Chart News for March 21, 2012: Luke Bryan Returns to Number One

After being leap-frogged by Lady Antebellum last week, Luke Bryan claims the #1 slot for the first time since about 30 weeks ago with tailgates & tanlines. Read on to see Shooter Jennings debut and the whole Top 10 plus five interesting albums this week!

Last week the Google and Amazon quarter an album sales dominated the coverage here and at other sites. But things are back to normal now and Luke Bryan’s the beneficiary of a release week in which the biggest release was Shooter Jennings breaking the Top 10 for the first time with Family Man, his return to country music via Entertainment One (eOne). The other newcomer this week on the country chart was indie artist Logan Mize with his #49 debut with Nobody In Nashville, a remarkable start for an act that most of the world hadn’t heard of before last week!

Luke Bryan’s ‘Tailgates & Tanlines returns to #1

With seventeen thousand copies sold, tailgates & tanlines  returned to #1 for the first time since being released 32 weeks ago. It was 3,000 more than the #2 album this week sold, Jason Aldean’s nearly 2.5 million scanned juggernaut My Kinda Party. The third best seller this week on the Top Current Country Albums chart according to SoundScan is Lady Antebellum’s Own The Night. It moved 109,000 last week and only 13,000 this week. Guess 96,000 fans were amongst the 25¢ fans. Rounding out the Top five is Eric Church’s Chief and the Band Perry’s 1.2 million seller, the cleverly titled, The Band Perry.

Top 10 Albums features Shooter Jennings’ Family Man

Last week the Footloose soundtrack was Top 5 and this week is moves down a notch to #6 and is followed by the nearly Gold albums from Brantley Gilbert and Miranda Lambert. Brantley’s Halfway To Heaven should go gold next week while Miranda is about a month away. Luke Bryan’s Spring Break 4: Suntan City sits as the ninth best-seller this week after being #2 last week. It’s the fourth in a series of highly successful spring break albums from Luke and something he’ll likely continue for the forseeable future (he really could release volume 1-4 on CD now and have lots of fans buying those too). Waylon’s son, Shooter, returns with Family Man and scores the highest chart debut of his career (two albums –  The Wolf  and Electric Rodeo – both hit the #12). The album is a strong country music album that fans of classic or southern country rock will appreciate.

Scotty, Hunter, Toby and Taylor lead notable albums

With another 7,000 copies sold, Scotty McCreery leads our notable albums this week.  Following Scotty is the latest album from Toby Keith, the nearly Gold selling Clancy’s Tavern the album features new single “Beers Ago” along with “Red Solo Cup” and will be his first Gold album in four years. Taylor Swift’s juggernaut album Speak Now is on its last legs with “Ours” (The sixth single from the project) but it still is selling well while Craig Morgan’s three week old album is the 21st best-selling album on the country charts this week. Rounding out the notable albums this week is the return of Hunter Hayes with his self-titled album. The album features Top 15 debut single “Storm Warning” and his latest effort, “Wanted.” The album has now sold over 90,000 copies and if all things go as we think, it’ll be gold by the end of this year.

Other notable albums not charted include Red River Blue from Blake Shelton, Emotional Traffic from Tim McGraw (7,000 sold), Dierks Bentley’s Home  (6,000), The Pistol Annies Hell on Heels  (4,000) and Justin Moore’s Outlaws Like Me (3,000).

Top 10 Country Albums for This Week with Six Notable Albums (SoundScan Top 200 Current Albums Chart Placement)*

#11 – Luke Bryan – tailgates & tanlines 18k (831,000)

#16 – Jason Aldean – My Kinda Party 16k (2,421,000)

#20 – Lady Antebellum – Own The Night 108k (1,494,000)

#23 – Eric Church – Chief 13k (634,000)

#35 – The Band Perry – The Band Perry 16k (2,421,000)

#43 – Soundtrack – Footloose OST – 10k (135,000)

#44 – Brantley Gilbert – Halfway To Heaven 8k (494,000)

#45 – Miranda Lambert – Four The Record 8k (470,000)

#46 – Luke Bryan – Spring Break IV: Suntan City 8k (38,000)

#47 – Shooter Jennings – Family Man 8k (8,000)

#56 – Scotty McCreery – Clear As Day 7k (974,000)

#59 – Toby Keith – Clancy’s Tavern 7k (466,000)

#34 – Taylor Swift – Speak Now 7k (4,027,000)

#121 – Craig Morgan – This Ole Boy 3K (21,000)

#165 - Hunter Hayes – Hunter Hayes 3k (92,000)

Next week, we’ll see how well Shooter Jennings is able to hold on while Casey James debuts with his self-titled album.

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