In moving nearly 195,000 first week copies, Meghan Trainor’s “Title” did not simply secure a number one position on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart. It also consumed the lion’s share of the conversation.
Much of the remaining conversation then fall in favor of Taylor Swift’s “1989,” which saw its cumulative sales total charge past the four million mark.
Those hot albums–and hot stories–made it easy to forget that several other noteworthy albums were involved in the most recent sales race. Among them? Ella Henderson’s “Chapter One.”
Fueled by breakthrough single “Ghost,” which continues to gain ground on the US sales and radio charts, Henderson’s album officially arrived in the US on January 13.
By the time its first tracking week closed, it had achieved a sales total of 20,434, says the final data from Soundscan.
A modest total, the ~20K count narrowly bests those achieved by the debut albums from fellow female standouts Tove Lo (19,346) and Tinashe (18,773). Like those artists, Henderson received support at radio from the iHeartRadio “On the Verge” program.
The weekly total of 20,434 was the fifth-best for a new release. In addition to the Trainor album, “Chapter One” also trailed “Kidz Bop 27” (77,380), Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Special” (30,047) and Jazmine Sullivan’s “Reality Show” (29,708).