Coldplay Tops Hot 100
Coldplay got some heavy play on the charts.
Thanks mostly to massive digital sales, the easy-rocking Brit band landed its first No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 as “Viva la Vida” ended the four-week reign of Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop.” Chris Martin and mates reached the top spot with more than 246,000 in sales of the single for the week ended Sunday.
The last time a British rock group topped the Hot 100? Twenty years ago, when the Def Leppard power ballad “Loves Bites” infected the airwaves.
Despite its multiplatinum, Grammy-winning success, Coldplay had previously topped just one U.S. song chart: A remix of “Talk” reached No. 1 on Hot Dance Club Play two years ago. As far as the Hot 100, the closest the band ever came was No. 8 with 2005’s “Speed of Sound.”
“Viva la Vida,” which benefited from placement in a spaced-out iTunes commercial, is the first rock song to top the Hot 100 this year. In fact, only two rock songs topped the chart all of last year: Maroon 5’s “Makes Me Wonder” and Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend.”
Powered by the hit single, Coldplay’s fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, is on track for a massive No. 1 bow next week with sales projected in excess of 700,000.
Meanwhile, the band’s Capitol Records label mate Katy Perry rode major airplay gains to No. 2 with “I Kissed a Girl.” This is the first time Capitol has claimed the top two spots since Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe” and the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” 41 years ago.
Though “Lollipop” slipped to No. 3, Lil Wayne’s new single, “3 Peat,” entered the Hot 100 at No. 66 as the week’s top debut. Still, it’s not like losing the top spot could spoil the rapper’s party following Tha Carter III’s mammoth million-copy sales week.
Elsewhere, Weezer’s “Pork and Beans” and Disturbed’s “Inside the Fire” are both in their seventh weeks atop the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts, respectively.
Finally, Kenny Chesney’s “Better as a Memory” jumped three spots to No. 1 on Hot Country Songs. That gives the country crooner three No. 1s from his current album, Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates, and 14 for his career.
Lil Wayne Humongous on Charts
Lil Wayne just got himself some more platinum to add to that blinged-out grill of his.
The boastful Cash Money hip-hopster banked sales of 1 million copies for his long-awaited Tha Carter III, the first album in more than three years to break the seven-figure ceiling, per Nielsen SoundScan, and Wayne’s first No. 1. The MC, who calls himself the world’s greatest rapper, will have those bragging rights for the time being.
As evidence of its anticipation, the album sold 423,000 copies in its first day alone. So far this year, only two other albums have sold more copies than that in an entire week.
Tha Carter III ranks as the 14th biggest sales week of all time, and it’s already the No. 3 bestseller of the year. Just one week out, trailing Mariah Carey’s nine-week-old E=MC2 by just 17,000 copies. (Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through the Static is No. 1 with 1.2 million in sales to date.)
The last albums to break the million-copy mark were 50 Cent’s The Massacre (1.14 million) in 2005, and Usher’s Confessions (1.1 million) and Norah Jones’ Feels Like Home (1.02 million) in 2004.
Lil Wayne’s sweet success also extends to his hit single “Lollipop,” which has become the fastest-selling ringtone of all time. The song, currently atop the Hot 100, has spent five of the past eight weeks there. Since 2006, Flo Rida’s “Low” and Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” are the only rap singles to spend more time at No. 1.
After releasing five albums in six years, Lil Wayne (real name: Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.) spent the past three years working on Tha Carter III and growing his fan base through mixtapes and cameos. Most notably, the rapper released four double-disc mixtapes, The Drought Is Over 1-4, and made over 100 guest appearances.
At No. 2, Plies sold 215,000 copies of Definition of Real, mirroring the starting position of his 2007 debut, The Real Testament. The prolific rapper already plans to release his third album, Da Realest, in December.
Three more albums also cracked the top 10: the Neptunes’ rock project N.E.R.D. sold 80,000 copies of Seeing Sounds at No. 7; Flavors of Entanglement, Alanis Morissette’s first album since her split with Ryan Reynolds, sold 70,000 copies at No. 8; and acclaimed Kentucky rockers My Morning Jacket sold 49,000 copies of Evil Urges at No. 9.
Only 237 copies separated Montgomery Gentry’s Back When I Knew It All and Emmylou Harris’ All I Intended to Be, which each sold around 27,000 copies at Nos. 20 and 22, respectively.
