HENLEY RULES THE RETAIL COUNTY

Capitol’s Don Henley (pictured above with the label chief Steve Barnett and COO Michelle Jubelirer) edged past MCA Nashville’s George Strait to top the HITS Album Sales Chart with 84k for Cass County, The Eagles frontman’s star-studded country set.

Strait, a legend of the genre, followed closely behind, earning 82k for Cold Beer Conversation, his 28th studio album in 35 years. We’ll drink a cold one to that.

As we noted earlier, the overperformance of both Cass and Strait's Cold Beer Conversation testifies to the continuing power of two career album artists whose work connects solidly with consumers several decades into their careers.

WMG’s Fetty Wap massively underperformed, landing at #3 in sales with 75k; label insiders thought Fetty would sell 300k+.

Drake & Future’s collaborative mixtape What a Time to Be Alive (YMCMB/Republic/Epic) follows at #4 with 66k, while Valory/BMLG’s Thomas Rhett rounds out the Top 5 with 65k for his sophomore album, Tangled Up.

Third Man’s The Dead Weather, Glassnote’s CHVRCHES and New Machine's Silversun Pickups lead the alt-rock pack, bowing at #6, #8 and #15, respectively.

As for the remaining Top 15 debuts, the original Broadway cast’s Hamilton soundtrack—out via Uptown—lands at #9, while Disclosure’s first full-length through Capitol, Caracal, lands at #10.

RCA’s buzzing Bryson Tiller—who was co-signed by Drake—celebrated the release of his debut album, T R A P S O U L (#12).

Notably, UMe’s Pitch Perfect 2 re-entered the chart at #26, powered by the DVD release on 9/22.

Streeting this week are albums from BMG’s Janet Jackson, Epic’s Tamar Braxton, Island’s Avicii and UMe’s Eagles of Death Metal, Oh, and also the remastered, deluxe re-issues of Sir Paul McCartney’s Pipes of Peace and Tug of War. Put that in your pipe and smoke it; we know we will.

In automotive news, Volkswagen's senior leadership has expressed regret over its manipulation of emissions testing and has promised to focus on getting the trains to run on time.