Legendary singer Tony Bennett may score his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 next week as “Duets II” is on track to sell as many as 155,000 to 170,000 copies by week’s end on Sunday, Sept. 25, according to industry prognosticators.
The closest the 14-time Grammy Award winner has come to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 was in 2006, when his first “Duets” album debuted and peaked at No. 3 off a 202,000 start. The 85-year old vocalist has been charting on Billboard’s charts since 1951 and notched his first hit on the Billboard 200 album tally six years later.
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Standing in Bennett’s way is Lady Antebellum’s “Own the Night,” which may hold at No. 1 for a second week following its 347,000 start, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
It’s too early to say exactly how far “Own” will erode in its second week, but it’s likely it will decline by 53% to 65%. Of the 16 country albums that have arrived in the top 10 this year, all but four of them saw a second-week decline in that range. If “Own” follows that projection, its second-week number will fall somewhere between 139,000 to 163,000.
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Other albums looking to make a splash on next week’s chart include Demi Lovato’s “Unbroken,” which will likely be the tally’s second-highest entry, with around 110,000 sold. Her last album, 2009’s “Here We Go Again,” debuted at No. 1 with 108,000.
Also gunning for top 10 debuts: NeedToBreathe’s “The Reckoning” (around 40,000), Mindless Behavior’s “#1 Girl” (35,000 to 40,000) and Gavin DeGraw’s “Sweeter” (30,000 to 35,000).