Eminem Rules Album Chart With "Encore"

Eminem's Encore held onto the top slot this week, selling another 198,000 copies for its fourth non-consecutive week at Number One since its November release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Green Day's American Idiot, boosted by holiday sales and its spot on numerous year-end lists, sold 171,000 to jump seven places to Number Two, while Lil Jon's Crunk Juice climbed twelve spots to return to its debut spot of Number Three (144,000), on the strength of the Grammy nominations for Usher's "Yeah!" (produced by Jon) and recent rumors of a feud with the R&B superstar.

Rounding out the Top Five are Jay-Z and Linkin Park's MTV mash-up release, Collision Course, which jumped four places to Number Four (135,000), and Ludacris' The Red Light District, which rises five to Five (126,000). Tupac Shakur's third posthumous chart-topper, Loyal to the Game, also sees a rebound this week, reversing momentum to hop five places back into the Top Ten (Number Eight, 115,000).

Long-standing releases also enjoyed some positive post-holiday movement, with Snoop Dogg's R&G (Rhythm and Gangsta): The Masterpiece and Gwen Stefani's Love, Angel, Music, Baby rebounding nine and six places, respectively, to take Eleven (100,000) and Fifteen (86,000). And R&B divas are also on the up, with Ciara's Goodies and Ashanti's Concrete Rose both climbing up six spots to take Eighteen (76,000) and Sixteen (84,000), respectively.

But the week's revelation was R&B singer/pianist (and Kanye West protege) John Legend, whose solo debut, Get Lifted, opened at Number Seven (116,000).

On the outs are U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which came to the end of its six-week Top Ten reign, sliding eleven spots down to Number Fourteen (95,000). And country giant Toby Keith's blockbuster Greatest Hits 2 dropped a whopping thirteen places to barely hold onto the Top Twenty (Twenty, 68,000).

Next week, look to see if recently deceased hip-hop legend Ol' Dirty Bastard will have the posthumous pull of Tupac, as Osirus, an album of original material recorded in the rapper's last six months and released by his mother, hits the charts. The record's success may determine whether or not ODB's tracks for his Roc-A-Fella debut will ever see the light of day.

This week's Top Ten: Eminem's Encore; Green Day's American Idiot; Lil Jon's Crunk Juice; Jay-Z and Linkin Park's Collision Course; Ludacris' The Red Light District; Usher's Confessions; John Legend's Get Lifted; Tupac Shakur's Loyal to the Game; Now That's What I Call Music! 17; Destiny's Child's Destiny Fulfilled.

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Song Stories

“The Pretender”

Foo Fighters | 2007

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."

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