Updated with album numbers.
Today, we find out exactly how much Adele crushes the competition by, how the Idols weathered the Grammy surge and whether the plug that The Voice gave its contestants helped at all.
Let’s get one thing straight: Adele Rules
Even if you don’t care for her music, you have to admit that she’s sold well. To say the least. Billboard was so excited about it, they released her numbers early. Adele’s “21” topped the BB200 for its 21st week and sold 730K (up 207% from the previous week). This is her biggest sales week, even bigger than the 399K she did before Christmas. It is the biggest week for any album since Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter IV” debuted with 964K. A non-debuting album hasn’t fared this well since Josh Groban’s 2007 Christmas album that moved 757K copies. Only one other album has moved more albums outside of the Christmas weeks and a month of release…”Titanic” sold 848K in Feb 1998.
“21” is the longest-running No. 1 album by a woman in history (Whitney’s “Bodyguard” held that record previously) and it is the longest-running No. 1 in Soundscan history.
Here are the albums with the most weeks at No. 1 in the nearly-56 year history of the Billboard 200 chart:
Weeks at No. 1, Title, Artist, Peak Year
54, “West Side Story” soundtrack, 1962**
37, “Thriller,” Michael Jackson, 1983
31, “Rumours,” Fleetwood Mac, 1977
31, “South Pacific” soundtrack, 1958
31, “Calypso,” Harry Belafonte, 1956
24, “Purple Rain,” Prince and the Revolution/Soundtrack, 1984
24, “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, 1978
21, “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em,” M.C. Hammer, 1990
21, “21,” Adele, 2011
This week marks the 52nd week “21” has been on the BB200. Its lowest point on the album was No. 7th on December 10th, 2011. “19” sold 87K for 4th place and its best selling week and position on the chart in its history.
As for singles, she moved 887K of those (up 5,730% from the 15K she sold the previous week). She put a total of 8 songs on the 75 slot Digital Songs chart. Three singles from “21” moved a total of 709K (“Rolling in the Deep” 271K (+115%), “Set Fire to the Rain” 254K (+36%) and “Someone Like You” 183K (+44%).
You don’t see a chart run like this every day.
Idol albums (Idol Chatter)
Kelly Clarkson, Stronger (29,000 weekly, -7%, 597,000 total) (#13 Billboard 200)
Scotty McCreery, Clear as Day (13,000, +7%, 939,000) (#45 BB200)
Daughtry, Break the Spell (10,000, +3%, 385,000) (#63 BB200)
Kellie Pickler, 100 Proof (6,000, -26%, 52,000) (#118 BB200)
Lauren Alaina, Wildflower (4,000, +3%, 248,000) (#174 BB200)
Carrie Underwood, Some Hearts (3,000, +30%, 7.171 million)
Mandisa, What If We Were Real (2,000, +2%, 147,000)
Carrie Underwood, Play On (2,000, +17%, 2.082 million)
Daughtry, Daughtry (2,000, +6%)
Idol-related
Various, 2012 Grammy Nominees (85,000, +66%, 222,000) (#5 Billboard 200)
The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow (36,000, +178%, 333,000) (#10 BB200)
Jason Aldean, My Kinda Party (28,000, +8%, 2.387 million) (#15 BB200)
Tony Bennett, Duets II (20,000, +47%, 803,000) 0(#27 BB200)
David Guetta, Nothing but the Beat (14,000, +1%, 239,000) (#42 BB200)
Various, Now That’s What I Call Music 40 (11,000, -16%, 656,000) (#54 BB200)
Various, WOW Gospel 2012 (10,000, -11%, 46,000) (#58 BB200)
Various, Now That’s What I Call Country Ballads (9,000, -13%, 34,000) (#69 BB200)
Various, WOW Hits 2012 (6,000, +8%, 227,000) (#113 BB200)
Various, Now That’s What I Call Music 39 (5,000, -1%, 581,000) (#135 BB200)
Aerosmith, Best of Aerosmith: The Millennium Collection (4,000, +3%, 422,000) (#155 BB200)
Brad Paisley, This Is Country Music (4,000, +9%, 640,000) (#177 BB200)
Downloads:
5 Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” 252K (-3%) Total: 1.493M (2 last week)
Jason Aldean/Kelly Clarkson, Don’t You Wanna Stay (30,000, +47%, 1.955 million)
Kelly Clarkson, Mr. Know It All (25,000, -12%, 1.3 million)
Scotty McCreery, The Trouble With Girls (22,000, +6%, 550,000)
Jennifer Hudson, I Will Always Love You (Live at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards) (15,000, debut, 15,000)
Brad Paisley/Carrie Underwood, Remind Me (13,000, -9%, 1.435 million)
Lauren Alaina, Georgia Peaches (8,000, +18%, 74,000)
Carrie Underwood, Before He Cheats (7,000, +24%, 3.399 million)
Scotty McCreery, I Love You This Big (5,000, +4%, 787,000)
Mandisa, Stronger (3,000, +6%, 161,000)
Carrie Underwood, How Great Thou Art (2,000, +11%, 299,000)
Mandisa, Good Morning (2,000, -12%, 58,000)
Mandisa, Waiting for Tomorrow (1,000, +27%, 19,000)
