ONE-DAY SALES: WRESTLERS
DOIN' IT FOR THEMSELVES

As we enter the typical first-quarter doldrums in earnest, popera superstar Josh Groban sits easily atop this week’s album chart, as his 143/Reprise opus, Closer, logs a 29% uptick and clears #2 Alicia Keys by some 8,500 units.

It was a down week for albums as a whole, with most albums seeing their numbers deflate significantly following the holidays. Indeed, with sales of just over 55k the only requirement for entry into the Top 10, and just one album—Groban’s—doing better than 100k, this week’s chart wasn’t much to crow about.

The chart’s likely to look about the same next week. In fact, retail pundits are beginning to ask if it’s possible that no record will sell over 100k next week. For history buffs, that hasn’t happened since February 1994, or almost 10 years exactly.

As for new releases, WWE Originals (Columbia) is shaping up to be next week’s top chart debut, according to early reports from national accounts. The collection of World Wrestling Entertainment stars singing, rapping and just plain grunting numbers such as “Where’s the Beer,” “I Don’t Suck (Really)” and “Basic Thugonomics” looks as of this moment to be headed for a first week of about 60k.

Could a big holiday weekend (Martin Luther King Day is Monday) put the wrestlers in contention for #1? Our crack team of retail he-men says it seems unlikely, but it’s not out of the question, given the soft market.

V2’s Crystal Method, meanwhile, is off to a solid start (again, given the soft market), as the electronica stalwarts’ latest, Legion of Boom, appears on track for a debut of 20k-25k.