Sugarland, Gloriana Debut at the Top of Billboard Hot 200 Albums Chart

It was another banner week on the charts for country music.  With nearly 80,000 copies of “Live On The Inside” (read review here) sold only at Wal-Mart, Sugarland scored the #1 position on the SoundScan data supplied Billboard Hot 200 album chart.  This also guaranteed the duo the pole position on the Hot Country Albums chart. Newcomer Gloriana became the highest debuting new country act of 2009 with their self-titled debut. The album, which features the Top 15 hit “Wild At Heart,” is the first release from Emblem Records.  “Gloriana” (read review here) sold over 44,000 copies to place behind Sugarland and the latest installment of the “Now” hit song compilation. 

Sugarland also scored a 77% increase in sales of their “Love On The Inside” album while also experiencing dramatic sales increases for their first two albums “Twice The Speed of Life” and “Enjoy The Ride” on Billboard’s Catalog album chart.  Taylor Swift continues to sell records at a brisk pace and has moved over 3.6 million copies of “Fearless” since its release last fall.   The fourth best selling country album of the week was Zac Brown Band’s “The Foundation” with another 28,150 albums sold bringing the popular group to over 800,000 in total sales.   Rounding out the Top 5 is the Hannah Montana Movie Soundtrack.

Jason Aldean leads the second half of the Top 10 with his “Wide Open” album. Already certified gold by the RIAA, the album will scan gold next week with it currently sitting at 493,125 units sold.  Sugarland’s previously mention album “Love On The Inside” is next and it is followed by Darius Rucker, who scored his third #1 single last week with “Alright.”  Darius’ album “Learn To Live” has now scanned over 848,000 copies and was certified Platinum this week by the RIAA for shipments of 1,000,000 units.  Brad Paisley’s “American Saturday Night” is 9^th on the Hot Country Albums chart and now has a total tally of over 260,000 albums sold.  Lady Antebellum’s debut album, which features 3 Top 10 hits including their first #1 hit “I Run To You,” rounds out the top 10 albums.  The record has sold over  ¾ of a million albums to date.

In the interesting chart data section of the chart we find that Rascal Flatts will move closer to a million copies sold for their latest record “Unstoppable.”  The popular trio has their second Top 10 single  from the album with “Summer Nights.”  With his second #1 from the record in “People Like Me,” Billy Currington has now sold nearly 250,000 copies of his latest record “Little Bit of Everything.” Keith Urban’s “Defying Gravity” passed the 500,000 units-sold barrier this week while Randy Houser’s “Anything Goes” has benefitted from Top 5 single “Boots On” to help him get near the 100,000 albums sold mark.   Colt Ford’s “Ride Through The Country” rounds out the interesting section of this week’s  chart run-down with his grass-roots effort having moved past the 60,000 albums sold mark without the benefit of a major hit, outselling many other country artists on the charts including Martina McBride.

Next week George Strait’s “Twang” will likely debut in the pole position on the charts as the 26^th album of George’s is currently on pace for over 100,000 albums sold while Justin Moore will also debut near the top of the chart with his self-titled album likely moving more than 30,000 units