On the Charts: Jackson/Johnson/Jackson Trifecta Wins Sales Race

The Big News: Alan Jackson's Good Time cruised to the top of the chart in its debut week, selling 119,151 copies to unseat another Jackson, Janet's Discipline, which fell to number three. Jack Johnson's Sleep Through the Static clung to the runner-up position, while debuts by Flogging Moll (Float) and the Black Crowes (Warpaint) landed at four and five. MTV and Saturday Night Live appearances helped boost Vampire Weekend, as their self-titled debut album jumped from sixty-one to twenty-six.

Debuts: Michael McDonald's Soul Speak debuted at twelve, while Jackson Browne's Solo Acoustic, Vol. 2 placed at twenty-four. Stephen Malkmus & the Jick's four-and-a-half-star Real Emotional Trash came in at sixty-four, while Bauhaus' retirement album, Go Away White, entered at 105.

Last Week's Heroes: Sara Bareilles' Little Voice continued its slow march to the upper reaches of the charts, moving from nine to seven. Alicia Keys' As I Am finally fell out of the top five after an seventeen week run, coming in at eight. And somehow, people to continue to purchase the Alvin & the Chipmunks soundtrack, as it stuck to twenty-one for a second consecutive week. Next week, we'll find out who won the battle of the rap superstars: Fat Joe, Snoop Dogg or Rick Ross.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

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