B2K's Omarion Tops Chart

Omarion's solo debut, O, sold 182,000 copies in its first week to take the top spot, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Since the breakthrough of his multi-platinum R&B boy band B2K in 2002, the twenty-one-year-old has gained steam on his own through guest appearances on popular sitcoms, in the feature films You Got Served and Fat Albert, and through his new, MTV-published autobiography.

Meanwhile, the Grammy boost is still in effect for the late Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company, which dropped only one spot to Number Two (110,000). And rounding out the Top Five are the Game's debut, The Documentary, which drops one place to Four (105,000), and veteran singer-songwriter Tori Amos' eighth studio album, The Beekeeper, which sold 83,000 copies to open at Number Five. This is 20,000 fewer units than the opening-week total of her last full-length effort, 2002's Scarlet's Walk, although that debuted at Number Seven. The other big debut this week came from the seventh installment of the Kidz Bop series of children's sing-alongs, which tackles everything from Usher's "My Boo" to Modest Mouse's "Float On."

The big losers this week were Southern garage rockers Kings of Leon, whose much-hyped and critically well-received sophomore album, Aha Shake Heartbreak, sold a mere 20,000 copies to debut at Number Fifty-Five. And it seems the Grammy effect no longer applies for winners other than Charles: Maroon 5's Songs About Jane fell back down the chart, from its boost to Number Nine to Eighteen (49,000); and multiple Grammy-winner Alicia Keys' The Diary of Alicia Keys dropped from Eleven to Twenty-Eight (35,000).

Next week, expect 50 Cent's The Massacre to blow away all competition -- in spite of its mid-week release tomorrow.

This week's Top Ten: Omarion's O; Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company; Green Day's American Idiot; the Game's The Documentary; Tori Amos' The Beekeeper; John Legend's Get Lifted; Kidz Bop Kids' Kidz Bop 7; Eminem's Encore; 3 Doors Down's Seventeen Days; Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
• 
  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter