Smith Returns To Top 10, Hall Of Famers Enter Charts

The City of Angels soundtrack bounces back this week to become the No. 1 album in the country for the second time.

The soundtrack, featuring Goo Goo Dolls and Alanis Morissette, sold 169,000 copies for the week ending June 21, according to SoundScan. And what a sleepy sales week it was, with just five hits selling more than 100,000 copies and only one new entry debuting in the top 40, the soundtrack to Hav Plenty.

The man making the most noise on the chart is Will Smith. Six months after the release of his Big Willie Style, the album charges back into the Top 10, moving from No. 21 to No. 9 in just two weeks time. Smith can most likely thank Father's Day shoppers for his latest sales surge. That's because the singer's new single, "Just the Two Of Us," and particularly its accompanying video, has a strong father/son theme which meant the record made for a perfect Father's Day gift last weekend.

Elsewhere, three Hall of Fame rock vets made debuts this week, but not near the top. Ringo Starr's Vertical Man came in at No. 61, Van Morrison's Philosopher's Stone came in at No. 87 and Brian Wilson's Imagination came in at No. 88.

From the top it was City of Angels, followed by Brandy's Never Say Never (selling 153,000 copies); Master P's Da Last Don (152,000); the soundtrack to Hope Floats (115,000); the soundtrack to Godzilla (109,000); Garth Brooks' Limited Series (96,000); the Backstreet Boys' self-titled record (94,000); Shania Twain's Come On Over (92,000); Big Willie Style (82,000); and the Smashing Pumpkins' Adore (72,000).

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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