Chart Roundup: India.Arie, Dashboard Confessional, Rihanna and More

• Neo soul diva India.Arie debuted at Number One selling 161,172 copies of her third record, Testimony: Vol. 1 Life & Relationship. Just to clarify, that means there are at least that many fans of neo-soul out there.

• Dashboard Confessional's new record, Dusk & Summer, sold 134,174 copies in its first week on the charts to land at Number Two. He may be all emo, but here's betting Chris Carrabba's pretty pissed about losing out to India.

• So much for the idea that Jay-Z is coming out of retirement cuz he sucks as a businessman: Jay's protégé Rihanna's record Girl Like Me jumped seven spots to Number Five this week, selling 62,204 copies.

• You can't keep those strippers down. The Pussycat Dolls saw their debut record PCD sell another 37,026 copies this week (an 18 percent increase from last week) to secure them the Number 19 spot on the charts.

• Hank Williams Jr.'s new record That's How They Do It In Dixie debuted at Number 16 this week, selling 38,738 copies in its first week on the charts. People must have forgotten all about that alleged strangling-a-waitress thing.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter