Limp Bizkit Thrash Back To #1 After Woodstock Performance
In the week after Limp Bizkit's incendiary performance at Woodstock '99, the band's second album, Significant Other, sold strongly enough to return to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
According to sales figures released Wednesday (Aug. 4) by SoundScan, Significant Other will take over the #1 spot from the Backstreet Boys' Millennium when the chart is released Thursday.
Other performers at Woodstock, the three-day festival that ended in a fiery riot July 25, will see mixed results on this week's chart.
Follow the Leader (1998), by Korn, another angst-ridden hard-rock band, who played the night before Limp Bizkit, will climb 17 spots to #51. But funk-rockers the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who closed the festival, and rap-rocker Kid Rock, who played another high-profile set, will both slip a bit.
The Chili Peppers' Californication, which includes the single "Scar Tissue" (RealAudio excerpt), and Kid Rock's Devil Without a Cause, whose songs of whiskey, women and good times include "I Am the Bullgod"
(RealAudio excerpt), actually enjoyed slight sales increases last week, but not enough to maintain their chart positions. Californication will fall from #8 to #10, while Kid Rock's album will drop from #7 to #9.
Limp Bizkit's album sold 250,241 copies — 15,000 more than the week before — after the band's performance at the beginning of Woodstock's July 24 hard-rock tripleheader. Rage Against the Machine and Metallica, neither of which has a new album, played after them.
For many of the more than 200,000 fans at Woodstock '99, the three bands were the festival's highlight, while others said the onslaught of hard rock, during which hundreds were injured in a huge mosh pit, was a low point. Festival organizers the next day said it had been a bad idea to schedule the three bands in a row.
Limp Bizkit played such anthems as "Break Stuff" and "Nookie" (RealAudio excerpt), both of which appear on Significant Other, which has now sold about 1.7 million copies. The album debuted at #1 in July, but had slipped to #2 behind Millennium, which will be #2 on this week's chart.
During Limp Bizkit's Woodstock performance, Durst attempted to crowd-surf through the raging mosh pit on a piece of plywood that fans had yanked off a speaker tower. While standing on the plywood, he sang pop singer George Michael's "Faith"
(RealAudio excerpt of Limp Bizkit version), which appears on Limp Bizkit's first album, Three Dollar Bill Y'All$ (1997). That album will jump 21 spots to #61 on this week's chart.
Explaining his lyrics, Durst said in February, "They're always personal. ... Everyone in life goes through their ups and downs — emotional side, melancholy side, aggravation, person scared to speak out, or someone who really hurt them or upset them or betrayed them or cheated on them. Those are the people I want to touch. I want to connect with everyone who feels alone."
Further down the chart, several other Woodstock performers will see declines this week. Hard-rockers Godsmack's self-titled debut will drop from #43 to #47, pop-rockers Lit's A Place in the Sun will fall from #51 to #55, rock band Oleander's February Son will slip two spots to #120 and hard-core rapper DMX's It's Dark and Hell Is Hot will wind up at #107, eight places below where it was a week ago.
The week's highest debut, at #3, will come from a compilation of recent hits called Now That's What I Call Music 2. More than 171,000 people last week bought the album, which includes songs by rapper Jay-Z, pop singer Britney Spears and pop group the Spice Girls. Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin's self-titled English-language debut will drop to #4, the first time it has fallen out of the top three.
The Hot Boys, a New Orleans hip-hop group that includes popular rappers B.G. and Juvenile, will debut at #5 with Guerrilla Warfare, and R&B vocal group Destiny's Child will enter the chart at #6 with The Writing's on the Wall.
Several other records will debut on this week's chart, including the easy-listening rock and country soundtrack to "Runaway Bride" (#12), deep-voiced soul singer Barry White's Staying Power (#43), blues-rock guitarist Eric Clapton's Blues (#52), rock band Widespread Panic's 'Til the Medicine Takes (#68), rock band the Verve Pipe's self-titled follow-up to the 1996 hit Villains (#158), soul singer Macy Gray's On How Life Is (#171) and rock band Train's self-titled album (#192).
Rounding out the top 10 will be Spears'
