Rabu, 19 Desember 2007

Groban Grabs Elvis' Holiday Crown (E! Online)

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Holiday sales might be down, but its no gloomy Christmas for Josh Groban. He just broke a chart record Elvis set back when Eisenhower was president!

Josh Grobans Nol now claims an unprecedented four straight weeks at number one, a feat never before accomplished by a holiday album. Elvis Presley set the previous record, three weeks, half a century ago with 1957s Elvis Christmas Album.

For the week ended Sunday, Nol topped the chart and rewrote the record books by selling an incredible 669,000 copies, according to the latest Nielsen SoundScan numbers.

Groban, whose single Ill Be Home for Christmas topped the AC charts this week as well, has sold nearly 2.8 million copies of Nol in its 10-week run. That puts Nol in the lead as the years bestselling album, and if the trend holds, itll become the first holiday album to top year-end sales in the SoundScan era.

Furthermore, the discs 669,000-copy week is both a career-best for Groban and a 2007-best for a nondebuting album. Even factoring in first-week debuts, Nols current week still finishes fifth among the years biggest bows.

Though his sales will drop sharply once Christmas Day hits, Groban still has a full shopping week to try to extend his number one run and further cement his place in chart history. His biggest challenge next week comes from Mary J. Bliges Growing Pains.

Though there were no top 10 debuts this week, Mannheim Steamrollers The Christmas Song made its top-10 return, climbing six spots to number 5. The disc, featuring guest vocals by Olivia Newton-John and Johnny Mathis, is the groups eighth holiday album in 23 years.

Overall, the top 10 saw little movement. Holding their spots from last week, Alicia Keys As I Am finished at 2, the Eagles Long Road Out of Eden at 3, Now Thats What I Call Music! 26 at 4and the High School Musical 2 soundtrack at 6. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus, Carrie Underwoods Carnival Ride and Garth Brooks The Ultimate Hits slipped two spots apiece to numbers 7, 9 and 10, respectively. Taylor Swifts self-titled jumped up a spot to 8.

Face Off, a new collaborative album by rapper Bow Wow and former B2K crooner Omarion, scored the highest debut at 11. The disc, featuring the radio single Girlfriend and the Rick Rubin-produced Hey Baby (Jump Off), sold 107,000 copies, missing the top 10 by about 12,000.

Comparatively speaking, Omarion and Bow Wow both released individual albums last December, bowing in at numbers one and six, respectively.

Cash Money founder Birdman--aka Baby, aka Bryan Williams--scored the next best bow at 18 with his Lil Wayne-produced 5*Stunna selling nearly 86,000 copies. Young R&B singer Mario followed three spots behind at 21, selling 77,000 copies of Go!.

The Wu-Tang Clans first new album in six years, 8 Diagrams, sold 68,000 copies at number 25. The revolutionary rappers came to prominence in the 90s on Steve Rifkinds Loud Records, which dissolved in 2002. Rifkind, who found new success with his Motown-based SRC label, recently relaunched Loud under SRC with Wu-Tang once again as the lead act.

The-Dream (his publishing checks read Terius Youngdell Nash) is best known as the pen behind Rihannas Umbrella and J. Holidays Bed, but he makes his artist debut at number 30 this week with Love/Hate selling 59,000 copies.

Controversial rapper Beanie Sigel followed at 37 selling 49,000 copies of The Solution. Despite hailing from the city of brotherly love, the Philly rapper is no stranger to beefs, jail time and gunshots, even taking a bullet in the shoulder last year when he was allegedly robbed.

Most recently, Sigel was torn between Jay-Z and Dame Dash after the two former Roc-A-Fella partners had their falling out. While some members of his State Property crew joined Dashs new label, Sigel sided with Jay, making The Solution his first album since resigning to the new Roc-A-Fella label.

In a less dramatic affair, High School Musical--Hits Remixed sold 42,000 copies at 42. The Wal-Mart exclusive features reworked tracks from the two HSM soundtracks.

Overall, album sales are up over 24 percent from last week, and even though the same week last year featured many of the same artists and series (Groban, Underwood, Now! and Hannah Montana), sales are down an eggnog-spoiling 23 percent.

To recap, the top 10 albums for the week included:

* Nol, Josh Groban * As I Am, Alicia Keys * Long Road Out of Eden, the Eagles * Now Thats What I Call Music! 26, various * The Christmas Song, Mannheim Steamroller * High School Musical 2 soundtrack, various * Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus * Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift * Carnival Ride, Carrie Underwood * The Ultimate Hits, Garth Brooks

 
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