Da Chart Game Is Won

Seems like old times. Snoop Doggy Dogg logs in with a new album that debutsbig at No. 1, and there's still enough summer left to cruise with the windowsdown and the bass thumpin'. Except this time around, Snoop's no longer part ofthe southern California's Death Row gangsta gang (Dr. Dre, Tupac, etc.) thatdominated hip-hop and much of commercial music in the early Nineties. Instead,with Death Row's founder Suge Knight currently serving time, Snoop's moved hissound down south to part of rap's new juggernaut, Master P's No Limit. Eitherway, it's the same cash register-ringing result. Snoop's Da Game Is to BeSold, Not to Be Told, sold 520,000 copies for the week ending August 9,according to SoundScan, and knocked the Beastie Boys out of the top slot aftertheir three-week run with Hello Nasty.

The other top 20 debut belongs to North Carolina's Squirrel Nut Zippers. Itwas the grassroots success of their last record that helped light the currentjumpin' jive revival. The Zippers' Perennial Favorites comes in at No. 18,selling 53,000 copies.

From the top, it was Snoop, followed by the soundtrack to Armageddon (selling203,000 copies); Hello Nasty (197,000); the soundtrack to Dr. Dolittle(110,000); the Barenaked Ladies' Stunt (106,000); the soundtrack to the Cityof Angels (104,000); Backstreet Boys (91,000); JD's Life In 1472 (89,000); 'NSync (88,000); and Brandy's Never Say Never (87,000).

Elsewhere on the charts, the Wedding Singer flashback phenomenon enters itssecond act. The soundtrack to the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore movie, which wasoriginally released in `98, just went over the one million sales mark thisweek and jumps back up the chart from No. 151 to No. 71 in just two weekstime. That's because the movie just hit the streets on video, so a whole newaudience is, um, celebrating the soundtrack's Eighties nuggets (i.e CultureClub's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" and the Thompson Twins' "Hold MeNow"). But there's more. Volume 2 of the Wedding Singer (Kajagoogoo's "TooShy," Spandau Ballet's "True") is out and already up to No. 42 in its thirdweek in stores. Could a John Waite/Stray Cats-filled Volume 3 be farbehind?

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Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

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