On the Charts: Jonas Brothers Climb "Lines, Vines" To Top Spot

The Big News: It's been a day of seconds for the Jonas Brothers: After we revealed the JoBros featured on their second Rolling Stone cover, the trio also learned that they've topped the sales chart for the second time as Lines, Vines and Trying Times cruised to Number One with 247,000 copies sold. While the Jonas Brothers locked up their second consecutive chart-topper, the total sales didn't come close to the 525,000 copies of A Little Bit Longer sold in its opening week last year. The Black Eyed Peas' The E.N.D. dropped down to Number Two with another 147,000 copies moved. No other albums surpassed the 100K mark, with Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey, Eminem's Relapse and Incubus' Monuments & Melodies, the only other debut in the Top 10, filling out the Top Five.

Debuts: Outside of JoBros and Incubus, it was a weak week for debuts. Michael Buble's Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden (Number 14) and Hank Williams Jr.'s 127 Rose Avenue (19) were the only other two rookies to even make the Top 20. Further down, the George Harrison best-of collection Let It Roll placed at 24, Tom Morello's Street Sweeper Social Club locked up 37 with their self-titled debut and Spinal Tap's comeback disc Back From The Dead scored the faux headbangers Number 52.

Last Week's Heroes: The Black Eyed Peas experienced a typical post-debut week 50 percent sales drop, but it'll be interesting to see if by next week The E.N.D. stumbles because of the group's Perez Hilton-loving fans or rises because of the BEPs new Perez Hilton-hating fans. From last week's Top 10, Mos Def had the biggest drop, tumbling from Nine down to 29 in its second week. With this week's release slate pretty much devoid of big sellers, expect the JoBros to reign once again.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter