Radiohead zooms to No. 1 this week on The Billboard 200 with “In Rainbows” (TBD/ATO), a week after a premature debut at No. 156 due to street date violations. The set sold 122,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a dramatic downturn from 2003’s “Hail to the Thief,” which started at No. 3 with a career-best 300,000.
However, the comparison is somewhat unfair, as “In Rainbows” was available for several weeks in the fall as a “name your own price” download exclusively from Radiohead.com, and sales figures for that experiment have not been released.
Last week’s No. 1, Mary J. Blige’s “Growing Pains” (Geffen), drops to No. 3 with 89,000 (-56%). Alicia Keys’ “As I Am” (J) remains No. 2 with 112,000, a 42% decline. The multi-label “NOW 26” collection holds at No. 4 on a 45% decrease to 54,000, while Taylor Swift’s self-titled Big Machine album jumps 8-5 despite a 39% fall to 47,000.
Chris Brown’s “Exclusive” (Jive) is down 5-6 after selling 41,000 (-53%), while Garth Brooks’ “The Ultimate Hits” (Pearl) remains at No. 7 on sales of 39,000 (-50%).
New at No. 8 is Rhino’s soundtrack to the film “Juno” with 38,000. The album was only available digitally until yesterday, when the physical release bowed in stores. However, street date violation sales of the physical configuration last week push the album onto the big chart a week early. Of the set’s 38,000 sold last week, digital retailers accounted for 99% of the total.
Rounding out the top 10, Colbie Caillat’s “Bubbly” (Universal) rebounds 10-9 with about 250 copies less than “Juno” and the Eagles’ “Long Road Out of Eden” (Eagles Recording Co.) falls 6-10 with 36,000 (-58%).
Further down the chart, Elliott Yamin’s “Sounds of the Season” EP, a Target exclusive, rockets 123-32 after selling 23,000 units. The set was sold at a bargain basement price last week as part of a promotion for similarly titled projects. KT Tunstall’s installment re-enters the chart at No. 92 after a 176% gain to 10,000.
Besides “Juno,” the other top debut is Shout Factory!’s “Grammy Awards: 50th Anniversary Collection” album at No. 54 with 16,000.
Sales this week are down 37.5% from last week to 9.06 million units, but are off just 3.7% from the same week in 2007 (9.41 million).
Additional reporting by Keith Caulfield in L.A.
Related
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news