Eminem Holds on to Number One for Fourth Straight Week

For the fourth straight week, Eminem has held on to the Number One spot on the Billboard 200. The MC's latest album Recovery moved 195,000 copies, making Em the first artist since Susan Boyle to lock the top spot for four straight weeks. The rapper's dominance this week was fueled by the success of the single "Love the Way You Lie" (featuring Rihanna), which unseated Katy Perry's "California Gurls" for the Number One spot on the Hot 100.

No other artists came close to matching Eminem's big week. Korn's Korn III: Remember Who You Are arrived at Number Two selling 63,000 copies, three times less the amount than Em's total sales. Korn's last album (2007's Untitled) also debuted at Number Two, although their last LP sold nearly double the copies of Korn III. Drake's Thank Me Later hung around at Number Three with 50,000 units sold. Christian rock group Newsboys scored Number Four with Born Again and Justin Bieber rounded out the Top Five with My World 2.0.

The bottom of the Top 10 was packed with debuts. Sting's classical disc Symphonicities placed Number Six with 36,000 copies. Country musician Jerrod Niemann came in at Number Seven with Judge Jerrod & the Hung Jury while Hellyeah's Stampede debuted at Number Eight. Despite success with the massive single "Paper Planes" and recent controversy with the press, M.I.A.'s Maya opened at a disappointing Number Nine. The rapper's third LP sold only 28,000 — 1,000 copies less than the first-week sales of her last LP, Kala.

Overall, album sales were down 23 percent compared to the same week in 2009.

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  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
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  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
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  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
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  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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