Album Chart: Shania, Dixie Chicks dominate top slots
ByDec 17, 2002 11:00 PM
Divas dominate the chart this week, as the latest from country vixens Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks score the highest sales totals, and new albums from Aaliyah and Whitney Houston debut in the Top 10.
Divas dominate the chart this week, as the latest from country vixens Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks score the highest sales totals, and new albums from Aaliyah and Whitney Houston debut in the Top 10.
For the fourth straight week since its release, Twain’s “Up!” will sit at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Holiday shoppers kicked the album’s one-week sales total up to about 373,000 copies, according to industry sources, an increase from the previous week’s total of about 317,000 copies.
Getting a giant boost of its own, meanwhile, is the Dixie Chicks’ “Home,” sales of which more than doubled from the previous week. The album--which sat at No. 17 two weeks back and climbed to No. 9 last week with one-week sales of about 143,000 copies--leaps all the way to No. 2 thanks to sales of another 295,000 copies. The surge coincides with NBC-TV’s Dec. 10 airing of a Dixie Chicks concert special.
Aaliyah fans haven’t forgotten the late singer, as evidenced by the No. 3 debut of her posthumous release “I Care 4 U.” The retrospective album--which combines seven of her hits with six previously unreleased tracks--sold about 280,000 copies during its first week out.
The middle of the Top 10 shows only nominal movement, as Tim McGraw’s “Tim McGraw & the Dancehall Doctors” slips two spots to No. 4, the “8 Mile” soundtrack and Avril Lavigne’s “Let Go” stay put at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively; “Now That’s What I Call Music! 11” dips three spots to No. 7; and Jennifer Lopez’s “This Is Me ... Then” falls one notch to No. 8.
A pair of debuts close out the Top 10, with Whitney Houston’s “Just Whitney"--her first new studio effort since 1998’s “My Love Is Your Love"--enters the chart at No. 9 with sales of about 205,000 copies; and B2K’s “Pandemonium!” coming in at No. 10 with sales of about 195,000 copies.
One diva who didn’t fare as well as her peers this week is Mariah Carey, whose “Charmbracelet"--which debuted at No. 3 last week--drops 11 spots to No. 14. The album is the only among this week’s Top 20 to see its sales drop from its previous one-week total; every other Top 20 release experienced a holiday-shopping-induced increase.
Joining the ranks of those Top 20 albums is Nas’ “God’s Son,” which makes its debut at No. 18. The album’s first-week sales total about 156,000 copies.
Debuts happening further down the chart include: Phish’s “Round Room” at No. 46; Common’s “Electric Circus” at no. 47; 504 Boyz “Ballers” at No. 49; the Swizz Beatz compilation “Swizz Beatz Presents G.H.E.T.T.O.” at No. 50; “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” soundtrack at No. 62; and GZA/Genius’ “The Legend of the Liquid Sword” at No. 75.