On the Charts: Knocking Josh Groban Out of the Top Spot Proves Harder Than Finding a Nintendo Wii

The Big News: Josh Groban's Noel sold another 581,470 copies in its ninth week of release to stay atop the Billboard chart for a third straight week. Alicia Keys and the Eagles played see-saw once again, as Keys' As I Am reclaimed the Number Two spot with 234,370 copies sold, while the Eagles swooped to three with 204,490 copies. In the battle of the American Idols, the result was -- a draw. Blake Lewis' Audio Day Dream debuted at number ten, the same spot Jordin Sparks' self-titled debut landed at two weeks ago.

Debuts: At ten, Lewis has the highest-charting debut of the week. Other than that, hip-hop ruled, with four rap debuts entering the charts within the top fifty: Scarface's M.A.D.E. at seventeen, DJ Drama's mixtape Gangsta Grillz at twenty-six, Wyclef Jean's Carnival 2 at twenty-eight and Ghostface Killah's The Big Doe Rehab at forty-one. The 817th Tupac greatest-hits release, the sold-separately Thug and Life, debuted at sixty-five and seventy-seven respectively. This trend will likely continue, with new albums from Wu-Tang Clan, Gucci Mane, the Dream and Beanie Sigel dominating this week's release calendar.

Last Week's Heroes: Didn't move around much. Last week's top ten, despite some minor repositioning, stayed largely the same, with Mannheim Steamroller dropping from ten to eleven to make room for Lewis, and country's Taylor Swift switching places with Celine Dion to go from twelve to nine. Last week's top debut, Pitbull's The Boatlift, sank from fifty to 134. If only Pitbull had a fraction of Groban's Oprah love.

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  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
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  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
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  TV
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  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Helen Wheels”

Paul McCartney | 1973

A rollicking good-time hard rocker, "Helen Wheels" was not about a woman but about Paul McCartney's Land Rover, the anthemic chorus voicing the vehicle's reckless joy as "she" took to the road. The song was added to the U.S. version of Band on the Run but was issued only as a single in McCartney's native U.K. "I like that because it's a British road song and there's not many of those around," said McCartney. "It's always Route 66. But Carlisle? How many songs have got Carlisle in them?"

More Song Stories entries »

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