On the Charts: Jack Johnson Dominates for Third Straight Week

The Big News: Rolling Stone cover star Jack Johnson continues his charts dominance, staying at number one for a third consecutive week with an additional 104,890 copies sold. Officially, Alicia Keys' As I Am placed number two, despite being outsold by Michael Jackson's twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Thriller, which is ineligible from chart placement because it's a "catalog album." Amy Winehouse's post-Grammy hangover still hasn't worn off, as Back To Black grabbed the third spot. Moviegoers found a soundtrack they liked more than Juno, as Step Up 2: The Streets stepped up to number five. Sara Bareilles' Little Voice also had a big week, making the jump from fifteen to seven.

Debuts: Kidz Bop 13 debuted at four, further proving that little kids don't know how to illegally download. Dipset's Jim Jones' Harlem's American Gangster entered at nineteen despite being released as a mixtape last November. On the rock beat, the Raveonettes' Lust Lust Lust placed 108, Ray Davies' Working Man's Cafe took 140 and the Mountain Goats' critically-acclaimed Heretic Pride squeezed in at 195.

Last Week's Heroes: The Grammy bloom blew off Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters as the album fell from five to sixteen. Predictably, the Grammys nominees compilation also dropped from four to seventeen. It was a pretty bad week on all fronts, with only one non-debuting album in top sixty (Sara Bareilles) actually experiencing a growth in sales from the previous week.

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  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
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  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
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  TV
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  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

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