On the Charts: Madonna’s “Hard Candy” Rains on Mariah’s Honeymoon
The Big News: Madonna managed to grab the top spot despite the media flood surrounding last week number one Mariah Carey’s shock marriage, as Hard Candy sold 280,273 units to cruise to the top, while E=MC2 dropped to number two with 95,405 copies. Leona Lewis’ Spirit stuck around at three, while the rest of the top ten was dominated by debuts, as Lyfe Jennings’ Lyfe Change took four, Def Leppard’s Songs from the Sparkle Lounge was five, the Roots’ Rising Down grabbed sixth, Portishead’s decade-in-the-making Third came in seventh and the self-titled debut from Tom Petty’s Mudcrutch sat at eight.
Debuts: Rookies overran the charts, with notables Carly Simon’s This Kind of Love at fifteen, Artist to Watch Estelle’s Shine in at thirty-eight and American Idol‘s Nosferatu-lookalike Phil Stacey’s self-titled at forty-three. Santogold’s eponymous debut slotted at seventy-four, while Breaking and Perez Hilton-endorsed Robyn’s Robyn landed at 100, three years after the album initially debuted in Europe.
Last Week’s Heroes: The top ten from last week was completely rearranged by this week’s freshman class, and leading the parachute parade was Ashlee Simpson’s Bittersweet World, which plummeted from four to thirty-one. Flight of the Conchords similarly swooped from four to seventeen, Juno dropped seven to thirteen and Alvin & the Chipmunks slid from twelve to fourteen.
