Luke Bryan Gets First #1 Album On Billboard 200
Posted by Joseph Lee on 03.13.2013
Jimi Hendrix takes #2..
Luke Bryan has earned his first #1 on the Billboard 200 with Spring Break...Here To Party selling 150,000 copies, his best sales week yet.
He previously hit #2 with Tailgates & Tanlines, which was released in 2011. It was also his previous high with 145,000. The new album is a compilation of songs from Bryan's four earlier Spring Break themed EPs, where were only available as downloads and were released between 2009 and 2012. The four EPs have sold a combined 145,000. The new album is available as a download and physical CD. Half of its sales were from downloads.
Bryan is currently on tour and working on his fourth studio album. He will co-host the Academy of Country Music Awards on April 7 on CBS with Blake Shelton, and will also perform.
Single-Artist compilations don't get #1 very often. The last time such an album was #1 was on November 14, 2009, when Michael Jackson's This Is It soundtrack debuted at #1.
At #2 this week is Jimi Hendrix' People, Hell and Angels with 72,000. It features 12 previously unreleased songs from Hendrix from between 1968 and 1970, before he died on September 18, 1970. The last time Hendrix charted this high was in 1968, when Electric Ladyland spent two weeks at #1 on November 16-23. His last recent top ten was 2010's Valleys of Neptune, which debuted and peaked at #4 with 95,000.
The last time a posthumously-released album was in the top two was the previously mentioned This Is It, which spent two weeks in the area. Whitney Houston's Whitney: The Greatest Hits spent three weeks at #2 after her death in 2012, but the album itself was released in 2000.
The last release of archival studio recordings to get the top two was Johnny Cash's 2006 album American V: A Hundred Highways, which debuted at #1 on July 22. He recorded the vocals before his death in 2003, and the tracks were put together by producer Rick Rubin.
Florida Georgia Line's Here's To The Good Times gets a new high for the group, as it climbs 18-7 with 26,000. The set was promoted and sale-priced on iTunes as part of its Great New Artists campaign. Download sales were up by 58%, more than half of the album's total sales. The physical sales were actually down by 2%. Their single "Cruise", which hit #1 on the Country Songs chart, is climbing the Mainstream Top 40 (Pop Songs) chart. A remix featuring Nelly was recently released.
1. Luke Bryan - Spring Break...Here To Party (150,000)
2. Jimi Hendrix - People, Hell and Angels (72,000)
3. Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox (51,000)
4. Mumford & Sons - Babel (35,000)
5. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist (29,000)
6. Rihanna - Unapologetic (29,000)
7. Florida Georgia Line - Here's to the Good Times (27,000)
8. Imagine Dragons - Night Visions (26,000)
9. Now 45 (24,000)
10. The Lumineers - The Lumineers (24,000)
Album sales this week totaled 5.49 million, down 5% compared to last week (5.79 million) and down 12% compared to last year (6.24 million). Year to date album sales stand at 55.85 million, down 8% compared to the same total at this point last year (60.58 million).
