WITH SIX YOU GET NORAH
The Blue Note diva notches her sixth week at the top of the HITS charts this week, as Feels Like Home soars towards the 2.3 million mark in sales, with a one-week total of nearly 150k.
Jones’ impressive streak will come to an end next week, though, with the release of Usher’s Confessions album, which is expected to sell north of 700k.
Tower Records’ Kevin Hawkins, recovering from his 1,876,765th viewing of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, genuflected: "What a great run Norah Jones has had. I can’t remember the last time someone spent so much time at the top of our chart. But Norah’s run is about to come to a crashing halt because next week’s Usher release is shaping up to be a monster! The buzz in front of that record is deafening, and I have a feeling we’ll have more than a little trouble keeping it on the shelves."
Thanks to "Hotel," his red-hot collaboration with R. Kelly, J Records’ Cassidy sees his debut album, Split Personality, debut at #2, with 117k in sales.
The other Top 10 newcomer was Republic/Universal’s Godsmack, the Boston-area hard rockers who show their Other Side with a new acoustic set that bows at #5.
Added Hawkins, rather redundantly: "We also saw solid debuts this week from Cassidy and Godsmack."
The rest of the leaders include Wind-up’s perennial goth-rockers Evanescence (#3), Columbia/CRG multimedia tuna spokesperson Jessica Simpson (#4), Roc-A-Fella/IDJ’s producer-turned-hip-hop star Kanye West (#6), BNA/RLG country star Kenny Chesney (#7), Octone/J Records frosh sensations Maroon 5 (#8), Bad Boy/Universal’s Bad Boy’s 10th Anniversary album (#9) and A&M/Interscope’s tireless Sheryl Crow (#10).
Thanks to American Idol promotion and a new single, RCA’s Clay Aiken (#20) returned to the charts, while Capitol’s up-and-coming rockers Yellowcard broke through at #48.
Double-digit increases were registered by Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella/IDJ effort, The Black Album (could the 20% boost be a result of massive media exposure for DJ Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album?), Island/IDJ’s Hoobastank (#38-25,+17%), Atlantic/Atl G’s The Darkness (#42-36, +16%) and Interscope’s downtown Noo Yawk garage punks Yeah Yeah Yeahs (#50-39, +17%).
