Maroon 5 and Mumford Fight off an Avalance of Debuts on the Charts

Rock bands are all the rage this week as Mumford & Sons and Maroon 5 hold onto the top spot of the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and the Hot 100 Singles Chart again this week. Mumford holds off a charge from seven debuts in the top ten including alterna-rockers Muse at # 2. The other new albums come from R&B star Miguel, rockers Three Days Grace, teen singer Jackie Evancho from America’s Got Talent, U.K. X Factor alum Cher Lloyd, jazz titan Diana Krall and rock legend Van Morrison. Take a look where they all landed below and head to Billboard here for more.

Top Ten Albums on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart:
1. Babel- Mumford & Sons (last week~ 1)
2. The 2nd Law- Muse (debut)
3. Kaleidoscope Dream- MIguel (debut)
4. The Truth About Love- P!nk (lw~ 4)
5. Transit of Venus- Three Days Grace (debut)
6. Glad Rag Doll- Diana Krall (debut)
7. Songs from the Silver Screen- Jackie Evancho (debut)
8. Tornado- Little Big Town (lw~ 9)
9. Sticks & Stones- Cher Lloyd (debut)
10. Born to Sing: No Plan B- Van Morrison (debut)

Back on the Hot 100 Singles chart, Maroon 5 stave off Psy’s “Gangnham Style” for a fourth week on top. They also hold off three big debuts with One Direction’s second top ten single “Live While We’re Young” at # 3, Taylor Swift‘s “Red” at # 6 and Adele‘s James Bond theme “Skyfall” at # 8 (which was only available for three days of airplay and sales compared to the full week of eligibility for the rest of the top ten). Of those songs, I’d say Adele poses the biggest challenge as her fourth top ten single will have a lot of added exposure when the film of the same name opens in November. In the meantime, take a look at the new top ten below.

Top Ten Singles on the Hot 100:
1. “One More Night”- Maroon 5 (last week~ 1)
2. “Gangnam Style”- Psy (lw~ 2)
3. “Live While We’re Young”- One Direction (debut)
4. “Some Nights”- fun. (lw~ 3)
5. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”- Taylor Swift (lw~ 4)
6. “Red” – Taylor Swift (debut)
7. “As Long As You Love Me”- Justin Bieber w/Big Sean (lw~ 6)
8. “Skyfall”- Adele (debut)
9. “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)”- P!nk (lw~ 5)
10. “Too Close”- Alex Clare (lw~ 9)

And here’s the brand new single and new top five hit for One Direction, “Live While We’re Young”

Bad Meets Evil conquers Little Opera Singers and the Charts

After months of women holding court on top of the Billboard Album charts, all it took was two really angry rappers to steal away the top spot. It also helps that one of them was megastar Eminem whose new side project Bad Meets Evil, comprised of Em and Royce da 5’9″ , hit # 1 with Hell: the Sequel selling 171,000 units. That album led five debuts in the top ten including America’s Got Talent tween Jackie Evancho, plus Owl City, Ledisi and Barry Manilow. For the full top ten scroll down… Now, take heart you Adele fans. She may be out of the top spot on the Albums chart, but she does land a 7th week at # 1 on the Hot 100 with “Rolling in the Deep”. She may lose out next week though as the latest singles from Pitbull and Katy Perry are gaining fast. In fact, with Perry’s “Last Friday Night” flying into the top five, she now joins an elite group of artists like Madonna, George Michael and Michael Jackson who have had five consecutive top five singles from one album. Well done Katy! Check out the new top ten singles below as well and for more on the charts, head to Billboard here.

Top Ten Albums:
1. Hell: the Sequel- Bad Meets Evil (debut)
2. Dream With Me- Jackie Evancho (debut)
3. 21- Adele (last week~ 1)
4. Born This Way- Lady Gaga (lw~ 2)
5. My Kinda Party- Jason Aldean (lw~ 7)
6. All Things Bright and Beautiful- Owl City (debut)
7. 15 Minutes- Barry Manilow (debut)
8. Pieces of Me- Ledisi (debut)
9. This is Country Music- Brad Paisley (lw~8)
10. The Book of Mormon- Original Broadway Cast Recording (lw~ 3)

Top Ten Singles on the Hot 100:
1. “Rolling in the Deep”- Adele (last week~ 1)
2. “Give Me Everything”- Pitbull w/NeYo, Nayer & Afrojack (lw~ 2)
3. “Party Rock Anthem”- LMFAO (lw~ 3)
4. “Last Friday Night”- Katy Perry (lw~ 31)
5. “E.T.”- Katy Perry w/Kanye West (lw~ 4)
6. “The Edge of Glory”- Lady Gaga (lw~ 6)
7. “Dirt Road Anthem”- Jason Aldean (lw~ 9)
8. “Super Bass”- Nicki Minaj (lw~ 10)
9. “The Lazy Song”- Bruno Mars (lw~ 5)
10. “The Show Must Go On”- Lupe Fiasco (lw~ 11)

And here’s a little treat~ Enjoy the new cameo-tastic fun clip from Katy Perry for “Last Friday Night”. Watch for Glee‘s Darren Criss and Kevin McHale to appear alongside Rebecca Black, Kenny G and 80′s stalwarts Debbie Gibson and Corey Feldman.

