On the Charts: Radiohead's "In Rainbows" Takes Number One Three Months After Debuting Via the Web

The Big News: Despite giving away their album practically for free in October, Radiohead still managed to muster enough sales to claim the top spot on the Billboard chart, as the finally on-CD-and-in-stores In Rainbows sold 122,323 copies to hit Number One. Alicia Keys' As I Am stayed strong at two, selling only 10,000 copies less than Radiohead. Last week's top-seller, Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains, fell to third place with 89,084. While the Radiohead numbers seem weak — their Hail to the Thief sold 300,000 copies when it debuted in 2004 — the total doesn't factor in the number of limited-edition discboxes or "pay-what-you-want" download purchases.

Debuts: You'd think In Rainbows would be the big debut, but because 8,500 street date-breaking copies were sold the week before, the album actually debuted (illegally) at 156 last week. The Juno soundtrack, backboned by the Moldy Peaches' Kimya Dawson, was the top-ranked debut, coming in at number eight with 37,936 copies sold.

Last Week's Heroes: After ruling the chart landscape at the end of 2007, Josh Groban's Noel submarined, falling to the fifty-eighth spot this week. The rest of last week's top ten remained the same, with only the Hannah Montana 2 soundtrack dropping out to make room for Juno. Save for the debuts, all the albums in the top thirty suffered a decrease in sales as the annual post-holiday malaise gets underway.

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

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