A PIECE OF HER “HEART”

Kelly Clarkson’s Piece by Piece, featuring the rising single “Heartbeat Song” (currently Top 20 at Pop radio and Top 10 at Hot AC) has topped the HITS Building Album Sales Chart. The album, her seventh full-length, raked in 81k for RCA.

On the Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) chart, however, Republic’s Fifty Shades of Grey ST refuses to be submissive. In a serious squeaker, Fifty Shades, which earned 57k in album sales, leaps to 95k, making it just a few hundred units short of Kelly's 96k. Hats must be tipped to Ellie Goulding's "Love Me Like You Do" and The Weeknd's "Earned It."

Tay Tay, Big Machine’s Princess of Pop, rockets back into the Top 3 with 42k, while YMCMB/Republic’s Drake holds strong at #4 with 39k, down just a mere 33%.

ATO’s Brandi Carlile debuts at #5 with 37k, and Essential’s Third Day bows at #11 with 27k.

RCA's Mark Ronson continues to be the real champ at SPS, as his "Uptown Funk" f/Bruno Mars drives the Uptown Special all the way to #14, regardless of the fact that it didn't make the Top 50 at BAC.

It's also worth noting that, powered by a 99-cent Google special, Capitol's Beck sees his Grammy-winning Morning Phase leap #37-12 on the Album Chart. As for SPS, he re-enters the chart at #19.

Streeting this week are albums from Live Nation/ Interscope's Madonna and Capitol Nashville's Luke Bryan as well as Turn First/Columbia’s red-hot Empire ST, which is building momentum with each week’s show. The race will be tight and all are on track for six-figure bows. Republic's Fifty Shades, meanwhile, refuses to be submissive and is likely to play rough enough to make this threesome a foursome. Will the Top 3 all see 100k+ tallies? That's quite the feat for Q1, and we're sure as hell not complaining.

In other news, the U.S. Senate has locked President Obama in the executive washroom.