Elvis Remains King of Charts for Third Week
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Long live the King. Elvis Presley is extending his reign over the U.S. pop charts for a third straight week thanks to a greatest-hits album released 25 years after his death, according to sales data issued on Wednesday.
“Elvis: 30 #1 Hits” sold 205,000 copies during the week ended Oct. 13, pushing its three-week domestic tally over the 1-million mark and relegating the veteran rock band Bon Jovi to the No. 2 spot for the biggest album debut of its career.
A similar pattern occurred in the U.S. charts the week before, when the Presley retrospective deprived the Rolling Stones of what would have been their first No. 1 album in 21 years. The Stones’ latest hits package, “Forty Licks,” slipped from No. 2 to No. 3 in its second week with sales of 147,000 copies, according to album sales tracker Nielsen SoundScan.
The heavily promoted “Elvis” album also has been a tremendous hit overseas, selling nearly 6 million copies worldwide and topping the charts in two dozen countries, according to RCA Records. The album has reigned supreme in Europe for a second consecutive week, RCA said.
Presley kept his posthumous grip on the pop charts with the help of a $10 million global marketing campaign by RCA and its parent BMG with a collection featuring such classics as “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Jailhouse Rock” and “Return to Sender.” BMG is the global music division of Bertelsmann AG.
The album also has benefited from renewed interest in the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll generated by the 25th anniversary of his death and a hot-selling new remix of the song, “A Little Less Conversation,” which appears on the new CD.
BON JOVI ‘BOUNCE’
“Bounce,” a follow-up to Bon Jovi’s 2000 release “Crush,” sold nearly 160,000 copies its first week in stores, the best opening to date for the New Jersey-based band that first shot to attention with the 1984 hit “Runaway.”
The band’s previous best opening was “Crush,” which sold 110,000 units its first week and went on to tally more than 2 million U.S. sales and 8 million worldwide, RCA said. It also earned Bon Jovi its first Grammy nominations.
Sharing producing credits for both albums were the band’s lead singer, Jon Bon Jovi, and guitarist Richie Sambora. The group is slated to launch a worldwide tour in support of “Bounce” starting in December.
The only other new U.S. chart entry to make the top 10 this week was “The Last DJ” from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which opened at No. 9 with sales of 74,000 copies.
Rounding out the top five were Canadian teen pop ingenue Avril Lavigne’s debut album, “Let Go,” up two places to No. 4, followed by hip-hop artist Nelly’s “Nellyville” release, which climbed three rungs to No. 5.
Trailing them were the country pop trio Dixie Chicks’ latest album, “Home,” at No. 6; rapper Eminem’s third major-label LP, “The Eminem Show,” at No. 7; West Coast rapper Xzibit’s “Man vs. Machine” at No. 8 and “American Idol Greatest Moments,” a collection of performances by the 10 finalists on the hit talent show, at No. 10.
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