On the Charts: Jack Johnson Rides Wave to Big Debut, Top Spot

The Big News: Jack Johnson! Johnson's new album Sleep Through the Static easily had the biggest-selling debut of 2008, moving 374,619 copies to cruise to the top spot on the Billboard charts. Johnson more than quadrupled the sales of the number two album, Sheryl Crow's Detours. Last week's top album, Alicia Keys' As I Am, fell to number three, while Lenny Kravitz's It Is Time For a Love Revolution debuted at four. The 2008 Grammy Nominees compilation rounded out the top five.

Debuts: After the Johnson/Crow/Kravitz trifecta, the next highest debut was k.d. lang's Watershed at number eight. Nada Surf's new album Lucky came in at eighty-one. On the indie tip, Hot Chip's Made in the Dark entered at 108 and Bob Mould's District Line placed at 190.

Last Week's Heroes: The Mars Volta's Bedlam in Goliath sank from its number three debut to slot number fifty-one in its sophomore week. Last week's number two, the Juno soundtrack, fell to six to make room for the debuts. Next week, we'll find out if Grammy wins helped boost the stock of Amy Winehouse's Back to Black (twenty-four this week), Kanye West's Graduation (sixty-four this week) and Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters (currently at 158).

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter