Columbia 41355

Producer: Brendan O'Brien

Outlaw Pete / My Lucky Day / Working on a Dream / Queen of the Supermarket / What Love Can Do / This Life / Good Eye / Tomorrow Never Knows / Life Itself / Kingdom of Days / Surprise, Surprise / The Last Carnival / The Wrestler

February 14, 2009
1 week



It took the Boss — with a couple of historic TV appearances — to end Taylor Swift's eight-week run at the top. Released on the heels of his high-profile appearances at the "We Are One" concert in honor of President Barack Obama's inauguration on Jaunary 18 and his half time performance with the E Street Band at Super XLIII on February 1, Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream sold 224,000 copies in its first week. It gave Springsteen his ninth Number 1 album and dethroned Swift's Fearless from the summit.

The feat put Springsteen in a third-place tie with the Rolling Stones for the most chart-toppers, behind only the Beatles (with 19) and Elvis Presley and Jay-Z (with 10 each). Although the first-week tally of Working on a Dream marked a 33 percent drop from Springsteen's last chart-topper, 2007's Magic, it still had to be considered a triumph of sorts, given the general downturn of the American economy and the music business at the time of its release.

On an artistic level, Springsteen felt — and some critics agreed — Dream topped a trilogy of releases that marked a creative resurgence for the veteran rocker and his trusted E Street Band. "I'll put The Rising, Magic and the new one against any other three records we've made in a row, as far as sound, depth and purpose, of what they're saying and conveying," Springsteen told Rolling Stone's David Fricke. "It's very satisfying to be able to do that at this point in the road."

Recorded on days off from the band's 2007-2008 tour, Working on a Dream had its upbeat moments, celebrating the hope of Obama after the dire Bush years. Yet the album was also bittersweet. Dream marked what were likely the final recordings featuring E Street keyboardist Danny Federici, who died on April 17, 2008 from melanoma. In the somber, album-closing "The Last Carnival," Springsteen pays tribute to Federici by singing, "We'll be riding the train without you tonight/The train that keeps movin'."

"The Wrestler," which was tacked onto the album as a bonus track, was the theme song for the Mickey Rourke-comeback vehicle of the same name. The song won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, but was surprisingly absent from the Oscar nominations. The snub likely didn't hurt Springsteen too much. A few weeks later, with Working on a Dream perched atop the album chart, he was awarded a Grammy for Best Rock Song for "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" from Magic. It was an honor Springsteen claimed he didn't even know he was nominated for until he opened the paper the following morning.  

THE TOP FIVE
Week of February 14, 2009

1. Working on a Dream, Bruce Springsteen
2. Fearless, Taylor Swift
3. I Am...Sasha Fierce, Beyonce
4. Dark Horse, Nickelback
5. 808s & Heartbreak, Kanye West

Here's the video for the title track of Working on a Dream.

        

Big Machine Records 200

Executive producer: Scott Borchetta

Track listing: Fearless / Fifteen / Love Story / Hey Stephen / White Horse / You Belong to Me / Breathe / Tell Me Why / You're Not Sorry / The Way I Loved You / Forever & Always / The Best Day / Change

November 29, 2008
8 weeks (non-consecutive)

Breaking up may be hard to do, to paraphrase the Neil Sedaka's 1962 hit, but it can also help you garner a ton of publicity if you're a celebrity. Just ask Taylor Swift.  News that she'd been dumped by Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers broke just as her second album, Fearless, hit stores. The story was all over the Internet and celebrity-centered TV shows. It wasn't like the singer-songwriter need the publicity, but it certainly didn't hurt.

Prior to the album's release, Swift appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and claimed that Jonas broke up with her in a 27-second phone call. Such heartbreak, it turned out, wasn't only good for publicity, it provided fuel for much of the material on Fearless. Swift told Nekesa Mumbi Moody of the Associated Press, that she often shared her frustrations with her songwriting partner Liz Rose. "I walked into Liz’s house, and I said, ‘I can’t believe what’s going on right now, I’ve gotta tell you about this.’ I told her all about it,” says Swift. “She goes, ‘If you could say everything you were thinking to him right now, what would you start with?”‘

Encouraged to unload, Swift did just that: “I would say to him, ‘I’m sick and tired of your attitude, I feel like I don’t even know you’ ... and I just started rambling, and she was writing down everything that I was saying, and so, we turned it into a song.”

That song, "Tell Me Why," made the final cut for Fearless, but it wasn't the first time Swift shared her heartbreak in song. The striking blonde-haired singer/songwriter first gained attention with the song "Tim McGraw," which isn't a tribute to the country singer it's named for, but rather a broken-hearted love letter to a former flame. That song, and other hits such as "Our Song" and "Teardrops on My Guitar," helped push 2006 self-titled debut album to Number One of the Top Country Albums chart and number 5 on The Billboard 200. The album went on to sell more than 3 million copies.

Prior to the release of Fearless, Swift was getting plenty of media attention. She sang the National Anthem at the World Series, won a BMI Country Award for song of the year with "Teardrops on My Guitar," performed with Def Leppard on a CMT special, and toured with Rascal Flatts.

All of that was a nice setup, but the ultimate payback came in the form of Fearless' opening-week sales numbers. The album sold 592,304 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the best opening week by a female artist to date in 2008 and the fourth best overall. In fact, she even bested the opening week of her ex, Joe and the Jonas Brothers, who sold 525,000 copies of A Little Bit Longer when that album hit stores in August.

Five weeks after initially topping the chart, Fearless made a return visit, knocking Britney Spears' Circus from the summit. A week later it logged a third week at Number One, fending off hot debuts by Keyshia Cole and Jamie Foxx, and remained in the top spot through the holiday season. By late January 2009, Fearless had racked up seven non-consecutive weeks at the top, making her the first artist to top the chart for that span since Usher's Confessisons spent nine weeks at the top in 2004.

THE TOP FIVE
Week of November 29, 2008

1. Fearless, Taylor Swift
2. David Archuleta, David Archuleta
3. Now That's What I Call Music 29, Various artists
4. Thr33 Ringz, T-Pain
5. Twilight, Soundtrack

Here's Taylor Swift's video for "Love Story" from her chart-topping album, Fearless. 

        

Jive/Zomba 40387

Executive producers: Larry Rudolph, Theresa LaBarbera Whites

Track listing: Womanizer / Circus / Out from Under / Kill the Lights / Shattered Glass / If U Seek Amy / Usual You / Blur / MMM Papi / Mannequin / Lace and Leather / My Baby / Radar

December 20, 2008
1 week

Circus, Britney Spears' fifth chart-topping album, couldn't have been more aptly titled. Even before the pop starlet's previous effort, Blackout, became her first proper album not the debut at Number One, Spears personal life and career had literally become a circus with an ever-changing list of ringmasters and tabloid reporters and the paparazzi chronicling every ill-advised move.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when Spears reached rock bottom, as she hit numerous personal and career lowlights before rebounding with Circus. Few could forget her disastrous 2007 appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards where Spears not only lip-synched and danced poorly, but she appeared out of shape and just plain out of it. Before that, there was the inexplicable head-shaving incident.

Finally, in early 2008, Spears, locked herself in a room with one of her young children, while her other son had already been placed in a car to return to the home of Spears' ex-husband Kevin Federline.  Eventually Spears was coaxed out of the room and taken to the hospital via ambulance. After a psychiatric evaluation, a Los Angeles court ordered conservatorship of the troubled pop star to her father, Jamie Spears, and a restraining order against Sam Lutfi, who had been acting as Spears' manager during her slide into the abyss.

In a December 2008 interview with Rolling Stone's Jenny Eliscu, Spears complained that her life had become a bore under her father's care. "I feel like an old person now," she told Eliscu. "I do! I go to bed at, like, 9:30 every night, and I don't go out or anything, you know what I mean? I just feel like an old fart."

