Coldplay's "Viva" Posts Big First Day Sales

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Could Chris Martin be joining Lil Wayne in saving the music industry? One week after Weezy's Tha Carter III sold 423,000 in its first day of sales on its way to a platinum debut, Coldplay's Viva La Vida posted similarly big numbers Tuesday, selling 316,000 copies. Viva is expected to usurp TC3 as the SoundScan king next week on its way to expected sales in the 700-750,000 range. If Coldplay can hit that number, it will be the first time since 2005 that albums with sales over 700,000 topped the charts in consecutive weeks. 50 Cent's The Massacre single-handedly last conquered that feat. Coldplay's last album, X&Y, sold 737,000 in its debut week in 2005. Coldplay's big Tuesday is the third-best since SoundScan launched their Building Chart last year, with only Kanye West and Lil Wayne faring better. Viva La Vida also broke the record for most iTunes downloads in a single day, previously held by Jack Johnson. To read Chris Martin's journey in creating Viva La Vida, check out an excerpt from his Rolling Stone cover story below.

• The Rolling Stone Interview: Chris Martin

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

More Song Stories entries »

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