Faith Hill Turns Queen of Record Sales
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Long live the Queen! Country pop diva Faith Hill knocked the King of Rock ‘N Roll off his throne, replacing Elvis Presley at the top of album sales tallies on Wednesday with her new album titled “Cry.”
Selling 472,000 copies in its first week of release ended Oct. 20, “Cry” nearly doubled Hill’s record-breaking 1999 “Breathe” debut, which also hit No. 1 on the North American charts and sold 242,229 in its first week, her label, Warner Bros., a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc., said.
But while Warner was pleased with the showing for “Cry,” which blends country, pop, gospel, and rhythm and blues, the sales actually paled in comparison with the receipts earned by fellow country crooners Dixie Chicks, who sold 780,000 units in their first week of release in early September.
The Chicks have sustained good sales levels for the past eight weeks, with industry watchers predicting both the Hill and Chicks albums to serve as a prelude for more hits being released soon by divas like Christina Aguilera, Shania Twain, Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey.
“These guys are crossing over in a big way. They’re really not country records,” said Sue Bryan, general manager of music for J&R Music World in New York City, referring to Hill and the Dixie Chicks.
“Business is stronger overall. As we have more big releases coming out this week and next week, we’re expecting a big lift,” Bryan said, noting Santana’s just-released album, “Shaman,” was already selling fast and was likely to be No. 1 next week. The album was released on Tuesday.
Other big releases due out soon include the soundtrack to Eminem’s new movie “8 Mile” and a compilation of grunge band Nirvana’s greatest hits.
Presley’s “Elvis: 30 #1 Hits,” which was released 25 years after his death and held the No. 1 slot on the Nielsen Soundscan album tracker charts for three weeks, fell from first to third place in the latest week, according to the King’s label, Bertelsmann AG’s RCA Records.
The album sold 143,304 units, taking its four-week domestic tally to nearly 1.2 million units, an RCA spokesman said.
Sandwiched between the queen and king in terms of sales was rapper LL Cool J, whose new album “10,” released on Vivendi Universal’s Def Jam label, sold an estimated 154,310 units in the latest week, industry sources said.
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