.

On the Charts: Madonna and Lionel Richie Bring Back the Eighties

Plus: 'Hunger Games' hangover, Gotye's world domination

April 4, 2012 1:25 PM ET
Madonna
Madonna introduces Avicii as part of Day Two of Ultra Music Festival in Miami.
Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

WINNER OF THE WEEK: The Eighties. Madonna's MDNA, which is perhaps not the world's best dance album, is still full of banging-enough anthems to remind Lady Gaga, David Guetta and Skrillex who started today's dance music craze in the first place. It sold 359,000 copies to notch the eighth Billboard Number One in Madonna's career. At a distant second, meanwhile, is Lionel Richie, who takes a sharp creative turn (covering country songs) on his new Tuskegee LP while still remaining in his middle-of-the-road comfort zone. Tuskegee sold 199,000 copies to earn Richie his best chart placing since 1986. Below that, the charts return abruptly to the present, with Adele's 21 at Number Three (selling 121,000 copies). Interestingly, Tuskegee hit Number One on iTunes while MDNA was just Number Three (Shinedown's Amaryllis was between them, although it came in at Number Four on the Billboard chart, selling 106,000 copies).

LOSER OF THE WEEK: The Hunger Games soundtrack. The album starring Taylor Swift, the Civil Wars, Arcade Fire, Kid Cudi, the Decemberists and more hit Number One last week, but sales dropped 64 percent this week with 64,000 copies sold. In further bad news, Swift's two singles from the album, "Eyes Open" and "Safe & Sound," have dropped off the iTunes Top Songs chart completely. On BigChampagne's new Ultimate Chart, which measures Internet criteria, "Eyes Open" is at Number Six and "Safe & Sound" jumped 25 places to Number 19 – leading us to believe a lot of Swift devotees are hearing those singles for free via YouTube or Spotify.

GOTYE GET YOU OUT OF MY LIFE: In order to have international success on the pop charts, it helps to have heritage from two different regions. And, of course, to make a killer single with a killer video. Gotye, the Belgian-Australian singer behind the irresistible AAA-radio fixture "Somebody That I Used to Know," is Number Two in France, Number One in the U.K., Number Seven in Canada, Number Eight in the Netherlands, Number Two in Italy, Number Three in Switzerland, Number One in Denmark and Number Three in the U.S. (where his single sold 244,000 copies this week, up 17 percent). Interestingly, though, Gotye is nowhere to be found on the digital-singles charts in either Belgium or Australia.

LAST WEEK: Sales are in 'The Hunger Games' Favor

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

prev
Music Main Next

blog comments powered by Disqus
Daily Newsletter

Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
marketing partners.

X

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Song Stories

“Satisfied”

Tom Waits | 2011

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.

More Song Stories entries »