On the Charts: Chrisette Michele Is Number One In Slow Sales Week

The Big News: In a history-making week on the charts, Chrisette Michele scored the first Number One of her career as her second album Epiphany sold 83,000 copies to edge out Hannah Montana and Ciara. However, the 83,000 copies represent the lowest total for an album debuting at Number One in the history of Soundscan. Still, it's been a quick rise to the top for Michele; her 2007 debut album I Am entered the charts at 29. The Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack clung to Number Two for a third consecutive week, selling a mere 2,000 copies less than Epiphany. Ciara's Fantasy Ride grabbed Number Three with 80,000 units shifted, a huge decline from the singer's previous album Ciara: The Evolution, which sold 338,000 copies and debuted at Number One in December 2006. Rascal Flatts' Unstoppable came in at Four while last week's champ, Bob Dylan's Together Through Life filled out the Top Five.

Debuts: Ben Harper and his new outfit Relentless7 entered the charts at Nine as White Lies for Dark Times sold 34,000 copies. Narrowly missing the Top 10 was the Devil Wears Prada's With Roots Above & Branches Below, which came in at 11. Further down, former American Idol contestant Elliot Yamin's Fight For Love victoriously bowed in at 26, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band's Outer South settled in at 40 and Yusuf Islam, or Cat Stevens, and Roadsinger claimed 41.

Last Week's Heroes: Dylan's Together Through Time dropped from One to Five, but at least it was able to break the 100,000 sales barrier in its debut week. According to Billboard, Epiphany marks only the third time in the charts' history that an album debuting at One hasn't crack 100K copies, joining the Notorious B.I.G.'s #1's in 2005 and Johnny Cash's American V: A Hundred Highways, which previously held the record of lowest debut total with 88,000 copies in 2006. Luckily, a pair of big releases will shake the charts out of its slumps as Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown and Eminem's Relapse are released in back-to-back weeks.

• 
  MUSIC The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments
• 
  MOVIES & TV 'Game of Thrones': The Show Vs. the Books
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Facebook IPO vs. Shareholders
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive: Garbage Rip Through 'I Think I'm Paranoid'

Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter