Update: Per Billboard’s Wednesday update, Blake Shelton’s “Bringing Back the Sunshine” debuts atop the Billboard 200 album sales chart with an opening week total of 101,000.
Down significantly from the 199,000 moved by 2013’s “Based on a True Story…,” the total nonetheless gave Shelton’s album a convincing lead over every other album in the market.
Lady Antebellum’s “747” claims #2 with 74,000 sales, while Barbra Streisand’s “Partners” retains the #3 slot on the strength of 73,000. Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s “Cheek to Cheek” slips to #4 with a weekly total of 59,000.
Other top ten albums: Prince’s “ART OFFICIAL AGE” (#5, 51,000), Kenny Chesney’s “The Big Revival” (#6, 39,000), Maroon 5’s “V” (#7, 31,000), Prince and 3rdEyeGirl’s “Plectrumelectrum” (#8, 26,000), Chris Brown’s “X” (#9, 24,000) and The Script’s “No Sound Without Silence” (#10, 24,000).
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In a society driven by numbers, there is no way to ignore the reality that Blake Shelton’s new album “Bringing Back the Sunshine” moved only about half of what predecessor “Based on a True Story …” did in its first week of release.
There is, however, a very easy–and very numerical–way to make that reality more palatable. All one needs to do is look at the albums’ respective album sales chart positions.
Despite moving an impressive 199,000 copies in its first week of release in March 2013, “Based on a True Story” only debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart. It never went higher.
According to Hits Daily Double, Shelton’s “Bringing Back the Sunshine” debuted last week to a considerably lesser sales total of approximately 101,841. It, nonetheless, will debut atop the Billboard chart.
While the sales total published by the more authoritative Billboard might differ slightly from the Hits DD number, the album’s ranking on the chart will not. Shelton’s “Sunshine” will debut at a convincing #1 on the Billboard 200.
In doing so, it will follow 2011’s “Red River Blue” as Shelton’s second career leader on the overall chart. It will be his third #1 on the country albums chart.
Based on Hits’ data, Lady Antebellum’s new “747” claims the weekly runner-up position with approximately 72,938 first week sales. After two weeks of besting expectations, Barbra Streisand’s “Partners” falls short of week three projections this frame. Per Hits, it moved approximately 71,932 copies to rank as last week’s third-best-seller.
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s “Cheek to Cheek,” which claimed #1 last week, slips to #4 on the strength of about 54,909 new sales. Prince’s “ART OFFICIAL AGE” should land at #5 with sales of about 43,200.