On the Charts: "Juno" Turns Oscar Nods Into Week's Best-Selling Album

The Big News: After four weeks on the chart, the Juno soundtrack finally claimed the top spot, selling 64,381 copies to overtake Alicia Keys' As I Am, which fell to two. The Moldy Peaches-heavy Juno disc received a push after the film and its star (Ellen Page), director and screenwriter were all nominated for Academy Awards, which means the nation's best-selling record has a total-sales figure that can barely match most chart-toppers' opening-week figures. Natasha Bedingfield, coming off the mega-hit "Unwritten," watched her new album Pocketful of Sunshine debut at three. Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains and Radiohead's In Rainbows rounded out the top five.

Debuts: After Bedingfield, the big debut was Cat Power's covers album Jukebox -- its number twelve arrival marks her career-best debut. Other notable entries include the Drive-By Truckers' Brighter Than Creations Dark at thirty-six, Breaking artist Black Mountain's second album In The Future at 101 and jam band moe.'s Sticks and Stones at 119.

Last Week's Heroes: John Legend and Raheem DeVaughn exited the top ten and introduced themselves to the top thirty. Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad surpassed a million copies sold after thirty-four weeks on the chart (current location: number forty-five).

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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