Wallflowers frontman Jakob Dylan debuted at No. 24 with 24,000 copies of his first solo album, Seeing Things. (In comparison, the Wallflowers peaked at No. 40 with their last album, 2005’s Rebel, Sweetheart.) The genetically gifted singer recorded his solo debut with Rick Rubin, taking a stripped-down approach similar to the producer’s acclaimed work with Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond.
Further down the chart, Scottish rockers the Fratellis sold 10,000 copies of Here We Stand at No. 80.
Meanwhile, over on the U.K. charts, Coldplay’s Viva la Vida rocketed to No. 1 on Monday, selling 302,000 copies in just three days. On this side of the pond, the new album, which already sold more than 1 million digital copies of its title track, will make its Billboard 200 debut next week.
Thanks to Lil Wayne, sales are up nearly 23 percent compared to last week and up over 4 percent compared to the same sales week last year when Toby Keith topped the charts.
A recap of the top 10 albums for the week ended Sunday:
1. Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne2. Definition of Real, Plies3. Now That’s What I Call Music! 28, various4. Indestructible, Disturbed5. Here I Stand, Usher6. Revelation, Journey7. Seeing Sounds, N.E.R.D.8. Flavors of Entanglement, Alanis Morissette9. Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket10. Weezer, Weezer
Amy Winehouse Apologizes For Racist Video
Amy Winehouse Apologizes For Racist Video
In typical fashion, Amy Winehouse popped out of her London pad on Saturday night to chat it up with anyone and everyone who decided to drop by.
The Rehab singer first opened her door to speak with journalists following further damaging allegations in the Sunday papers.
According to British tabloid reports, Winehouse is said to have appeared in a video, shot in 2007 by her incarcerated husband Blake Fielder-Civil, singing a racist song.
Sucking on a lollipop as she spoke, Amy told the assembled media that she was “very sorry if any of her words had been misunderstood or caused offense.”
Later on the same night, the troubled crooner once again was in her open doorway - greeting a friend dressed as Jimi Hendrix who wandered up to her front door.
Making one final appearance, Amy was seen peering out of her window as fans serenaded her from the street in the early hours of the morning.
Idol David Cooks, but He Isn’t the Hottest
David Cook isn’t performing at a full boil just yet, but he still blazed quite a trail through this week’s singles chart.
Although Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” is still sitting in the sweetest spot for the third straight week, Cook saw 11 of his songs debut on the Billboard Hot 100, the most new entries for an artist in one week in the chart’s 50-year history.
“The Time of My Life,” the tune Cook sang to usher in his newfound Idol glory, is at No. 3, the highest-ranking of the 25-year-old rocker’s singles. Further down the line is “Dream Big” at No. 15, and his contributions are sprinkled all over the place, ending with “I’m Alive” at No. 99.
And as a fitting coda to Cook’s bartender-makes-good story, he has demolished the previous record of six simultaneous Hot 100 debuts held by teen queen Miley Cyrus.
The 236,000 copies of “The Time of My Life” sold/downloaded also give Cook the best week-after-coronation numbers since season two, when Ruben Studdard’s “Flying Without Wings” missed the top spot thanks to Clay Aiken’s “This Is the Night,” which went on to become the top single of 2003.
The feel-good ballad, which raced to the top of iTunes most-downloaded songs the day after Cook won, is also perched atop the Billboard Hot Digital Songs chart.
But because he missed the first two slots on the Hot 100, he joins Jordin Sparks as the only Idol winners not to have their big-moment single debut at No. 1 or No. 2. (Cook kicked Sparks’ butt, though”This Is My Now” peaked in 15th place last year.
This is still a pretty triumphant day, however, for Idol producer, 19 Records honcho and pop-culture mastermind Simon Fuller, who had a hand in the rise of every star to walk off the Idol stage.
Season-seven runner-up David Archuleta has three debuts on the Hot 100, the highest being “Imagine” at No. 36, and Sparks is making up for her slow start by holding down the No. 5 spot for a second week with “No Air,” her duet with Chris Brown.
Further on in their careers but still theoretically in the family are Daughtry, whose “Feels Like Tonight” is in 36th place, and Carrie Underwood, whose “Last Name” is recognizable enough to count for 19th place.