On the Charts: Demi Lovato Leads Debuts, Jackson Still Sells Strong

The Big News: Michael Jackson once again topped the Comprehensive Albums charts as Number Ones sold another 151,000 copies, almost 50,000 more than the Top 200's champ, Demi Lovato's Here We Go Again (read the review here). Those two albums were the only ones to crack 100K as we enter the summer sales doldrums, a release schedule bereft of any big ticket releases until perhaps Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 on September 11th. For Lovato, Here We Go Again marks the Disney star's first Number One album, and improves upon the 89K her debut Don't Forget sold in its first week last year.

The Top 10 provided only one other debut: Jordin Sparks' Battlefield, which entered the charts weakly at Number Seven with 47,000 copies. While Sparks' self-titled album debuted on the charts at Number 10 back in November 2007, it still sold 119,000 copies in a Black Friday-boosted week. Fellow former Idol contestant Daughtry, last week's top album with Leave This Town, fell to Number Two, barely missing the 100K mark by 300 copies.

And then there is Jackson's continued chart dominance. The King of Pop's discography still holds nine of the Top 10 spots on the Top Catalog charts, and three of the Top Five spots on the all-encompassing Comprehensive Albums chart are occupied by Number Ones, Essential Michael Jackson (at Four) and Thriller at Number Five. (Jackson's albums are ineligible for the Top 200.) Jackson's albums also make up nine of the Top 10 Internet Albums chart. There was one more surprise on the charts: Thanks to that JK Wedding Dance video that has gripped the YouTube masses, Chris Brown's "Forever" has jumped from relative post-February 8th obscurity to claim Number 21 on the Digital Tracks chart.

Debuts: Outside of the Lovato and Sparks, there's really not much to report. In fact, only two other debuts cracked the entire Top 50: Total Club Hits 3 at 36 and Our Lady Peace's Burn Burn at 41. Further down, Cheap Trick's The Latest and Sugar Ray's Music For Cougars ranked 78 and 79, respectively. Things were so stagnant on the charts, Brooke Hogan managed to penetrate the Top 200 as her Redemption claimed 144.

Last Week's Heroes Daughtry has a long way to go toward repeating the multi-platinum success of his self-titled debut, and he didn't get off to a good start was Leave This Town sales were down 63 percent from the previous week. The Dead Weather's Horehound also experienced a big drop, falling from Number Six in its debut week to 23 this week. Next week, with no major contenders hitting the charts, expect Jackson, Lovato and Daughtry to continue their reign.

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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.

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