On the Charts: Hannah Montana Can't Hold Off "Now! 30"

The Big News: It's not an April Fool's joke: The Now! That's What I Call Music 30 compilation topped the charts with 146,000 copies sold, marking the 11th time one of the series' installments hit the Number One spot. Following closely was the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack at two with 139,000 copies. The Twilight soundtrack held steady at Number Three for a second week thanks to another 102,000 units sold and Keri Hilson's debut album In A Perfect World entered at four with 94,000 copies. The previous two weeks' Number One album, Kelly Clarkson's All I Ever Wanted, dropped to Number Five.

Debuts: Six rookies managed to crack the Top 10, with Papa Roach's Metamorphosis, Jim Jones' Pray IV Reign  and Martina McBride's Shine locking up eight through 10, respectively. Just missing the upper tier was Mastodon's prog-metal Crack the Skye, which sold 41,000 copies to come in at 11. Other debuts making an impact were Blue October's Approaching Normal at 13, Slim Thug's Boss of All Bosses at 15 and Yanni (!) at 20 with Voices.

Last Week's Heroes: U2's No Line on the Horizon dropped out of the Top Five, sliding from Number Two to Number Six in its fourth week. And the momentum that was pushing Lady Gaga's The Fame may have run out of steam as the "Just Dance" singer slumped from Number Five to Number Seven, experiencing her first sales decrease in several weeks. Next week in this space, we'll see if packaging three albums together for one low price is enough of a draw to push Prince and his protégée Bria Valente to the top of the charts over Flo Rida's R.O.O.T.S.

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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