COUNTRY STARS GO HAT TO HAT
Alan Jackson’s What I Do (RLG) comes out just in time for 9/11, but this time, the country superstar's Arista Nashville effort doesn't deal with the aftermath of that tragedy, which means he can't expect the blockbuster debut he had with his last studio album. But he'll still grab the top spot on this week's HITS Top 50.
Drive, which came out in January 2002, was fueled by the hit "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning), debuting at #1 with more than 400k in sales (see hitsdailydouble, 1/22/02).
His Greatest Hits Volume II, which came out in August, 2003, debuted at #1 with 325k in sales.
With the country superstar's latest reported to bow with about 175k in sales, Jackson will edge last week's chart-topper Curb artist Tim McGraw's Live Like You Were Dying (Curb), which should fall from its total of 224.7k last week to around 160k.
Meanwhile, the other big debut of the week, Blue Note veteran soul diva Anita Baker's My Everything, is headed for a surprisingly strong total hovering around 125k, but that might not be enough to hold off Concord's venerable Ray Charles for #3, whose posthumous Genius Loves Company is still percolating through its Starbucks connection, and could sell as many as 130k this week. The album made a surprisingly strong 186k, #3 chart debut last week.
The only other major chart debut this week should be Vagrant's Senses Fail, headed for the 40-50k range.
Tomorrow, look for Nelly, whose two separate releases, Sweat and Suit (Fo Reel/Universal), will hit the streets and are widely expected to debut at #1 and #2 on the chart with about a half-million copies sold apiece.
