Dixie Chicks Stay Saddled at No. 1
For all the fans who ditched the Chicks after they criticized the Prez, the rest of the music-buying public is sending a message: look away, look away, look away, it’s still Dixie Land.
For a second straight week, the Dixie Chicks’ first post-Incident album–Taking the Long Way–ruled the roost at number one. For the week ended June 4, Long Way held the top spot, selling another 271,000 copies, according to the latest Nielsen SoundScan numbers.
This puts the group’s two-week tally at 799,000 copies, just a 1,000 copies shy of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ four-week tally for Stadium Arcadium, which currently sits at three and which held the top spot for the two weeks prior to the Chicks’ debut. Long Way also marks the Dixie Chicks third number one debut, which extends the trio’s benchmark as the only female group with multiple chart-topping bows.
Helping to keep sales strong, the Dixie Chicks appeared on Larry King Live last week while tickets went on sale for the first dates of the trio’s upcoming Accidents & Accusations Tour, which kicks off July 21 in Detroit and ends Nov. 11 in Tacoma. Their career ticket sales already surpass the $100 million mark, making them one of the world’s most popular live acts.
The Dixie Chicks also benefited from a dearth of new debuts. In fact, after several weeks with multiple Top 10 bows, not one new album even cracked the Top 100. Accordingly, three albums climbed back into the Top 10: Now That’s What I Call Music! 21 climbed five spots to six, James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam up 16 to nine and Shakira’s reissued Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 up three to the ten spot. (Blunt’s giant jump was spurred by a Today Show performance and a repeat broadcast of his Ellen appearance.)
The Top 10 regulars, meanwhile, included the High School Musical soundtrack at two, Rascal Flatts’ Me and My Gang at four, American Idol Season 5 Encores at five, Tool’s 10,000 Days at seven and Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts at eight.
Deep down the charts at 103, Peeping Tom’s eponymous debut led the newcomers with nearly 10,000 copies sold. The album, featuring an immense guest list with such artists as Norah Jones and Massive Attack, is the new project from Faith No More and rap-rock pioneer Mike Patton.
Les Claypool’s Of Whales and Woe followed at 115, as did a pair of double-disc remix collections, Vic Latino’s ThriveMix02 and DJ Lil’ Cee & Trevor Simpson’s Ultra.Weekend2, respectively, at 125 and 129. Other notable debuts included Silverstein’s 18 Candles: Early Years at 148 and Sound of Animals Fighting’s Lover, the Lord Has Left Us at 183.
Impressively, three albums celebrated one-year anniversaries on this week’s Billboard 200. Though Coldplay’s X&Y smashed the Black Eyed Peas’ Monkey Business in first-week sales in June ’05, the pop-rap quartet finished ahead of the British alt-rockers one year later. Monkey Business is currently up six spots to 70 on 3.8 million total copies sold, while X&Y is down four to 138 on a 2.9 million-copy tally.
Avenged Sevenfold’s City of Evil is the third album celebrating its first chart birthday, currently at 182 with total sales just under 620,000 copies.
Next week, look for a slew of new debuts from artists who seemingly thought it devilish to release albums on June 6, 2006, aka 6/6/06. Among them, AFI and Ice Cube seem to be frontrunners for the top spot.
The Top 10 albums for the week ended Sunday were as follows:
1. Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks
2. High School Musical soundtrack, various
3. Stadium Arcadium, Red Hot Chili Peppers
4. Me and My Gang, Rascal Flatts
5. American Idol Season Five Encores, various
6. Now That’s What I Call Music! 21, various
7. 10,000 Days, Tool
8. Some Hearts, Carrie Underwood
9. Back to Bedlam, James Blunt
10. Oral Fixation, Vol. 2, Shakira
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