Nonetheless, those restrictions undoubtedly help Spears settle down and focus on making Circus, which critics hailed as a return to form. "Britney's vocals on Blackout sounded phoned in," Rolling Stone's Caryn Ganz observed, "but on Circus, she put in real studio time, actually singing some slow jams."

Fans got their first taste of Circus with the release of "Womanizer," an electro rave-up presumably aimed at Federline. Upon its release in September, the single topped the Hot 100 paving the way for Circus.

Released on December 2, Spears' 27th birthday, Circus features the pop star reuniting A&R woman Theresa LaBarbera Whites and Larry Rudolf, the manager who discovered her in 1995, but was sacked in 2007 after Spears lashed out at him for allegedly plotting with her parents to send her to rehab.

Several musical collaborators also returned, including Max Martin, the Swedish producer behind Spears' first chart-topper …Baby One More Time, and Guy Sigsworth, half of the duo Frou Frou and known for his work with Madonna and Bjork. Other collaborators included Dr. Luke, known who penned Katy Perry's then-hot "I Kissed a Girl" and Kelly Clarkson's "Since You've Been Gone."

Of course, a Spears album wouldn't be complete with some sort of controversy. The song "If You Seek Amy" had some parents in an uproar, since the chorus sounds as if Spears is spelling out the F-word followed by the word "me."

Controversy or not, with the release of Circus, Spears comeback seemed complete. The album sold 505,000 copies in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving Spears her fifth chart-topper. It also made Spears the first artist to debut with four albums selling more than 500,000 copies, since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991.

THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 20, 2008

1. Circus, Britney Spears
2. Fearless, Taylor Swift
3. I Am…Sasha Fierce, Beyonce
4. 808s & Heartbreaks, Kanye West
5. Dark Horse, Nickelback

Here's Britney's video for "Womanizer."
 

and the clip for the title track of Circus, her fifth chart-topping album.

 

 

 

        

Welcome to Number 1 Albums, the web version of The Billboard Book of Number One Albums, originally published in 1996 by Billboard Books/Watson-Guptill. A few quick notes to visitors…

You may notice that the dates begin in 1956. Obviously I haven’t been posting that long, but I thought it would be best to post using the actual dates that the albums went to Number One so that the titles appear in the proper chronological order. I plan to post all the albums featured in the book, 423 in total, ending with the Beatles Anthology 1 in 1995, and occasionally add entries ...

<< MORE >>

Roc-A-Fella 1219802

Executive producers: Kanye West, Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua

Track listing: Say You Will / Welcome to the Heartbreak / Heartless / Amazing / Love Lockdown / Paranoid / RoboCop / Street Lights / Bad News / See You in My Nightmares / Coldest Winter



December 13, 2008
1 week

The fact that Kanye West scored his third consecutive chart-topping album with 808s and Heartbreaks wasn't nearly as shocking as the performance of that week's other big debut.

Chinese Democracy, the first studio album of original material by Guns N' Roses since 1991, debuted at number three. That had to be a big disappointment for the only original member remaining in Guns N' Roses, singer Axl Rose, especially if you consider the fact that the last time Guns N' Roses issued an album of new material, it grabbed the Number 1 and 2 spots, respectively with Use Your Illusion II and Use Your Illusion I.

West, however, had to be pleased by comparison. His latest sold 450,000 copies in its debut week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, besting his 2004 debut, The College Dropout, but failing to match the sales of his two previous chart-toppers. Graduation, West's 2008 release, sold 957,000 in its debut week, while Late Registration debuted with 860,000 in 2005.

While West's drop is sales could be attributed to the general downturn in the music business, some may have chalked it up to a stylistic change that left some of his hardcore fans cold. Instead of his usual rapping, West opted to sing on much of 808s and Heartbreaks using an Auto-Tune effect on his vocals and a Roland TR-808 drum machine as his primary source of instrumental backing.

Some may have found slight humor in the fact that West decided to alter his voice considering he was calling himself "the voice of this generation" in the weeks before the album's release. "I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice," he to the Associated Press. "It's me settling into that position of just really accepting that it's one thing to say you want to do it and it's another thing to really end up being like Michael Jordan."

