Now! That's What I Call Music 43 Gets #1 On Billboard 200
Posted by Joseph Lee on 08.15.2012
The sixteenth of the franchise...
The Now That's What I Call Music! franchise is #1 once again on the Billboard 200 with Now 43. It is the sixteenth #1 of the franchise.
Excluding the spinoff sets (like the holiday and genre-themed efforts), all of the regular albums have reached the top ten. All but the first (released in 1998) debuted in the top then. The first to get #1 was 2000's Now 4. Now represents the majority of the 23 various artist sets that led the Billboard 200 in its 56 year history. Various artist albums are different from compilation soundtracks, which regularly hit #1, and cast recordings.
Frank Sinatra's Nothing But The Best greatest hits set comes back to the chart with 40,000, up 2,531%. Amazon MP3 put it on sale for 99 cents on August 7. The 2008 album, which has twenty songs, debuted and peaked at #2 when it was released, with 99,000 copies sold. This is its best sales frame since the second week on the chart, when it sold 54,000 copies at #4.
Elle Varner had a strong debut with Perfectly Imperfect at #4, selling 33,000. Label sources thought the album would sell between 25,000 and 30,000 as of last Friday. That was double what industry experts were predicting. The album includes her two top 20 hits on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, "Only Wanna Give it To You" (ft. J. Cole) and "Refill".
The other notable album in the top ten this week is Colt Ford's Declaration of Independence at #5. This is his highest selling week with 31,000. It's also his highest rank on the Billboard 200, after the #26 debut and peak of 2011's Every Chance I Get. On the country albums chart, it climbed 67-1, his first #1 on that chart. It debuted last week after street-date violations caused it to premiere early.
1. Now 43 (111,000)
2. Rick Ross - God Forgives, I Don't (60,000)
3. Frank Sinatra - Nothing But The Best (40,000)
4. Elle Varner - Perfectly Imperfect (33,000)
5. Colt Ford - Declaration of Independence (31,000)
6. Zac Brown Band - Uncaged (31,000)
7. Justin Bieber - Believe (29,000)
8. One Direction - Up All Night (29,000)
9. Adele - 21 (26,000)
10. Kidz Bop 22 (23,000)
Overall album sales from this week totaled 4.96 million units, down 5% from last week (5.22 million) and down 17% from last year (5.96 million). Year-to-date album sales stand at 182.24 million, down 4% compared with the same total at this point last year (189.43 million).
