Souces: Billboard, Canoe
US Top 10 (for the sales week ending November 26, 2006)
1. Jay-Z, Kingdom Come (debut) (680,000 copies)
2. Daughtry, Daughtry (debut) (304,000)
3. Now That's What I Call Music! 23 (289,000)
4. The Beatles, Love (debut) (272,000)
5. Snoop Dogg, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (debut) (264,000)
6. Beyonce, B'Day (173,000)
7. Hannah Montana soundtrack (167,000)
8. Akon, Convicted (164,000)
9. Tupac Shakur, Pac's Life (debut) (159,000)
10. Keith Urban, Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing (157,000)
Other noteworthy debuts: U2, U218: Singles (#12, 134,000); Tom Waits, Oprhans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards (#74, 21,000); Loreena McKennitt, An Ancient Muse (#83, 19,000); Oasis, Stop the Clocks (Best Of) (#89, 18,000)
Comments - Sales are up 36% from last week, and Jay-Z's big debut certainly didn't hurt. I mentioned last week that anything less than 750,000 copies would have to be considered a disappointment, and I'll need to stick by that. It's his biggest week ever, and there's noise about him tying the Rolling Stones in third place for most career #1s, and while that's a hell of an accomplishment, it's a relatively meaningless statistic at this point. Once you're looking at more than three-quarter of a million copies in a week, that's when you're talking about cultural saturation - and nothing less should have been the goal in Jay's ending his "retirement". Akon debuted last week at #1, but, even though he has two Top Ten singles at the moment, he posted a 42% sales decrease - the only title in the top ten to do so (and bear in mind that 162 of the top 200 titles posted sales increases this week). Two posthumous debuts, from opposite ends of the pop culture spectrum: the Beatles and Tupac (and also Tupac's 14th (!) posthumous release). The inability of Oasis to sell meaningful numbers of units in the US continues apace.
Canada Top 10 (for the sales week ending November 23, 2006)
1. The Beatles, Love (debut)
2. Il Divo, Sempre (debut)
3. U2, U218: Singles (debut)
4. Rock Star Supernova, Rock Star Supernova (debut)
5. Josh Groban, Awake
6. Jay-Z, Kingdom Come (debut)
7. Sarah McLachlan, Wintersong
8. MuchDance 2007
9. Loreena McKennitt, An Ancient Muse (debut)
10. Snoop Dogg, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (debut)
Other noteworthy debuts: Tupac Shakur, Pac's Life (#19); Our Lady Peace, Decade (#30); Oasis Stop the Clocks (Best Of) (#38)
Comments - What a remarkably different chart, eh? Hip hop hasn't made as significant a cultural inroad, as it doesn't dominate the charts to the extent it does in the US. The "Rock Star" reality TV franchise, likewise, is capable of moving product north of the border, but can't get much of a second look in the US (similar results were obtained for INXS last year). I think I've read somewhere that Canada is one of U2's biggest per capita markets, and a #3 debut for a singles collection would certainly attest to that. Loreena McKennitt is also evidently more fondly (and profitably) known up here, while the sales muscle of Our Lady Peace appears to be waning - though maybe everybody who has any desire to hear Raine Maida's histrionics has already purchased their albums.
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