That kind of boosting might have alienated some fans, but others may have felt sympathetic for West, who lost his mother, Donda, in November 2007 due to complications following plastic surgery. Much of the "heartbreak" on 808s and Heartbreaks was the result of his mother's death.

"I'm just going through balancing that," he said. "And I always used to have that support system, you know. My mom would be there; no matter what, she was there before everything."

THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 13, 2008

1. 808s and Heartbreaks, Kanye West
2. Fearless, Taylor Swift
3. Chinese Democracy, Guns N' Roses
4. I Am...Sasha Fierce, Beyonce
5. Theater of the Mind, Ludacris

 Here's the video for Kanye's "Heartless."

        

Music World Music/Columbia 719492

Executive producers: Beyonce & Matthew Knowles

Track listing: If I Were a Boy / Halo / Disappear / Broken-Hearted Girl / Ave Maria / Satellites / Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) / Radio / Diva / Sweet Dreams / Video Phone

December 6, 2008
1 week

There had been other two-CD sets to top the chart, yet Beyonce's I Am…Sasha Fierce is likely the first double-CD chart-topper to feature one disc credited to the artist of note and the other to a newly revealed alter ego.

"That is my alter ego and now she has a last name," Beyonce said of "Sasha Fierce" in an interview with the Telegraph's Daniel Jackson. "I have someone else that takes over when it's time for me to work and when I'm on stage, this alter ego that I've created that kind of protects me and who I really am." As such, the I Am disc shows of Beyonce's more personal and stripped down side, while the Sasha Fierce disc spotlights Beyonce's wilder, club-bangin' diva persona.

To tap into the former, Beyonce reached out to Amanda Ghost, who co-wrote James Blunt's international hit "You're Beautiful." When Ghost was first contacted by Beyonce, through her husband, superstar rapper and music mogul Jay-Z, she was a bit surprised. "I said I don't know anything about urban music," she told Jackson. "But she likes so many different styles, as does Jay-Z. The reason they wanted me was because I wasn't from that world. And we started a friendship up. We spent three weeks together in New York working on the new record and we had the most incredible time. She has a complete, almost laser-like focus on what she is and what she can do." Ghost ended up co-writing three songs on the I am disc, "Disappear," "Satellites," and an adaptation of Charles Ground's much-covered classic "Ave Maria."

Another influence of the album was Beyonce's acting gig in Cadillac Records, the film in which she portrays legendary blues belter Etta James. "I'm the most proud of that movie, more than anything I've done so far," she told Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times. "More than anything, it changed me. It changed my art. It changed my way of looking at everything; my approach to the songs I chose and the way I sang [on the "I Am . . . "] record. I kept it a lot cleaner and lot more simple. In the studio, I sang those songs the same way as if I had a scene with my acting coach. I was in there crying, screaming and sweating, all of that. . . . All of that is in the music. I couldn't go from that to just singing anything. It had everything to do with 'I Am . . . ' Those songs are just from the heart."

Both the new approach and the more dance-friendly sounds of Beyonce proved to be a hit with the fans. Upon the release of I Am…Sasha Fierce both sides of Beyonce's personality were making noise on the charts. The confessional "If I Were a Boy" was in the top 10 of the Hot 100 while "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" was on top of the Hot R&B Hip-Hop Songs chart, setting the stage for I Am…Sasha Fierce to become Beyonce's third consecutive chart-topping debut on The Billboard 200.

The album didn't disappoint, selling 482,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That sum wasn't enough to top B-Day's bow in 2006 with 541,000, but it did best Beyonce's solo debut, Dangerously in Love, which entered the chart at the top with sales of 317,000 copies in 2003.

THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 6, 2008

1. I Am…Sasha Fierce, Beyonce
2. Dark Horse, Nickelback
3. David Cook, David Cook
4. Fearless, Taylor Swift
5. The Promise, Il Divo

Here's Beyonce's video for "If I Were a Boy"



And "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
 

        

Summit Entertainment/Chop Shop/Atlantic 515923

Executive producer: Livia Tortella

Track listing: Supermassive Black Hole [Muse] / Decode [Paramore] / Full Moon [Black Ghosts] / Leave Out All the Rest [Linkin Park] / Spotlight (Twilight Mix) [Mute Math] / Go All the Way (Into the Twilight) [Perry Farrell] / Tremble for My Beloved [Collective Soul] / I Caught Myself [Paramore] / Eyes on Fire [Blue Foundation] / Never Think [Rob Pattinson] / Flightless Bird, American Mouth [Iron & Wine] / Bella's Lullaby [Carter Burwell]

November 22, 2008
1 week

Twilight certainly wasn't the first vampire flick to draft hot acts to create a hit soundtrack, but it's the highest charting. The album, featuring such hit acts as Paramore, Muse, and Linkin Park alongside indie favorites Iron & Wine, sold 165,000 copies in its debut week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, ending the two-week reign of AC/DC's Black Ice. Following Juno and Mamma Mia!, it's the third soundtrack to hit the top in 2008 and it's the first vampire film soundtrack to achieve the feat.

In 1987, the soundtrack to Joel Schumacher's Lost Boys featured Echo & the Bunnymen covering the Doors' "People Are Strange" and "Good Times," a collaborative effort between fellow Aussies Jimmy Barnes and INXS. The song climbed to number three on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, yet the album stalled at number 15.

Nearly a decade later, in 1995, the mostly score soundtrack to Neil Jordan's film adaption of Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire rocked with a cover of "Sympathy for the Devil" by Guns N' Roses. That recording made the top 10 of the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, but the soundtrack was dead on arrival on The Billboard 200 where it peaked at a lowly number 118.

Queen of the Damned, 2002's entry, proved to be the more successful. That album, which featured a who's who of modern metal performing songs composed by Korn king Jonathan Davis and Richard Gibbs, hit the summit of the Top Soundtracks chart, but only reached number 28 on The Billboard 200.

The popularity of the Twilight soundtrack, which was released prior to the film's November 21 theatrical debut in the U.S., can undoubtedly be traced to the success of author Stephenie Meyer's best-selling book series, but it can also be attributed to the artists on the soundtrack, some of which received shout-outs from Meyer for inspiring her writing.

Tennessee-spawned pop-punk act Paramore made the leap from an indie Fueled By Ramen to Atlantic Records, which issued its sophomore effort, Riot! in 2007. That album reached number 15. "Decode" and "I Caught Myself," featured on Twilight, are the band's first new material since the release of Riot! The band even shot a video for the former track. Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell also contributed a new song, "Go All the Way (Into the Twilight)," which was written specifically for the movie. Brit neo-prog rockers Muse scored its U.S. chart high in 2006 with Black Holes and Revelations, which included the track "Super Massive Black Hole," chosen to lead off the Twilight soundtrack. Linkin Park, the most popular of the bunch, was coming off three-consecutive chart-topping albums with 2004's Collision Course and Meteora, and 2007's Minutes to Midnight. For Twilight, the band contributed "Leave Out All The Rest," a Modern Rock hit that also appeared on Minutes to Midnight.

Aside from the usual suspects, the Twilight soundtrack also features actor Rob Pattinson, who portrays teen vampire Edward Cullen in the film, warbling "Never Think." That combined with the hysteria surrounding the film's release and the popularity of the acts on the soundtrack, was enough to drive Twilight to the top of the chart. Vampires everywhere rejoiced.

THE TOP FIVE
The week of November 22, 2008

1. Twilight, Soundtrack
2. Black Ice, AC/DC
3. High School Musical 3, Soundtrack
4. Take It to the Limit, Hinder
5. Funhouse, Pink

Here's Paramore's video for "Decode."

