'The Power of Madonna' Pushes 'Glee' to Number One

The Power of Madonna helped propel Glee into the Number One spot on the Billboard 200 for the first time as the Fox show's album devoted to the Queen of Pop sold 98,000 copies to claim the top spot. The episode of the cult hit featuring Madonna songs premiered last week to the show's highest ratings ever, and 75 percent of Glee sales came courtesy of digital download services, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Watch the cast of Glee sing Madonna's praises.

For the first time in the chart's history, two soundtracks debuted in the Top Five: Glee at Number One and at Number Four, the AC/DC soundtrack for Iron Man 2, which scooped up 76,000 its first week in stores. The total is impressive considering the Iron Man 2 disc was essentially a greatest hits compilation featuring 15 of the Black Ice rockers' songs.

At Number Two, Lady Antebellum's Need You Now rode the wave of five American Country Music Award wins to 83,000 in sales, a 27 percent increase over the week prior. Justin Bieber's My World 2.0 came in at Number Three while his mentor Usher's Raymond V Raymond rounded out the Top Five. One more debut managed to crack the Top 10: Jimmy Buffett's Walmart-exclusive live album Encores at Number Seven.

While the impact of Record Store Day wasn't felt in the Billboard Top 200, this year's event — which features a special Smashing Pumpkins show — provided a huge boost for independent record shops, and many participating stores reported their best ever one-day sales, according to Billboard.biz. Overall, business on Record Store Day 2010 more than doubled last year's totals, and sales of vinyl climbed 377 percent over 2009's figures.

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

More Song Stories entries »

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