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.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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