        

Columbia 88697 38378 2

Producer: Brendan O'Brien

Track listing: Rock N Roll Train / Skies on Fire / Big Jack / Anything Goes / War Machine / Smash 'N' Grab / Spolin' for a Fight / Wheels / Decibel / Stormy May Day / She Likes Rock N Roll / Money Made / Rock N Roll Dream / Rocking All the Way / Black Ice

November 8, 2008
2 weeks

AC/DC might be known for Highway to Hell, but you could say that Australian hard-rockers took the long road out of Eden to score its second chart-topper.

Long Road Out of Eden is the name of Eagles' 2007 reunion album, sold exclusively through Wal-Mart and its sister stores Sam's Club. Prior to the chart debut of that album, exclusive titles available only at one retail chain were excluded from the Billboard charts. However, that changed on November 7, 2007, when Billboard, in consultation with Neilsen SoundScan, altered its rules to allow proprietary titles on its charts.

Like the Eagles, the veteran Australian hard-rockers opted to release their latest album, Black Ice, as an exclusive through big-box retailer Wal-Mart and its related stores (Amazon.com is offering it through its affiliate stores), so although it might seem like an unlikely pairing, AC/DC should thank the Eagles for its first number one album in 27 years.

Black Ice didn't merely top the chart; it did it with impressive numbers, especially if you consider the general downturn in the music business and the economy. The album sold 784,000 copies in its debut week in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, trouncing its nearest competitor, the Disney-spun phenomenon High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which sold 297,000 copies. Black Ice's impressive opening-week numbers made it the second best selling album of 2008 to date, trailing only Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, which debuted with sales of 1 million units. 

While AC/DC might have broken the traditional retail mold with Black Ice, it certainly stuck to the same blueprint with the music, even if it enlisted new producer Brendan O'Brien, known for his work with Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam. The album features the classic AC/DC sound of guitarist Angus Young's chunky guitar riffs and Brian Johnson's gruff vocals. As for the subject matter, the fact that four of the album's 15 tracks sport the word "rock" in the title, will give you a pretty big clue.

"We stick to the maxim 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it,'" Johnson told Edna Gundersen in USA Today. "It's not that we're afraid of anything. By sticking to what we do, that's being brave. The pressures we were under in the '80s and '90s to use wind machines and wear leather coats, those were hard times. People thought we were dinosaurs, that we lost the plot because we weren't sparkly and cutie-wootie enough."

Yet, every generation seems to rediscover AC/DC through films and TV shows such as School of Rock and Beavis & Butt-head and video games Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Angus Young credits the band's continued popularity to the longevity of rock 'n' roll. "We're living proof it ain't dying," he told Gundersen. "The Stones are still out there. Led Zeppelin was playing again. A hell of a lot of younger bands are coming along. And I'm sure plenty of bands are rehearsing in garages. As for us, we'll do it as long as we can do it well," he said. "I've got a song or two still left in me that I think can kick a few butts."

THE TOP FIVE

1. Black Ice, AC/DC
2. High School Music 3: Senior Year, Soundtrack
3. Paper Trail, T.I.
4. Luck Old Sun, Kenny Chesney
5. Death Magnetic, Metallica


Here's the video clip for AC/DC's "Rock N Roll Train."

        

BNA 734553

Producers: Kenny Chesney, Buddy Cannon

Track listing: I'm Alive / Way Down Here / Boats / Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven / Down the Road / Spirit of a Storm / Ten with a Two / The Life / Key's in the Conch Shell / Nowhere to Go, Nowhere to Be / That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)



The last time Kenny Chesney released an album, on September 11, 2007, he was thrust headlong into the battle between hip-hop stars Kanye West and 50 Cent. Some pundits predicted that Chesney could be the chart-topping dark horse as Kanye and 50 fought over rap fans' dollars, yet Chesney had no such luck. Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates entered the chart at number three behind 50's Curtis at number two, and West's chart-topping Graduation.

When Chesney returned with his next effort, Lucky Old Sun, no such competition existed. T.I.'s Paper Trail, which incidentally features a guest shot from West, had already been at the top for two weeks, so it wasn't a serious threat to Chesney's return to the summit. Sure enough, Lucky Old Sun sold 176,000 copies in its debut week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, besting Paper Trail's third-week sales of 132,000. Chesney's closest competition from a new release came in the form of singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne's third album, Gossip in the Grain, was debuted at number three with sales of 60,000.

