DON’T SPARE THE ROD AT #1
J Records icon Rod Stewart returns to his roots this week with Still the Same… Great Rock Classics of Our Time, which debuts at #1 on the HITS Top 50, chalking up 183k in sales. The CD includes the first single, a version of Creedence Clearwater’s “Have You Ever Seen The Rain,” along with covers of songs by Van Morrison, Bob Seger, Cat Stevens, Badfinger, John Waite and Bread.
That was more than enough to beat back last week’s chart-topping Evanescence Wind-up effort, The Open Door, which lands at #2, with 160k.
A pair of Top 10 bows follow in G Unit/Interscope’s 50 Cent posse member Lloyd Banks, which nails down the #3 slot with Rotten Apple garnering almost 150k, while Mailboat/SBMG Nashville Parrothead Jimmy Buffett’s Take the Weather With You shines at #4, gathering 121k followers in colorful Hawaiian shirts.
The rest of the Top 10 boasts holdovers like RPM/Columbia veteran crooner Tony Bennett’s Duets album (#5), Island/IDJ high rollers The Killers’ Sam’s Town (#6), Jive/ZLG rhythmeister Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds (#7), MCA Nashville honky-tonk man George Strait’s It Just Comes Natural (#8), Universal Republic Okie rockers Hinder’s perennial Extreme Behavior (#9) and Def Jam South/IDJ’s rap renaissance man Ludacris’ Release Therapy (#10).
Other Top 50 newcomers include Lofton Creek’s Navarre-distribbed Country band Heartland (#12), Vagrant emo group Senses Fail (#15), Roadrunner/IDJ Metallica-mongers Trivium, Deutsche Grammophon’s Sting and his lute duet record Songs From the Labyrinth (#26) and Universal Motown grown-up kid star Sammie (#38). Capitol’s Corinne Bailey Rae returns to the chart with her self-titled debut (#35).
Lyric Street’s Rascal Flatts, who have one of the year’s top two albums, along with fellow Buena Vista Music Group project High School Musical, lead the gainers, going #25-22, with a 9% boost, followed by Epic’s The Fray, still hot at #16, up 6%.
Bad Boy/Atlantic’s Diddy and Universal Motown’s JoJo top the list of today’s new releases, with J’s Ruben Studdard and Columbia’s Frankie J also on the shelves.
