Jaheim Bumps Jack Johnson From the Top

R&B crooner Jaheim’s third release, Ghetto Classics, took the top spot this week, selling 152,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. While his last two albums hit the Top Ten, this marks the first Number One for the New Jersey singer, whose grandfather Victor Hoagland sang with the Drifters. Meanwhile, last week’s chart-topper, Sing-A Longs and Lullabies, Jack Johnson’s soundtrack for the children’s movie Curious George, slipped to second place, with 117,000 copies sold. The CD features a combination of kids’ songs and Johnson’s signature, laidback tunes, with a guest appearance from G. Love and a cover of the White Stripes’ “We’re Going to Be Friends.”

Adult contemporary singer Barry Manilow’s The Greatest Songs of the Fifties, his second chart-topper in his three-decade career, stuck to Number Three (116,000). And on the smooth vocal tip, opera tenor Andrea Bocelli’s latest accessible release, Amore, refuses to quit the Top Five, down one spot to Number Five (111,000). But with more than enough soothing singing on the chart, there was no room left for Simon Cowell’s classically trained boy band, Il Divo: their recent chart-topper, Ancora, dropped twelve spots to Number Eighteen (54,000).

After a career-landmark debut at Number Five, Atlanta hip-hop crew Dem Franchize Boyz saw their second release, On Top of Our Game, fall out of the Top Ten, to Number Twelve (62,000). But newcomer James Blunt, the sensitive British singer-songwriter of the moment, saw his debut, Back to Bedlam, climb four places back into the ring, to Number Eight (87,000).

The rest of the chart is packed with regulars: R&B diva Mary J. Blige’s former Number One, her massively successful The
Breakthrough, fell two places to Number Four (111,000); American Idol Carrie Underwood’s country debut, Some Hearts, climbed back up four
places to Seven (87,000); actor-turned-R&B crooner Jamie Foxx saw his former Number One, Unpredictable, move up one spot to Nine (81,000); and
superstar rapper Eminem’s hits collection, Curtain Call, dropped one place to Ten (73,000).

Other big sellers continue to ride a boost from the Grammys. Pop singer Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway took home two
major awards, making her the first American Idol to be so honored. Last week, the CD, long in stores, leapt from Twenty-Four to Eight; this week it fell just three spots, to Eleven (65,000). Despite her three gold statuettes, Mariah Carey’s blockbuster The Emancipation of Mimi has finally run out of Top Ten steam, dropping eight places to Fifteen (56,000)
after a brief surge to Seven last week.

Next week, watch to see how
England’s buzziest band, the Arctic Monkeys, perform on the U.S. chart. Lifted by the sort of critical lather the U.K. press formerly reserved for
Oasis, the band recently saw their album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, become England’s fastest-selling debut of all time.

This week’s Top Ten: Jaheim’s Ghetto Classics; Jack Johnson and Friends’ Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film “Curious George”; Barry Manilow’s The Greatest Songs of the Fifties; Mary J. Blige’s The Breakthrough; Andrea Bocelli’s Amore; High
School Musical: The Original Soundtrack; Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts; James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam; Jamie Foxx’s
Unpredictable; Eminem’s Curtain Call.