SUBO'S SUPER
With nearly 670k, I Dreamed a Dream shattered Eminem’s previous year-high mark for first-week sales of Relapse, which moved 608k back in May and also beat Ashanti’s record for a debut album by a female, set back in April, 2002, when her self-titled bow sold 503k in its first week.
Boyle was one of four newcomers to the Top 10 in the wake of the biggest-selling retail weekend of the year, the lone Top 5 holdover being Decca’s Andrea Bocelli, up 12% to 215k at #2.
19/RCA/RMG Idol runner-up Adam Lambert racked up 196k with For Your Entertainment, fueled by his controversial AMAs performance, good for #3.
Lady Gaga scored two in the Top 10, her seven-song Fame Monster effort for Interscope debuts at #4 with 181k, while the newly released deluxe edition of Fame is up a whopping 398% to #7, with 144k.
Def Jam/IDJ diva Rihanna’s critically praised Rated R debuts at #5 with 180k, to be followed next week (12/8) by former boyfriend Chris Brown’s Graffiti, setting up an interesting head-to-head chart showdown.
A Wal-Mart promotion for its exclusive Miley Cyrus album Time of Our Lives re-ignited the Hollywood title, which is up 391% at #6, while Big Machine star Taylor Swift continues to feel the heat from her AMAs sweep, with Fearless up 48% to #8.
19/Arista Nashville’s Carrie Underwood (#9) and Epic’s Michael Jackson This Is It round out the Top 10.
Epic’s Shakira She Wolf album debuts at #15, with other Top 50 newcomers including Cash Money/Universal Motown’s Birdman (#33) and Jay Sean (#35), while Monkeywrench's Pearl Jam (#43) and Reprise's Michael Buble Call Me Irresponsible album (#49) both re-enter.
In all, a total of 12 albums sold in excess of 100k this week.
Aside from the triple-digit increases for Gaga and Cyrus, there are a number of titles trending upward, chief among them Big Machine’s Taylor Swift (#45-39, +79%), Columbia’s Beyonce (#48-42, +71%), Interscope’s Black Eyed Peas (#27-23, +67%), Walt Disney’s Hannah Montana: The Movie (#44-41, +62%) and Universal Republic’s Owl City (#35-25, +61%). Reprise’s Michael Buble, with Let It Snow (#49-46, +50%), gives the yuletide crooner three of the Top 50 alongside Crazy Love (#20) and the re-entered Call Me Irresponsible (#49).
