Chart News for January 11, 2012: Toby Keith's "Cup" of Viral Success

Lady Antebellum Still "Own" Chart This Week

While Toby Keith’s album is the clear story so far, Lady Antebellum’s Own The Night was the best-selling country album of 2011’s calendar year, beating out top solo seller Scotty McCreery, superstar Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean. While the album isn’t likely to become the 4 to 5x platinum success that Need You Now was, it’s a sure bet to hit the double platinum mark, still a remarkable achievement and once again all these sales prove that country fans still buy albums. Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum’s label mate at Capitol Nashville, is #3 on the chart this week with Tailgates & Tanlines. The album is well on its way to becoming his first Platinum album while Jason Aldean’s My Kinda Party has now sold nearly 2.3 million albums since being released in the fall of 2010. He’ll be releasing a new album sometime in 2012, most likely in the fall. Scotty McCreery’s Clear As Day was just certified Platinum but is still about 131,000 copies away from scanning that number at retail. Still, it’s a remarkable achievement to sell that many records, particularly after American Idol’s past few winners failed to move the album sales needle (Runner-up Adam Lambert has sold nearly a million copies of his debut).

Top 5 Country Albums for the week of January 11, 2012

Note: Sales Numbers rounded off to nearest 1,000.

The Band Perry Well Over Platinum

The Band Perry continue to sell units of their self-titled album and like Aldean, they’re more than likely to release a new record in 2012. Eric Church’s Chief is #7 on this week’s SoundScan Top Current Country Albums chart and has now sold 554,000 copies. The album is likely to score a Platinum certification at some point this year, particularly with big hit “Springsteen” likely to follow sure to be #1 next week “Drink In My Hand” (Which would be E.C.’s first #1) as a single. Taylor Swift’s “Ours” is currently rising up the charts while she’s less than 70,000 copies away from having Speak Now scan past the 4x Platinum mark. She too, like Aldean and The Band Perry  will be releasing a new record some point in the year. Miranda Lambert’s late fall release Four The Record is well on its way to becoming a Gold album and will eventually hit Platinum (her three other albums have as well). Speaking of Gold, it’s a mark that Brantley Gilbert’s major label debut album Halfway To Heaven (Deluxe Edition) has nearly achieved. With “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” getting better buzz than #1 single “Country Must Be Country Wide,” Gilbert’s future prospects for Gold/Platinum seem very strong as well.

Top 10 Country Albums for the week of January 11, 2012

McGraw And Shelton’s Hits Collections Move Units This Week

Tim McGraw’s Number One Hits continues to move albums as his old label Curb gets ready to release their final album of new material in a couple of weeks He’s now certified Platinum with the sales of the two-disc set while Blake Shelton’s Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton was recently certified Gold and has nearly scanned past the mark, giving the superstar entertainer a pair of Gold albums this calendar year as the hits collection joins follow-up release Red River Blue. Jake Owen has scanned past the 200,000 sales mark with Barefoot Blue Jean Night. The album features the #1 title track and the even better and catchier tune “Alone With You.” Lauren Alaina’s Wildflower has now sold over 225,000 copies and while not nearly as strong as Scotty’s sales, it’s still a remarkable number and with a couple more hits like “Georgia Peaches,” the seventeen year old could very well have a Gold album. Eli Young Band rounds out the five interesting albums this week with Life At Best joining Toby Keith and George Strait’s albums as the only non hits albums to gain positive traction on the chart this week. Life At Best has now sold 154,000 albums and look for them to hit high on the charts with “Even If it Breaks Your Heart,” a song that we have loved at Roughstock since hearing songwriter Will Hoge’s original version (we’ve also heard Eric Paslay sing the tune he co-wrote with Hoge).

Five Notable Albums for the week of January 11, 2012

 

More Interesting facts

• Taylor Swift has now sold a quarter of a million copies of Speak Now World Tour her live CD/DVD set. Making it gold as a ‘recording package’ and well over platinum as a ‘video package’).
• Chris Young’s Neon has now sold over a quarter of a million copies itself. With a couple more hits, Gold is likely in this album’s future as well.
• Martina McBride has now sold 140,000 copies of Eleven as “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” moves up the charts to the Top 10 and beyond.
• The Civil Wars have now sold over 265,000 copies of the Grammy-nominated Barton Hollow.
• Hunter Hayes’ self-titled debut album has now sold nearly 70,000 copies and we expect that number to exponentially grow this year as he leaps from talented up and comer to full-fledged star.
• David Nail’s The Sound of A Million Dreams returns to the Top 200 SoundScan Albums chart this week at #165 and the singer, which has this week’s #1 single in “Let It Rain” (a song which features Sarah Buxton), has now sold nearly 40,000 copies of the record. Like Hunter, we expect those sales numbers to drastically increase as Nail’s follow-up singles run up the charts.
• Sara Evans, who has had a strong come-back with Stronger, has now sold nearly 349,000 copies of her album.