The trend of big starts and big sales for veteran artists on the U.S. Album chart continues this week with three veterans debuting in the top ten and a fourth returning.
Pearl Jam tops the chart for the fifth time in their career with the album Lightning Bolt. It is also their second number 1 in a row after 2009’s Backspacer.
Two spots down at number 3 is Paul McCartney’s thirteenth top three studio album, New. It beats out his last album, Kisses on the Bottom (2012), which started at 5, and equals his last album of original material, 2007’s Memory Almost Full.
Returning to the top ten is Cher with Closer to the Truth. In its fourth week of release, the album had dropped to number 11 last week but rebounds the week to 8.
The third debut by a veteran goes to Willie Nelson with his duets album To All the Girls… This is only the third time in his 51 year recording career that Nelson has made the top ten on the Billboard Top 200 Albums following 1976’s Wanted! The Outlaws (#10, with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Coulter and Tompall Glaser) and 1982’s Always On My Mind (#2). The album also debuts at number 2 on the Country Albums, the highest he has been since 1989’s A Horse Called Music.
Mary J. Blige premiers at 23 with A Very Merry Christmas, her first studio album to not debut in the top ten; however, that can be expected from a holiday album. It also opens at 4 on the R&B Albums, her first studio album to not start in the top 2.
TLC’s hits collection with a new track, 20, comes in at 72 in its first week. Expect it to go higher next week after the airing of the TLC biopic on VH1.
Toad the Wet Sprocket are at 97 with the album New Constellation, their first studio album in sixteen years while the latest archive release from the Jerry Garcia live catalog, GarciaLive: Volume 3: Legion of Mary: December 14-15, 1974 Northwest Tour premiers at 102.
The Deluxe Edition of Eric Clapton’s Unplugged pushes the album back on the charts at 126. It peaked at number 1 in its original 1992 release with the album receiving the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year (Tears in Heaven), Male Pop Vocal Performance, Male Rock Vocal Performance and Rock Song (Layla).
Down at 175 is the premier of Gary Numan’s Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind while Mannheim Steamroller with Members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is in at 197 with Christmas Symphony II.
Outside of Pearl Jam and Paul McCartney at 1 and 3, Miley Cyrus drops to 2 with Bangerz, Drake goes 3 to 4 with Nothing Was the Same and the Avett Brothers debut at 5 with Magpie and the Dandelion.
On the singles chart, Lorde is at number 1 for a fourth week with Royals, Katy Perry moves back up from 3 to 2 with Roar and Miley Cyrus drops 2 to 3 with Wrecking Ball.
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