50 Cent Gets Richer

In its first full week of sales, 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' moved a hearty 822,000 copies, according to SoundScan, nearly matching its previous (partial) week tally of 872,000. So with a week and a half in stores, the rapper has topped 1.5 million sales, and shows no signs of letting go of the Number One spot on the charts.

Get Rich was that rare album on the charts this week that didn't enjoy a sales increase. Only Ja Rule's The Last Temptation, LL Cool J's 10 (which after climbing from Number Eighty-four to Number Nine, promptly fell to Number Thirty-four) and Blake Shelton's The Dreamer (which took a nosedive from a Number Eight debut to Number Thirty-five) were Top Fifty entries with sales decreases from the previous week. The catalyst behind the spiked sales? Valentine's Day, of course.

Big gains were posted by the Dixie Chicks' Home, which enjoyed a 57,000 unit increase to 171,000 at Number Two. Norah Jones' Come Away With Me moved up to Number Three with sales of 140,000, a 40,000 gain.

Cupid's effect was more obvious on deal-closing veterans (Rod Stewart's It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook moved from Number Twenty-six to Number Ten with sales of 71,000) and rookies (Josh Groban's self-titled debut jumped from Number Thirty to Number Eleven with sales of 68,000). Lionel Richie's The Definitive Collection (Number Nineteen with sales of 58,000, a 15,000 copy jump) and Mannheim Steamroller's Romantic Melodies (up from Number 119 to Number Forty-one with sales of 39,000) were also hot picks for mood music.

And while no album really challenged Get Rich, there were still a handful of strong debuts. George Strait's For the Last Time sold 101,000 at Number Seven. Healthy week one postings were also made by Vince Gill's The Next Big Thing (Number Fourteen, 67,000), the Daredevil soundtrack (Number Fifteen, 65,000) and John Mayer's Any Given Thursday (Number Seventeen, 64,000).

Next week offers new debuts by the likes of Cat Power and Ministry, but nothing with a snowball's chance of dislodging 50 Cent from the Number One spot.

This week's Top Ten: 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin'; Dixie Chicks' Home; Norah Jones' Come Away With Me; Kid Rock's Cocky; the Chicago soundtrack; Avril Lavigne's Let Go; George Strait's For the Last Time; Jennifer Lopez's This Is Me . . . Then; Shania Twain's Up!; and Rod Stewart's It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter