Dave Matthews Band Busted Nelly's Streak At Top Of Billboard Chart
One example of the "stuff" busted by the Dave Matthews Band's latest album is the three-week clutch Nelly had on the #1 position of the Billboard 200 albums chart. The band's latest, Busted Stuff, will stake claim to the top of the heap on next week's chart after selling more than 621,000 copies, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (July 24).
Although many fans already heard much of Busted Stuff, since nine of its 11 songs were conceived from previously scrapped sessions with producer Steve Lillywhite (U2, Morrissey) that became somewhat infamous as an online/bootleg commodity known as the "Lillywhite Sessions," it still managed to double the weekly sales of Nellyville, which will fall to #2 with more than 304,000 copies purchased. Nelly ends his three-week reign at the top with more than 1.8 million in sales.
Eminem's The Eminem Show, the top-10 album that has sold the most overall with a grand total of 4.3 million, will come in third for the second straight week. The MC's third LP moved more than 210,000 to retain its position in the show slot.
On a path paved with hype, the Vines' Highly Evolved will arrive at #11, having sold more than 64,000 in its first week out. Not only has their video for "Get Free" been somewhat of a fixture in the weeks leading up to the debut's release, the Australian quintet is being touted by tastemakers as the second coming of the Strokes ... er, Hives ... er, Nirvana, and the record carried a nice price starting at only $6.99 in some retail outlets.
Sibling R&B duo Mary Mary (Erica and Tina Atkins) score the only top 20 debut on next week's chart with their second album, Incredible. Following a week that saw more than 42,000 copies of it fly off store shelves, the LP will land at #20.
It was another depressing week at retail for the industry, as only three non-debut albums increased in sales from the previous week. Pink recently hit the road as an opening act for Lenny Kravitz, which may have boosted sales of her second album Missundaztood. Although it will drop in chart position, from #11 to #12, weekly sales rose by more than 3,000 copies.
Singer/songwriters John Mayer and Norah Jones also enjoyed a bit of a sales spike. Mayer, who also began a tour last week, will watch his Room for Squares advance seven spots to #16 with a 3,000-copy bump; while Come Away With Me by Jones, who is set to continue her tour Saturday, will leap from #21 to #15.
Elsewhere in the top 10, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' By the Way lost half of last week's sales to slip into the #4 spot, after debuting at #2, with a 140,000 weekly total. Even Avril Lavigne, who had been steadily climbing the chart with her debut Let Go, will stumble a step to #5, selling more than 110,000 copies. Irv Gotti Presents the Inc. will advance one spot to #6, swapping last week's positions with Styles, whose Gangster & a Gentleman will take the #7 spot. Ashanti's self-titled LP will advance a spot to #8, while the Counting Crows' Hard Candy will fall the farthest of its top-10 peers, slipping from its #5 debut position to #9. Josh Groban's eponymous LP will bring up the rear at #10, slipping from its previously held #8 slot.
Vanessa Carlton's Be Not Nobody cracked the half-million mark in sales last week. Although it will hang onto its #30 spot, Carlton's debut sold nearly 4,000 more than it did last week to bring its total to more than 511,000. Other albums that will enjoy a significant boost are Celine Dion's A New Day Has Come, which moves up a step to #23 with nearly a 4,000-copy goose; and Khia's Thug Misses, advancing eight spots to #33 while displaying a retail rise of more than 4,000 copies.
I Miss My Friend by country singer/songwriter Darryl Worley just barely misses cracking the top 20 after its first week in stores, coming in at #21, and former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant's Dreamland rounds out the top 40 debuts at #40.
Other notable chart debuts include the Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots at #50; the soundtrack to "Austin Powers: Goldmember" at #56; Jerzee Monet's Love & War at #60; comedians Triple 6 Mafia's Chronicles of the Juice Man at #93; the Starting Line's Say It Like You Mean It at #109; Gorillaz' remix LP Space Monkeyz Vs. Gorillaz: Laika Come Home at #156; and Simon & Garfunkel's Live From New York City 1967 at #165.
On an interesting tip, some Dave Matthews Band fans must like to shop in bulk. Just as the group's Busted Stuff crashes into the #1 slot, their previous album, 2001's Everyday, catapults 53 places to #67, thanks to a weekly total that went from just under 10,000 copies to more than 16,000.