MONTANA'S TOPS, LEGEND & CHEMICAL BATTLE IT OUT
Disney's latest teen sensation, Hannah Montana, aka Miley Cyrus, daughter of the "Achy Breaky" guy himself, Billy Ray, is following in the footsteps of Hilary Duff, Aly & AJ and the High School Musical gang as the soundtrack to the smash cable series looks to be a lock for the #1 spot on next week's HITS chart, with between 260-270k in sales. That includes close to 10k in specialty shops like the Disney Store and Limited Too. It's not just about traditional retail anymore, folks.
Columbia's John Legend and Reprise's My Chemical Romance are fighting it out for the #2 slot at this point, unless there's some drastic change over the weekend, both around the 220-230k mark. Legend has TV appearances and a strong showing at Starbucks on his ledger, while the emo-rockers are looking at around 10% of that total at iTunes, a little less than that at Fred Meyer and slightly more at Hot Topic.
Jive/ZLG's resilient rhythm boss Justin Timberlake is the first holdover, staying strong at #4 just this side of 100k in sales. Wind-up's Evanescence aren't sobering up just yet, marking 75-80k and a probable Top 5 showing.
Monte Lipman and the Universal Republic team have rock artist development story of the year Hinder still firmly in the Top 10 at 70-75k, followed by Bad Boy/Atlantic's Diddy (6065k), Columbia's Tony Bennett (50-55k), BG/Universal Motown's JoJo (45-50k) and fighting it out for the final slot, RCA Nashville's Alabama, MCA Nashville's George Strait and Island's The Killers, all hovering in the 40-45k range.
Other Top 50 newcomers include Columbia Nashville's Montgomery Gentry and Geffen platinum ringtone rapper Jibbs (35-40k), SoBe Entertainment's Brooke Hogan, Big Machine/UMG country cowgirl Taylor Swift and Trill Entertainment/Asylum's rap act Lil Boosie (30-35k), New Door/UMe's Kiss frontman Paul Stanley (20-25k), Hollywood prog kings Sparta (13-17k) and Gospocentric/ZLG diva-turned-gospel queen Kelly Price.
Hitting retail next Tuesday are TVT's Lil Jon, J's Barry Manilow, Universal Motown's Birdman & Lil Wayne, Virgin's Meat Loaf, WB's Deftones and SBMGN's Kelly Pickler.
