Outkast Beat Da Band

The sheer volume of Outkast's two-CD Speakerboxxx/The Love Below doesn't seem to be deterring fans, as 235,000 people snapped up the album last week, according to SoundScan, keeping it at Number One for the second straight week and pushing its to-date sales past three-quarters of a million. OutKast's latest also held off a strong debut by Bad Boy's Da Band, the P. Diddy proteges from Making the Band, who sold 204,000 copies of Too Hot for TV.

And while sales on this week's chart weren't quite as chunky as a week before, they were still plenty robust, with nine albums tallying six-figure sales. Sting's Sacred Love and Dido's Life for Rent made strong first-week showings: The former sold 195,000 copies at Number Three, while the latter sold 192,000 copies at Number Four. Martina McBride also debuted in the Top Ten, selling 123,000 copies of Martina at Number Seven.

And other big week one figures were tallied by a broad stylistic array of albums. Bette Midler jumped in at Number Fourteen with Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook, which sold 71,000 copies. Country star Gary Allan's See If I Care sold 58,000 copies at Number Seventeen. And Ill Nino's Confession (Number Thirty-seven, 28,000 copies sold), Luis Miguel's 33 (Number Forty-three, 26,000) and Bonnie Raitt's Best of Bonnie Raitt (Number Forty-seven, 23,000) repped hard rock, latin pop and blues, respectively.

As for next week's chart, look for Ludacris to shake things up a bit, as his Chicken and Beer arrived in record stores yesterday, and seems a cinch to give the Atlanta-based rapper a Number One.

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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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