On the Charts: Jay-Z Continues Reign at Number One

The Big News: Jay-Z stayed put in Number One on the Billboard 200 as The Blueprint 3 scored the top spot for a second consecutive week, selling an additional 298,000 copies with a little help from high-profile appearances on the VMAs and The Jay Leno Show. On the strength of her interview with Oprah Winfrey, Whitney Houston saw sales of her comeback album I Look To You increase by 77 percent over the previous week, reclaiming Number Two with 156,000 copies sold according to Nielsen SoundScan. A pair of debuts also surpassed the 100K mark at Number Three and Four: Muse's The Resistance and Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon: The End of Day with 128K and 104K respectively. Miley Cyrus' Time of Our Lives EP rounded out the Top Five.

Over on the Beatles front, the Fab Four's remastered reissues continued to dominate Billboard's Top Catalog Charts, scoring 14 of that chart's Top 20 positions. Abbey Road, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, sold another 50,000 to lead the charge, and while Michael Jackson's Number Ones came in at Number Two on the Catalog chart, the Beatles grabbed Number Three through Seven with Sgt. Pepper's, The Beatles, Rubber Soul, Revolver and Help!.

Debuts: The retail version of Drake's So Far Gone mixtape moved 73,000 copies, good for sixth place on the Top 200. It was a good and bad week for Lil Boosie: The rapper may have been sentenced to two years in prison, but as consolation his Superbad: The Return of Boosie sold 49,000 to debut at Number Seven. One more debut managed to infiltrate the Top 10: Megadeth's Endgame at Number Nine. Also notable, Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson's Break Up at 41.

Last Week's Heroes: Jay-Z managed to avoid the usual 60-75 percent sales drop that befalls most artists in the second week on shelves, losing only 37 percent of his first week numbers thanks in part to his promo performances. After a surprise Number Four finish last week, Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 experienced the week's biggest fall, dropping down to Number 22.

Next week, we'll find out if Pearl Jam's Backspacer will be able to unseat Jigga.

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  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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