Taylor Swift 'Sparks' No. 1 Country Song; Faith Hill's CMA Bounce
Taylor Swift closes a gap of more than two years without a No. 1 on Country Songs, as "Sparks Fly" become the artist's fifth leader on that chart this week.
She most recently topped the audience-driven list when "You Belong with Me" spent two weeks at the summit in August 2009, but had several close calls since that time -- "Fifteen" rose to No. 7 in December 2009, followed by a No. 10 peak with "Fearless" in March 2010. She came even closer when "Mine" peaked at No. 2 a year ago, followed by a No. 3 peak with "Back to December" in March, and stopped at No. 2 with "Mean" in June. Her previous No. 1's are "Our Song" (six weeks in 2007), "Should've Said No" (two weeks in 2008), "Love Story" (two weeks in 2008), and "You Belong with Me" (two weeks in 2009).
The new No. 1 is the fourth radio single from Swift's "Speak Now" set, marking the first time in nearly 10 years that any artist claimed a lone chart topper with an album's fourth track. That hasn't happened since Steve Holy's "Good Morning Beautiful" became the first No. 1 single from his "Blue Moon" album on the Country Songs chart dated Feb. 2, 2002. Prior singles from Holy's album were "The Hunger," "Blue Moon" and "Don't Make Me Beg."
Concurrently, Swift registers the top three debuts on the overall Digital Songs lists; "If This Was a Movie" (No. 3 with 162,000), "Ours" (No. 5 with 148,000) and "Superman" (No. 13 with 91,000) all launch within the top 20. The songs were released digitally for the first time last week, and were previously available only on the deluxe CD of her "Speak Now" album at Target stores.
Following a performance of the song at the CMA Awards on Nov. 9, Faith Hill posts her highest start in more than six years on Country Songs, as "Come Home" takes Hot Shot Debut, Most Added, Most Increased Audience and Breaker honors at No. 35. With just five full days of airplay during the Nov. 7-13 tracking week, Nielsen BDS reports 3.5 million audience impressions at 102 stations monitored for the chart. The new track is the artist's best opening week since she established her career-high debut when "Mississippi Girl" bowed at No. 27 on the May 28, 2005 chart -- the song spent two weeks at No. 1 later that year. She most recently appeared on Country Songs with "Give In to Me," a track from the "Country Strong" soundtrack, which charted for three weeks based on unsolicited album play. Hill's new song leads off her next album, expected to be released early next year.
The CMAs helped shape the Country Albums chart as well, most notably the Band Perry's self-titled debut set, which jumps back into the top 10 for the first time in six weeks -- rising 11-7 with Greatest Gainer stripes (20,000 copies, up 11,000) the set also posts its best rank since July. The sibling trio won three trophies and performed current single "All Your Life" on the CMA broadcast. Other benefactors are Sugarland (No. 33, up 132%), Thompson Square (No. 38, up 96%) and Eric Church (No. 8, up 61%).
This week's top debut on the albums chart is Joe Nichols' "It's All Good," which opens at No. 19 with 7,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
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