Eminem Makes It Three

Much like television in a U.K. hotel, there is but one channel to watch, and it's showing The Eminem Show. Eminem's third album continues to be the only muse worthy of attention on the charts, selling 808,000, according to SoundScan, to spend its third straight week at Number One. The album also raced past 2 million copies sold, bringing it's tally for two-weeks-and-a-day to a robust 2.4 million, the year's first bona fide blockbuster.

The end.

ANDREW DANSBY
(June 12, 2002)

OK, so things weren't that bad, as four new albums made their way into the Top Ten. But, the Number Two album, the Warner Bros.-compiled Totally Hits 2002 (featuring songs by Alanis Morissette, Craig David, Jewel and others) proved to be a not-so-worthy competitor to the more popular, Universal-themed Now That's What I Call Music! series, selling 137,000 copies in its first week, doubling the number for Now! 9 (Number Ten), which has been out for three full months. Donell Jones and his Life Goes On debuted at Number Three with sales of 110,000. Dirty Vegas' Dirty Vegas slid in at Number Seven with sales of 64,000, and teen rock queen Avril Lavigne's Let Go fell one slot lower with 1,000 fewer sales.

DJ Quick's Under tha Influence sold 37,000 copies for a Number Twenty-seven debut, while DJ Shadow's Private Press (Number Forty-four) barely sold as many copies, 25,000, as it received favorable reviews. Me'shell Ndegeocello's Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape (Number Sixty-seven, 17,000 copies sold), Los Lobos' Good Morning Aztlan (Number Eighty-two, 14,200) and the Doves' The Last Broadcast (Number Eighty-three, 13,900) also made their way into the Top 100.

Unlike the rather static Top Ten, the Top New Artists Albums chart is an exercise in diversity and a way to find the next big things who are making their presence know with teaspoons of sales at a time. Kentucky new-metal ensemble Flaw sold 8,700 copies of their Through the Eyes last week. Three Six Mafia co-founder DJ Paul moved 8,400 copies of Underground 16: For da Summa, while alterna-rockers Dashboard Confessional sold 7,500 copies of their Places You Have Come to Fear the Most. Scottish alt-ensemble Belle and Sebastian are hardly newcomers, but their Storytelling sold 7,200 copies; Creed label mates 12 Stone saw 7,000 people pick up their post-grunge, self-titled debut; Course of Nature also represented for guys with guitars, selling 6,400 copies of Superkala; New York Rasta rapper Afu Ra sold 5,700 copies of Life Force Radio; Latin gospel ensemble Salvador sold 5,300 copies of Into Motion; California rockers Audiovent sold 5,400 copies of Dirty Sexy Knights in Paris; and rounding out that Top Ten, Emerson Drive bring a bit of country with Emerson Drive, which sold 5,200 copies.

This week's overall Top Ten: Eminem's The Eminem Show; Totally Hits 2002; Donell Jones' Life Goes On; P. Diddy's We Invented the Remix; Ashanti's Ashanti; Kenny Chesney's No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems; Dirty Vegas' Dirty Vegas; Avril Lavigne's Let Go; Sheryl Crow's C'mon, C'mon; and Now That's What I Call Music! 9.

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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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