With a strong roster of current country stars, Lionel Richie’s Tuskegee finds the R&B star successfully debuting at #1 with nearly 200,000 copies sold.
After a lone week at #1, the soundtrack to the multi-week #1 hit film The Hunger Games, Lionel Richie’s Tuskegee has taken over the Top slot of the Top Current Country Albums chart from SoundScan. The R&B/pop star’s first forray into the country music market has already outpaced the sales of his last album by 100,000 copies in just its first week. The album, which features 12 duets of classic Richie hits with top country stars, looks like it’ll sail to Gold sale status within a couple of months. The Hunger Games OST is now #2 (in this tally).
ACM Awards Drive Sales This Week, Idol helps Scotty McCreery
Luke Bryan’s tailgates & tanlines gained 34% in sales this week to move to #2 on our SoundScan rundown this week. Scotty McCreery sees a HUGE boost, not only because of his ACM performance but more because of his Appearance on American Idol last week where he sang “Water Tower Town.” The performance moved him back inside the Top 5 of the SoundScan Top Current Country Albums chart this week with a 172% gain. Next week he’ll officially scan Platinum (it’s already certified Platinum). Jason Aldean’s My Kinda Party is next with another 13% sales boost. Eric Church’s Chief has gained 22% this week as well.
Blake Shleton, Miranda Lambert Rise This Week
Lady Antebellum’s Own The Night leads the second half of the Top 10 rundown this week with sales gains of 11% while Blake Shelton moves from #10 to #6 as Red River Blue has gained 33% over the last week. The ACM Male Vocalist of the Year saw his wife not only win the Female Vocalist of the year but also her Four The Record album won the Album of the Year award and that helped it (through digital sales on Sunday only) gain 22% in sales. Gold-selling Halfway To Heaven retained its sales mark to stay at #9 on the chart this week while The Band Perry round out the Top 10 this week with their self-titled 1.2 million selling debut album.
Jake Owen, Hunter Hayes and Justin Townes Earle are Notalbles
Country music’s Top 10 filled one-fifth of the Top 50 albums this week while Justin Townes Earle landed his highest debut ever with Nobody’s Gonna Change My Love For You landing at #60 and selling 8,000 copies for the Bloodshot Records artist. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s Speak Now continues to sell well gained 11% last week. Jake Owen’s Barefoot Blue Jeans Night saw a 34% sales increase and the album has now sold a quarter of a million copies. Eli Young Band’s Life At Best has now sold 190,000 copies (to become their best-selling album ever) and now the up and coming band’s looking to eventually hit Gold with the record, a mark that Hunter Hayes is likely to achieve at somepoint in the coming year as his self-titled album continues to gain momentum again as “Wanted” becomes a popular hit. Hunter and Chris Young both sold the same amount of albums this week and Chris Young is nearing 300,000 copies sold as he goes for the third #1 in a row (6 overall) with the title track Neon.
Other notable albums this week include the ACM ZinePak with 5,000 copies sold, Casey James’ self-titled album (7,000), Lauren Alaina’s Wildflower (3,000), Pistol Annies Hell On Heels (5,000) and Tim McGraw’s Emotional Traffic (7,000). One other notable album is The Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow. the album has now sold nearly 400,000 copies, all without any major radio or video channel hits but lots and lots of internet (the new word of mouth) buzz.
Top 10 Country Albums for This Week with Six Notable Albums (SoundScan Top 200 Current Albums Chart Placement)*
#2 – Lionel Richie – Tuskegee 199k (199,000)
#11 – Luke Bryan – tailgates & tanlines 24k (891,000)
#19 – Scotty McCreery – Clear As Day 16k (996,000)
#23 – Jason Aldean – My Kinda Party 16k (2,479,000)
#25 – Eric Church – Chief 15k (684,000)
#26 – Lady Antebellum – Own The Night 15k (1,532,000)
#43 – Blake Shelton – Red River Blue 9k (618,000)
#45 – Miranda Lambert – Four The Record 9k (487,000)
#49 – Brantley Gilbert – Halfway To Heaven 9k (512,000)
#53 – The Band Perry – The Band Perry 8k (1,230,000)
#60 – Justin Townes Earle – Nobody’s Gonna Ch... 8k (477,000)
#64 – Taylor Swift – Speak Now 6k (4,047,000)
#87 – Jake Owen – Barefoot Blue Jean Night 6k (1,448,000)
#128 – Eli Young Band – Life At Best 3K (190,000)
#140 – Hunter Hayes – Hunter Hayes 3k (97,000)
Next week will see the debut of the Rascal Flatts Changed. We’ll see if they’re able to sell enough albums to outsell Lionel’s number from this week as we think they’re all but assured of having the best-selling week of 2011 for a country album (taking Lionel’s mantle after just one week). As usual come back here to see how everything plays out!
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