THIS CHART IS PURPLE

Early on Thursday (4/21), Sturgill Simpson looked to have #1 locked up. Then something totally unexpected happened: The legendary, groundbreaking and globally inspirational Prince passed away. As the world wept and fans dealt with their shock and grief, music lovers flocked to retail to celebrate The Purple One’s illustrious career. Consequently, The Very Best of Prince (Warner Bros.) has soared to #1 chart honors, scoring 96k on the HITS Album Sales Chart and 172k on the Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) Chart.

Purple Rain finishes the week at #2 with 55k for Warner Bros., while The Hits and B-Sides moves into the Top 10 at #7 with 22k and 1999 hits #14 with 12k. On the chart, but outside the Top 15, there’s Ultimate: Prince (#23) and Sign O’ the Times (#37). Adding up The Purple One’s top-selling titles, fans snapped up more than 200k albums and north of 900k tracks, and all of this happened in less than 24 hours. Talk about around the world in a day…

As for Simpson, his A Sailor’s Guide to Earth debuts at #3 with 49k. Santana’s Santana IV (Santana IV) lands at #4, while Ace Frehley’s Origins, Vol. 1 (eOne) appears at #9 and Musiq Soulchild’s Life on Earth (eOne) enters at #15.

Meanwhile, Blackened’s Metallica, who were Record Store Day Ambassadors this year, saw their Ride the Lightning and Kill ‘Em All re-enter the chart at #25 and #30, respectively, while Metallica rose #47-42.

And following James Bay’s talked-about Coachella performance, his Chaos and the Calm (Republic) jumped #49-35.

Beyoncé's Lemonade hit digital retail outlets 4/24, joining a collection of albums that streeted 4/22—Glassnote’s The Strumbellas, RCA’s A$AP Ferg, Capitol Christian’s NF and Up Down’s Blue October.

In other news, we have to go listen to Prince records and cry some more.