Billboard 200 Chart Moves: ‘Saturday Night Fever’ Soundtrack Returns
On the latest Billboard 200 albums chart, the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack returns to the list for the first time in more than three years, Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" jumps up the…
On the latest Billboard 200 albums chart (dated May 6), Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. debuts at No. 1 with 603,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 20, according to Nielsen Music. It scored the largest week for an album in nearly a year, since Drake’s Views bowed with 1.04 million units on the chart dated May 21, 2016.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the week’s most popular albums based on their overall consumption. That overall unit figure combines pure album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the action on the latest Billboard 200 chart:
— Various Artists, Dance Latin #1 Hits 2.0: Los Exitos del Momento – No. 25 — The compilation zooms 122-25 with 16,000 units (up 165 percent), driven mostly by the success of Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito.” Los Exitos del Momento is the only album with the smash hit (which rises 48-9 on the Hot 100), so it benefits greatly from its TEA and SEA.
— Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly – No. 50 — Thanks to the promotion generated by Lamar’s No. 1 debut with DAMN., his former No. 1 To Pimp a Butterfly album flies 109-50 with 10,000 units (up 49 percent).
— Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 – No. 134 — As buzz builds around the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 on May 5, the first film’s soundtrack jumps back onto the list at No. 134 (6,000 units; up 41 percent). The former No. 1 album has sold 1.74 million copies.
— Soundtrack, Saturday Night Fever – No. 148 — After more than three years, the classic former No. 1 soundtrack returns to the list at No. 148 (5,000 units; up 549 percent). The album bounces back to the list following the CBS TV special Stayin’ Alive: A Grammy Salute to the Bee Gees, which aired April 16. The star-studded event — which featured acts like Ed Sheeran and Stevie Wonder covering Bee Gees classics — helped the Bee Gees-led Saturday Night Fever soundtrack sell nearly 5,000 copies in the tracking week (up 795 percent). The show even sported a tribute from the star of Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta. The soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever spent 24 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1978. It was last on the tally dated Feb. 15, 2014, when it ranked at No. 139.
— AJR, What Everyone’s Thinking (EP) – No. 164 — The brother trio reaches the chart for the first time with this EP, supported strongly by the streaming and track sales success of its single “Weak.” The track concurrently spends a second week on the Billboard Hot 100, rising 97-94. “Weak” has generated 58.7 million on-demand audio streams thus far, and has sold 112,000 downloads. (It moved 19,000 copies in the week ending April 20 — a gain of 59 percent compared to the previous frame.)