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Alan Jackson sold 328,000 copies of his Greatest Hits, Volume 2 this week to easily top the nation's album charts. Emo heros Dashboard Confessional announced their entry into the big leagues with their third album, A Mark, A Mission, a Brand, a Scar, but were still more than 200,000 behind Jackson with first-week sales of 122,000 at Number Two. The P. Diddy-produced Bad Boys II soundtrack saw its four-week run on top end; it sold 107,00 copies to land at Number Three.
It's Jackson's second Number One record -- his most recent set of new material, Drive, and its September 11th-inspired anthem "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)," topped the charts for four weeks in the winter of 2002. Greatest Hits Vol. 2 fell about 100,000 short of matching that album's first-week figures.
This week's Top Ten also features two more newcomers: The second album from the Beanie Sigel-led rap troupe State Property sold 69,000 to land at Number Six in its first week, and the soundtrack from the Lizzie McGuire movie moved up seven spots in its seventeenth week, selling 56,000 copies at Number Ten. Evanescence, Beyonce, Chingy and Norah Jones round out the Top Ten.
Just outside and looking in, at Numbers Fourteen and Sixteen respectively, were the new installment in the reliable pop series Kidz Bop (41,000) and a new greatest hits collection from Southern-rock survivors Lynyrd Skynyrd meant to mark the thirtieth anniversary of their first release (40,000).
Other debuts included the Freddy vs. Jason soundtrack, at Number Twenty-Five with 32,000, and a new hits set from the Doors, at Number Sixty-Three with 17,500.
Considering the number of heavy-sellers they've produced, the Neptunes should make a run at the top spot next week with their new Clones compilation -- stacked with Busta, Snoop, Nelly and the new Dirt McGirt. Also reasonably promising are new, grown-up releases from an older Bow Wow and a wiser Alien Ant Farm.
This week's Top Ten: Alan Jackson's Greatest Hits, Volume 2; Dashboard Confessional's A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar; the Bad Boys II soundtrack; Evanescence's Fallen; Beyonce's Dangerously in Love; State Property's State Property: Presents the Chain Gang, Volume 2; Chingy's Jackpot; Now That's What I Call Music, Volume Thirteen; Norah Jones' Come Away With Me; and the Lizzie McGuire soundtrack.
AUGUSTIN
SEDGEWICK
(August 20, 2003)