Jack Johnson Claims Top Spot
February 21, 2008

Jack Johnson fended off the attack of a number of albums that saw big boosts from Grammy wins and took the top spot on the charts for the second week in a row with his Sleep Through the Static selling another 180,000 copies, an incredible number in today's depressed market for a second week. Jack Johnson had to deal with the typical boost that a Grammy win gives an artist, which saw huge bumps for Amy Winehouse and the surprise winner for Album of the Year, River: The Joni Letters by Herbie Hancock. Back to Black jumped 22 spots to the runner-up position and Herbie Hancock jumped 154 spots into the number five position last week. The Grammys are regularly ridiculed but they clearly still have a lot of influence on what people buy. Back to Black by Amy Winehouse sold 115,000 copies, still pretty far short of the number totals for Jack Johnson. Overall, Amy Winehouse has sold 1.6 million copies to date.

Interestingly, the 25th Anniversary Edition of Thriller would have beat Winehouse but it's ineligible for the Billboard chart because it's a catalog title. The new disc, featuring contributions from Kanye West, Will.i.am, Akon, Fergie and others took the top spot on the Top Pop Catalog chart with 166,000 copies sold, almost more than the number one album of the week.

The 2008 Grammy Nominees compilation also did well, bumping up 40 percent and shipping 72,000 copies, good enough for the number four slot this week. And Taylor Swift, a nominee for Best New Artist, saw a bump up to 52,000 copies with her self-titled debut moving up three spots to number seven. Other Grammy bumps included a fifty-slot rise for John Legend's Live From Philadelphia, a ten-slot jump for The Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden, an eleven-spot bump for Good Girl Gone Bad by Rihanna, a 43-spot rise for Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace by The Foo Fighters, and a 24-spot surge for Graduation by Kanye West.

Elsewhere, the soundtrack to Step Up 2 the Streets climbed up three places to the number ten spot after the success of its box office opening last weekend. It sold 45,000 copies. The rest of the top ten were filled out by As I Am by Alicia Keys at number three, Juno at number six, Detours by Sheryl Crow at number eight, and Growing Pains by Mary J. Blige at number nine. Simple Plan opened at number fourteen with 39,000 copies sold.

Sales were up 16 percent from last week but down almost 12 percent from the same week in 2007 in a continuous year-to-year decline.

(Source: E!)

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