DIVAS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN
The current and late divas dominate this week’s tally, with a combined five of the Top 10, including the top two.
XL/Columbia’s Grammy-winning phenom Adele is #1 for the 22nd time in a little more than a year since the album’s release, chalking up another 292k to bring her remarkable total over 7.6 million, 1.8 million of them since Jan. 1. Our crack retail staff predicts the album will go over the 3 million mark for the year by Memorial Day. Her debut album, 19, is now at #7,
RCA’s Whitney Houston The Greatest Hits notches 169k in sales, good for #2, one of three albums by the late singer in the Top 10 and four in the Top 50, including RCA’s The Bodyguard soundtrack (#45-6, +284%), her self-titled debut (#35-8, +79%) and I Look to You (#15), her final 2009 release.
Fueled by Ramen’s fun. rides the success of the Top 3 Alternative smash, “We Are Young” featuring Janelle Monae, which received exposure from the Chevy Sonic Super Bowl TV spot, to a #3 debut for its album Some Nights, selling nearly 70k in its first week.
Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Republic rapper Tyga’s Careless World: Rise of the Last King debuts at #4 with 65k, even after a clearance problem pulled most physical product from the shelves.
Capitol/EMI’s Now 41 rounds out the Top 5, while I.R.S./Virgin’s electro-hip-pop act Chiddy Bang debuts at #9 with Breakfast, followed by Universal Republic’s 2012 Grammy Nominees (#10).
Mom + Pop/RED’s Sleigh Bells (#12) and Relativity Music Group’s Act of Valor (#45), the soundtrack to the Navy Seals movie which landed at #1 on the box office last week are the only other chart newcomers.
The week’s other double-digit gainer is
Hitting stores this week are Universal Republic’s Kid Cudi project WZRD, Atlantic’s Estelle, Lost Highway’s Lyle Lovett and Downtown/Fontana’s The Cranberrries, with Columbia’s Bruce Springsteen and Atlantic’s Sean Paul topping the release list for March 6.
