| Wednesday 25 January 2006 |
|
Foxx back on top of the Billboard 200
The game of musical chairs continues on The Billboard 200 with Mary J. Blige's "The Breakthrough" and Jamie Foxx's "Unpredictable" flip-flopping again. With sales of just over 97,200 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, Foxx's J Records creeped ahead of Blige's Matriarch/Geffen release by just shy of 2,500 units.
"Unpredictable" was No. 1 for two weeks in a row before Blige returned to the pinnacle last week. "The Breakthrough", which sold 94,800 copies this week on a 20% decline in sales, debuted at No. 1 late December.
Eminem's retrospective "Curtain Call: The Hits" switches places with Carrie Underwood's "Some Hearts" this week, with his Shady/Aftermath/Interscope set moving 4-3 on sales of 74,000 copies (-3%) and the "American Idol" champ's debut falling 3-4 with 73,000 (-5%).
Johnny Cash's "The Legend of Johnny Cash" sprints 10-5 with 55,000 copies, a 37% increase buoyed by the success of artist's biopic, "Walk the Line", at last week's Golden Globe Awards. The compilation is now The Man in Black's highest charting album since 1969, when "Johnny Cash at San Quentin" reached No. 1.
Nickelback's "All the Right Reasons" (Roadrunner) climbs 7-6 with 50,000 copies (+5%), while Chris Brown's self-titled Jive debut rises 8-7 with 49,000 (+4%). The Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous "Duets: The Final Chapter" (Bad Boy) tumbles 5-8 as sales dipped -17% to 43,000 copies.
James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam" (Atlantic) breaks into the top tier in its 16th week on the chart, with a 13-9 move thanks to sales of 41,000 copies (+11%). In its 41st week, Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi" stumbles 6-10 on a 20% drop to sales of 40,000.
An appearance last week on "Oprah" fueled sales of Neil Diamond's "12 Songs" (Columbia) to 27,000, a 259% rise over the previous week. The chart's greatest sales gainer rockets 119-22. Juanita Bynum's "A Piece of My Passion" (Flow) is this week's top debut at No. 55 with 16,000 copies. In another slow release week, Too Short's "Pimpin' Incorporated" is the only other title to eek into the top half of The Billboard 200, appearing at No. 80 with sales of 11,000 copies.
Sales were up by 1% over the previous week at 9.5 million units, but down 1% compared to the same week last year. Sales for 2006 exceed sales from the same period in 2005 by about 2% at 30.3 million units. (Billboard)
|