Susan Boyle, Rihanna, and The Beatles make news on the Charts while an Idol tanks…

The holiday shopping season is upon us and the music biz is finally perking up with 8 new debuts in the top ten of the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. However, it was a holdover that grabbed #1 as Susan Boyle’s seasonal collection, The Gift, stayed on top and actually increased its sales to 335,000 copies in week two. She held off a shockingly strong performance from another TV bred star, ten-year old Jackie Evancho of America’s Got Talent, whose holiday opera debut landed in the runner-up spot besting Rihanna‘s Loud which actually gave the pop star her biggest first week sales to date. Rihanna also has the new # 1 single in the country this week with “Only Girl in the World” which hits the summit just two weeks after her other song “What’s My Name?’ began its run on top.
Back on the album chart, Josh Groban, Kid Rock, The Glee Christmas album, Rascal Flats, Keith Urban and Nelly all made it into the top ten with the only other stalwart being Taylor Swift who hung on at # 9. Watch for strong sales for most of those releases throughout the holiday season particularly Groban and Boyle… It wasn’t good news for the latest American Idol winner, Lee Dewyze, though whose first album Live It Up tanked landing at # 19 with a paltry 39,000 for the lowest first week sales of any Idol winner or runner-up in the show’s history. Perhaps the more deserving singer he beat Crystal Bowersox will have stronger  sales power with her debut in a few weeks. Stay tuned…

Here’s this week’s top Ten albums:
1. Susan Boyle- The Gift (lw~ 1)
2. Jackie Evancho- O Holy Night (debut)
3. Rihanna- Loud (debut)
4. Josh Groban- Illuminations (debut)
5. Kid Rock- Born Free (debut)
6. Rascal Flatts- Nothing Like This (debut)
7. Keith Urban- Get Closer (debut)
8. Glee- The Christmas Album (debut)
9. Taylor Swift- Speak Now (lw~ 2)
10. Nelly- 5.0 (debut)

Back over on the singles chart, the Glee cast made more big news with “Forget You” featuring Gwyneth Paltrow which debuted at # 1 on the digital singles sales chart. That was the second # 1 in a row on the chart for the show which hit the top last week with “Teenage Dream”. The later single debuted at # 8 on the Hot 100 as well, but “Forget You” just misses the top ten debuting at # 11. The original version original version of that song “F*%k You (Forget You)” by Cee -Lo does grab a spot in the top ten though spurred on by the attention from the hit show to zoom up to # 9.

Here’s this week’s top ten songs:
1. “Only Girl in the World”- Rihanna (lw~ 2)
2. “Raise Your Glass”- Pink (lw~ 4)
3. “Like a G6”- Far East Movement (lw~ 1)
4. “We R Who We R”- Ke$ha (lw~ 6)
5. “Just a Dream”- Nelly (lw~ 5)
6. “Firework”- Katy Perry (lw~ 9)
7. “Just the Way You Are”- Bruno Mars (lw~ 3)
8. “What’s My Name?”- Rihanna w/Drake (lw~ 7)
9. “F#%k You (Forget You)”- Cee-Lo (lw~ 19)
10. “Bottoms Up”- Trey Songz (lw~ 10)

With Rihanna’s latest # 1, she now has a total of 9 chart toppers and that means she has more # 1′s than any other artist this decade. Pretty shocking, huh? Here’s a list of Rihanna’s # 1′s below.

Rihanna’s #1 songs (the most in the 2000′s by any artist):
“S.O.S.”
“Umbrella” with Jay Z
“Take A Bow”
“Disturbia”
“Live Your Life” with T.I.
“Rude Boy”
“Love the Way You Lie” with Eminem
“What’s My Name?” with Drake
“Only Girl in the World”

~and is it me or is it also shocking that “Don’t Stop the Music” didnt’ hit the top of the Hot 100? It peaked at # 3.

The lastl big chart news of the week belongs to The Beatles who finally made all their albums and singles available to iTunes. After just one week out, the supergroup sold over 450,000 albums worldwide and over 2 million singles. Looks like good music will always thrive. For more on all your chart needs, head to Billboard here.

And here’s your # 1 song in the country, Rihanna’s “Only Girl in the World”