On the Charts: "Unstoppable" Rascal Flatts Race to Number One

The Big News: Rascal Flatts' Unstoppable proved to be just that, crushing the week's competition on its way to Number One and 351,000 copies sold. The country group almost doubled the sales of the week's runner-up, the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack, which jumped from Five last week to Two thanks in part to its dominance at the box office. A pair of debuts occupied the third and fourth positions, with Jadakiss' The Last Kiss and Jason Aldean's Wide Open both surpassing 100K copies in their first weeks. The Now! 30 comp bookends the Top Five. Also, somehow, Taylor Swift's Fearless nearly doubled its sales from the previous week, placing at Number Six while selling another 82,000 copies and officially crossing the triple platinum mark.

Debuts: 28,000 people drove on down to Neil Young's Fork in the Road, helping the Canadian rocker grab Number 19. Further down, Doves' fourth album Kingdom of Rust claimed 88, the Hold Steady's A Positive Rage and Bat For Lashes' Two Suns neighbored at 139 and 140, and roughly 4,000 Deadheads scrounged enough cash to purchase the band's massive live collection To Terrapin: Hartford '77, good for 168.

Last Week's Heroes: Last week's champ Keith Urban's Defying Gravity fell quickly from the top spot to Number Seven. Prince's LOtUSFLOW3R/MPLSoUND/Elixer stumbled as well, dropping from Number Two to Number Nine. In fact, this week wasn't a good time to be an album last week, as three other albums that debuted in the Top 10 seven days ago — Diana Krall's Quiet Nights, Flo Rida's R.O.O.T.S. and UGK's UGK 4 Life — now find themselves on the outside looking in. With no major releases hitting shelves this week, expect the positioning to look similar but with a lot less copies sold next week.

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

Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

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