BIG HAND FOR LADY A
Capitol Nashville’s red-hot Lady Antebellum sport the year’s top debut, as their sophomore album, Need You Now, bows at #1 with nearly 485k in sales.
Parlaying a Country-to-Pop crossover smash in the title track, a Grammy win and performance Sunday night, and a model set-up engineered by Capitol Nashville head Mike Dungan, EMI Music Services President/EMI Music N.A. COO Ronn Werre and marketing/promotion EVP Greg Thompson, the band has broken through big time. In fact, the trio’s self-titled album is still in the charts at #15, up 29% this week.
Hope for Haiti Now (#2), Interscope’s Lady Gaga The Fame deluxe edition (#3) and Epic’s Michael Jackson This Is It soundtrack, which moves #18-4, +159%, in large part due to last week’s DVD release of the movie, follow the leader.
Arista/RMG’s Barry Manilow is the week’s other top debut at #5 with his latest collection, Greatest Love Songs of All Time, just in time for Valentine’s Day, along with fellow Top10 newcomers Capitol/EMI’s Corinne Bailey Rae (#7) and Manhattan/ EMI’s PBS-approved Celtic Woman album, Songs From the Heart (#9). With Capitol/EMI’s 2010 Grammy Nominees at #8, it gives parent company EMI Music four in the Top 10 for the first time in memory.
Columbia’s Susan Boyle (#6) and Interscope’s ubiquitous Black Eyed Peas (#10) round out the Top 10.
Sire’s Never Shout Never (#28), Capitol/EMI’s Now That’s What I Call Love (#32) and Ultra Records’ Ultra Dance 11 (#34) are the other Top 50 debuts.
SRC/Universal Motown’s Melanie Fiona shows the week’s second-best gain, moving #45-36, +43%, thanks to increasing traction for the Top 5 Urban single, “It Kills Me.”
Even though post-Grammy sales spikes haven’t affected this week’s chart, pre-show buzz looks responsible for the rise of winners Music World/Columbia’s Beyonce (#39, +26%) and Atlantic’s Zac Brown Band (#23, +26%), while Def Jam/IDJ’s Rihanna (#21, +24%), Epic’s Michael Jackson Number Ones (#31, +22%), Columbia’s John Mayer (#25, +21%) and Capitol Nashville’s Darius Rucker (#44, +20%) all register 20% or higher gains.
Hitting retail this week, Lil Wayne’s Cash Money/Universal Republic rock record, along with Roadrunner’s Rob Zombie and Hollywood’s Nick Jonas and the Administration.
