came in at 368,000 for No. 3, with Mariah
Carey’s #1’s and Celine Dion‘s Christmas
album filling out the Top Five.
The only other debuts cracking the Top Ten this week were the
Offspring‘s Americana, bolstered no doubt
by their smash modern rock single “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy),”
and Ice Cube‘s War & Peace, Vol. 1 (War
Disc). Whitney Houston‘s My Love Is Your
Love — her much-trumpeted first studio album in eight years
— was locked outside the front gates with a soft 123,000 in sales.
Enough for No. 13 but not enough to beat ‘N Sync‘s
Home for Christmas (No. 12) or R. Kelly‘s
R. (No. 11). The week’s other not-so-super debut was
Seal‘s Human Being, which bowed at No.
22. The Geto Boys‘ did nearly as well with their
No. 26-debuting platter, Da Good Da Bad & Da Ugly.
In other notable chart news, last week’s No. 9, Dru
Hill‘s Enter the Dru, falls to No. 20.
U2‘s Best of U2: 1980-1990 double
hits/B-sides collection tumbled from No. 5 to No. 21 with sales of
79,000, though their non-B-sides single disc version sold an
additional 40,000 (No. 45). The soundtrack to The Prince of
Egypt, featuring the same Mariah/Whitney duet that also
appears on both of their new albums, bowed at No. 94. The
“Inspirational” and “Nashville” companion Prince of Egypt
albums came in at No. 121 and 139, respectively.
Next week, look for the aforementioned Pearl Jam live album and
Metallica‘s Garage, Inc. to crash in on
the Top Ten action. For now, though, the rankings from the top are:
Garth Brooks’ Double Live (1,085,000 copies); Method Man’s
Tical 2000: Judgement Day (411,000); Jewel’s
Spirit (368,000); Mariah Carey’s #1’s (211,000);
Celine Dion’s These Are Special Times (210,000);
Offspring’s Americana (198,000); Ice Cube’s War &
Peace, Vol. 1 (180,000); Alanis Morissette‘s
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (177,000); ‘N
Sync (176,000); and Jay-Z‘s Vol. II: Hard
Knock Life (151,000).