On the Charts: Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Britney Spears Lead the Charge in Big Sales Week

The Big News: Taylor Swift managed to keep the top spot on love lockdown for yet another week, selling 262,000 more copies of Fearless (which went double platinum). Platinum was the theme of the week as Britney Spears' Circus, Nickelback's Dark Horse, Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak and the Twilight soundtrack all crossed the million-selling plateau on their way to charting at three through six, respectively. Beyoncé's I Am... Sasha Fierce jumped from five to second place thanks to an additional 210,000 copies sold, while Kanye leapt from 11 to five thanks to that repackaged 808s with the new artwork. With four of the top six releases geared toward females, it's comforting to know women are at least still purchasing CDs.

Debuts: At 81, the self-titled album from a band called Brutha charted. That was the only debut on the entire Top 200 this week.

Last Week's Heroes: Keyshia Cole's A Different Me and Jamie Foxx's Intuition couldn't sustain their big debut weeks as Cole dropped from two to seven and Foxx followed from three to nine. Last week's anti-hero, Fall Out Boy's Folie a Deux, continued to chart with a whimper, falling from eight to 18. And Guns n' Roses' Chinese Democracy shockingly gained momentum, gaining from 33 to 25 thanks to a 9 percent sales increase. With no major releases on deck for these next four Tuesdays (yesterday included), and barring some out-of-left-field Juno-like success story, it's conceivable that Swift might own the Number One spot until Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream comes out on January 27th.

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  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
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  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
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  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
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  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

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