NEW DAY = PAYDAY
Incredibly lame ship metaphors aside, Dion’s Epic return, A New Day Has Come, debuts resoundingly at #1 on this week’s HITS Top 50 Album Chart, with sales north of 550k—numbers that actually met or exceeded sales projections. Naturally, this means the music industry is forever healthy again.
"It was an incredible week for Celine," said Kevin Hawkins of Amazon.com. "It’s clear her fan base not only maintained its size but actually grew during her hiatus." Since Kevin works at Amazon, his quote was delayed in getting to us.
Also taking a testosterone trip to the Top Five this week is Columbia’s WWF: Forceable Entry, which bowed at #3, thanks to such slammin’ contributors as Kid Rock, Creed, Disturbed, Limp Bizkit, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Sevendust, Saliva, Monster Magnet and Cypress Hill.
"Those bands and the WWF following couldn’t be better matched," said Amazon’s Hawkins. Interestingly, talking about Forceable Entry brought Kevin childhood memories of the summers he spent at his Uncle Carl’s farm in Arkansas. We’ll move on with the chart story now.
It should also be noted that the proper spelling of "forceable" is "forcible," but don’t bother telling WWF fans that, since it won’t matter.
This week’s Top Five was rounded out by UTV’s Now Vol. 9 at #2, Lost Highway’s O Brother at #4 and Roc-A-Fella/Jive/IDJ’s Jay-Z & R. Kelly at #5.
Incidentally, Arista’s Pink experienced a huge sales spike this week, jumping 9-6 on a 55% increase. New single "Don’t Let Me Get Me," combined with the 4,567th airing of her NBA commercial, did the trick.
Other Top 10 debuts this week include MJM/MCA’s Avant at #7 and Universal’s Scorpion King ST at #8.
"Celine’s debut really boosted overall sales this week. It looks like the economy may finally be returning to normal," said Amazon’s Hawkins, who seemed encouraged that his Amazon stock options may soon exceed $1.03 in cumulative worth.
