In yet another big week for new releases on the U.S. albums chart, the MTV-constructed band Danity Kane trumped hip-hop duo OutKast to take the top spot, while Paris Hilton scored the highest debut for a new solo female pop artist this year with a No. 6 entry.
Danity Kane’s Bad Boy Records set sold 234,000 copies in the week ended August 27, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The winners of MTV’s “Making the Band 3” in 2005, the quintet exceeded the debuts of the two other “Making the Band” winners: O-Town’s self-titled began with 145,000 at No. 5 in 2001 and Da Band’s “Too Hot for T.V.” started with 204,000 at No. 2 in 2003.
OutKast opened at No. 2 with its fifth effort, the soundtrack to its film “Idlewild.” The LaFace release sold 196,000 units, a huge drop from 2003’s Grammy-winning “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” which moved 510,000 units in its first week. The duo’s film “Idlewild” opened at No. 9 at the North American box office last weekend with just $5.7 million.
Hilton’s Warner Bros. set “Paris” debuted at No. 6 with 77,000 units; it features the top 20 hit single “Stars Are Blind.”
Reigning champ Christina Aguilera’s RCA album “Back to Basics” fell to No. 3 with 135,000.
Mexican rock group Mana set a new record with “Amar Es Combatir” (Warner Latina), which became the highest charting and biggest debut for a Spanish-language album for a duo or group on The Billboard 200. “Amar” opened at No. 4 and sold 87,000 copies. It also crowned both the Top Rock Albums and Top Latin Albums charts.
Disney’s “The Cheetah Girls 2” soundtrack held tight at No. 5 in its second week on the big chart with 81,000 copies.
The multi-artist compilation “NOW 22” slipped one to No. 7 in its seventh week, moving 68,000 copies.
Lamb Of God’s Epic set “Sacrament” bowed at No. 8 with 63,000, earning the hard rock group its best chart position and sales week ever. Its last set, 2004’s “Ashes of the Wake,” debuted and peaked at No. 27 with 35,000.
Luther Vandross’ “The Ultimate Luther Vandross” debuted at No. 9 with 59,000. The set features 18 of the late soul singer’s greatest hits, plus a handful of previously unreleased tracks.
Kelis closed out the top tier with “Kelis Was Here” (Jive). The release bowed at No. 10 with 58,000, which easily trumped her previous best charting position with 2003’s “Tasty” (No. 27). Another big debut this week was country artist Pat Green’s “Cannonball” (BNA) at No. 20 with 38,000 units.
At 9.54 million units, overall CD sales were down less than 1% from last week’s count and down 1.2% compared to the same week a year ago. Sales for 2006 are down 6% compared to 2005 at 344.61 million units.
Reuters/Billboard