On the Charts: Justin Bieber Back on Top, Slash Debuts High

Justin Bieber reclaimed the Number One spot he relinquished to his mentor Usher last week as My World 2.0 ruled the chart despite a 65 percent sales decrease to 102,000 copies, making it the lone album on the Billboard 200 album chart to surpass 100K, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Usher's Raymond V. Raymond swapped places with the Bieb by coming in Number Two in its second week with 92,000 copies. The biggest surprise on the charts however was Slash, who entered the charts at Number Three with his self-titled solo album. The Velvet Revolver guitarist sold 60,000 copies.

Rounding out the Top Five were a pair of usual suspects: Lady Antebellum's Need You Now at Four and the 33rd NOW! comp at Five. Only one more new release managed to break into the Top 10 on a slow sales week — overall Top 200 sales were down 23 percent compared to the same week last year — and it was Madonna's Sticky and Sweet Tour live album at Number 10.

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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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