Garth Brooks Earns Ninth No. 1 Album, Britney Spears Debuts At No. 4
Garth Brooks earns his ninth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 this week, as his new boxed set, "Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences," jumps 3-1 in its second week.
The sizable package (which contains six CDs and two DVDs) is exclusively sold through Walmart, and moved 146,000 copies in the week ending Dec. 8, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Aweek ago, it bowed at No. 3 with 164,000 from fewer than four days of sales. (It was released on Thanksgiving Day.) The set carries a list price of $29.98, but is sale-priced for $24.96.
Brooks is tied for the most No. 1 albums with the Rolling Stones and Barbra Streisand, with nine each. Ahead of them on the all-time most-No. 1s list are Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen (both with 10 No. 1s), Jay Z (13) and the Beatles (19).
"Blame It All on My Roots" is Brooks' second boxed set to reach No. 1, following the six-CD collection "The Limited Series" in 1998.
"Blame" is also the first No. 1 album to contain more than two discs since 2003, when Led Zeppelin's three-CD live set "How the West Was Won" debuted atop the list. It was the first three-or-more disc album to hit No. 1 since—you guessed it—"The Limited Series."
Last week's No. 1, One Direction's "Midnight Memories," falls to No. 2 with 117,000 (down 79% in its second week).
Kelly Clarkson's "Wrapped In Red" returns to its debut and peak, as it climbs 6-3 with 112,000 (though it's down 15%). It's the first of five Christmas albums in the top 10 this week.
Coming in at No. 4 is the only debut in the top 10: Britney Spears' "Britney Jean." The diva collects her ninth top 10 set with the arrival, as the album bows with 107,000. That's a bit smaller than the industry forecast, which pegged it to start around 115,000 to 120,000.
The new effort is the singer's eighth studio album, and follows the No. 1 debut of 2011's "Femme Fatale" (276,000). All of her studio efforts have reached the top four of the chart. (She additionally earned a top 10 set with a best-of album, "Greatest Hits: My Prerogative," which went to No. 4.)
"Britney Jean" logs Spears' lowest sales debut for a studio set. Previously, her 1999 debut album, ". . . Baby One More Time," tallied her smallest start: 121,000.
"Britney Jean's" lead single, "Work B**ch!," peaked at No. 14 on the Pop Songs airplay chart (known as Mainstream Top 40 on Billboard.biz) and spent eight weeks on the list. It's the diva's lowest-charting lead single from a studio set since 2001's "I'm a Slave 4 U" (from "Britney") went to No. 15. The eight-week run of "Work" on the chart is the shortest visit to the list for any of Spears' lead-off tracks from a studio album.
A week after "Work" fell off the tally, the second single from "Britney Jean," "Perfume," debuted. This week, in its fourth chart week, it climbs 27-22 (up 34% in spins). The music video for "Perfume" premiered Dec. 10.
Notably, "Britney Jean" is Spears' first studio album to arrive to market without a live performance on TV (or elsewhere) from the singer. Her last album was supported by three TV gigs during release week: an MTV concert special "I Am the Femme Fatale" and performances on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and "Good Morning America."
While she hasn't performed live yet for "Britney Jean," Spears has done many interviews for TV, radio and print press in support of the album.
The entertainer has also been busy of late with rehearsals for her upcoming concert residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. The show starts Dec. 27 and has 36 performances currently on sale, through August 2014. She's scheduled to perform 50 shows each in 2014 and 2015.
Following Spears on this week's Billboard 200 is the Robertsons' "Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas," slipping one slot to No. 5 with 105,000 (down 23%). Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" ducks 2-6 with 84,000 (down 58%).
Pentatonix rides its viral hit "Little Drummer Boy" to a career-high week for the a cappella group. The act's "PTXmas" (EP) flies 29-7 with 60,000 (up 119%). The ensemble's video for "Little Drummer Boy" was uploaded to YouTube on Nov. 25 to Pentatonix's official channel and collected 16.5 million views through Dec. 10.
According to YouTube, thevideo earned its highest daily views on Dec. 4, when it scored nearly 1.8 million views. Its popularity then dipped, but stayed strong throughout thetracking week (which ended Dec. 8).
"Little Drummer Boy" is one of two new songs added to the recent deluxe reissue of "PTXmas." The EP was first released in 2012, and now sports seven songs.
Michael Bublé's former No. 1 album "Christmas" returns to the top 10, jumping 16-8 with 57,000 (up 10%). The set was released in 2011, and spent five weeks at No. 1 during its first holiday season. It then rescaled the chart in late 2012 during Christmastime, reaching No. 3 on the chart dated Dec. 29.
Katy Perry's "PRISM" slides 5-9 with 51,000 (down 62%).
Closing out the top 10 is Mary J. Blige's "A Mary Christmas," which notches its first week in the top 10 (jumping 15-10 with nearly 51,000—down 10%). It's Blige's 12th top 10 album, stretching back to her debut set, "What's the 411?," which peaked at No. 4 on Sept. 26, 1992.
Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Dec. 8) totaled 7.1 million units, down 17% compared with the sum last week (8.6 million) and down 16% compared with the comparable sales week of 2012 (8.5 million). Year-to-date album sales stand at 260.7 million, down 8% compared with the same total at this point last year (283.8 million).
Next week's Billboard 200competes with the same week in 2012 when: Taylor Swift's "Red" held at No. 1 with 208,000 (up 25%), while Bruno Mars' "Unorthodox Jukebox" debuted at No. 2 with 192,000.
