Chart Roundup: Sean "YouTube" Combs Takes Number One

All that self-promoting video diary stuff didn't vault Diddy's new album into the wilds of super-awesome sales. Press Play only sold 170,483 copies in its first week on the charts, landing it a Number One debut but impressing few along the way. Shocking conclusion: Allowing your fans to watch you pee does not turn your record into a hit.

Meanwhile, Sting's collection of traditional lute music, Songs From the Labyrinth, jumped an impressive 12 spots on the charts this week, landing at Number 25, and mall-friendly pop tart Jo Jo (who has a somewhat sheepish but devoted following here at RS, we discovered in today's morning meeting) debuted at Number Three this week with her record High Road.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter