On the Charts: Springsteen's "Working on a Dream" Scores 2009's Biggest Debut

The Big News: No surprises here — Bruce Springsteen finally ended 2009's sales slump by moving 223,700 copies of his five-star Working on a Dream, good enough for Number One on the chart. Considering the bulk of those sales came before Bruce's Super Bowl performance, Springsteen can probably expect even bigger numbers next week. The figure is telling of the recessions' impact on the music business, though: Springsteen's 2002 album The Rising moved 525,000 its debut week, and 2007's Magic sold 335,000. Taylor Swift's Fearless finally dropped to second place with 55,000 copies sold, and 2009's usual suspects rounded out the Top Five: Beyoncé's I Am... Sasha Fierce, Nickelback's Dark Horse and Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak.

Debuts: Finally, new albums crashed the chart. After Bruce, 2009 Grammy Nominees led the charge with 33,000 copies to land at six, while Franz Ferdinand's Tonight: Franz Ferdinand managed to grab the nine spot. The WWE: The Music Vol. 9 compilation somehow finished 13th and Hoobastank's Fornever took 26th.

Last Week's Heroes: A pair of soundtracks found themselves falling out of the Top Ten: Twilight lost its hold on tweeners, dropping from Five down to 11, and Notorious plunged from Nine to 24. The Mariah Carey Ballads album also stumbled, from 10 to 31. Animal Collective just missed the top 50, selling 10,100 to claim Number 52. Next week, with no big new releases out on shelves, we'll find out how much the Super Bowl influences record sales.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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