While Lucky Old Sun's first-week sales were enough to put it in the top spot and give Chesney his fifth chart-topping album, the country star was not immune to the general downturn in the music business. It was Chesney's weakest sales debut week since 1999 when Everywhere We Go entered the chart at number 51 with sales of 30,000, noted Billboard's Katie Hasty.

For Lucky Old Sun, Chesney toned down his Jimmy Buffett-inspired party anthems for a more laid-back approach, which was a result of him switching gears after living life in the fast lane on the road.

"My life is a lot like a baseball season," he explained on the GAC Nights: Live from Nashville radio show. "My tour goes from April to September, and pretty much the whole time, my foot is all the way down on the gas pedal, and when we’re on the stage, [it’s] full blast. This record reflects me when I’m not in that mode. It’s more of an acoustic record than I’ve ever recorded. If I could take the people that listen to my music down to my boat, and I pulled a guitar out of the case and played some music, this album would be kind of what they would hear."

The album takes its title from the pop standard "That Lucky Old Sun," which Chesney sings as a duet with guest Willie Nelson. An interesting footnote, the Beach Boys Brian Wilson covered the same song on his solo album, titled That Lucky Old Sun, only Wilson wasn't quite as lucky when it came to sales. Wilson, who scored two chart-toppers with the Beach Boys, only made it to number 21 with That Lucky Old Sun, which sold 21,000 in its first week of release in late August 2008.

THE TOP FIVE
Week of November 1, 2008

1. Lucky Old Sun, Kenny Chesney
2. Paper Trail, T.I.
3. Gossip in the Grain, Ray LaMontagne
4. Death Magnetic, Metallica
5. Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson

Here's Kenny Chesney's video for "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven."
 

        

Grand Hustle/Atlantic 512267

Executive producers: T.I.P., Jason Geter

Track listing: 56 Bars (Intro) / I'm Illy / Ready for Whatever / On Top of the World / Live Your Life / Whatever You Like / No Matter What / My Life Your Entertainment / Porn Star / Swing Ya Rag / Swagga Like Us / Slide Show / You Ain't Missin' Nothing / Dead and Gone



October 18, 2008
2 weeks

Nearly 40 years after Johnny Cash at San Quentin — an album recorded at a California prison — topped the chart, rapper T.I. scored his ...<< MORE >>

Warner Bros. 508732

Producer: Rick Rubin

Track listing: That Was Just Your Life / The End of the Line / Brocken, Beat & Scarred / The Day That Never Comes / All Nightmare Long / Cyanide / The Unforgiven III / The Judas Kiss / Suicide & Redemption / My Apocalypse



September 27, 2008
3 weeks

It takes a mix of chutzpah and business savvy for an act to break from the norm of releasing an album on traditional Tuesday street date. Metallica is an act that has both.

In order to have a simultaneous international release date, ...<< MORE >>

Def Jam

Executive producers: Demetrius Ellerbee and L.A. Reid

Track listing: The Recession (Intro) / Welcome Back / By the Way / Crazy World / What They Want / Amazin’ / Hustlaz Ambition / Who Dat / Don’t You Know / Circulate / Word Play / Vacation / Everything / Talkin’ It There / Don’t Do It / Put On / Get Allot / My President



September 20, 2008
1 week

Hip Hop is Dead, Nas proclaimed nearly two years earlier in the title of his own chart-topping album. His commentary on the genre was likely ...

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Roadrunner 617938

Producer: Dave Fortman

Track listing: .Execute.  / Gematria (The Killing Name) / Sulfur / Psychosocial / Dead Memories / Vendetta / Butcher’s Hook / Gehenna / This Cold Black / Wherein Lies Continue / Snuff / All Hope is Gone

September 13, 2008
1 week

The album chart has seen its share of chart-topping ghouls over the years, from Alice Cooper in the ‘70s to Marilyn Manson in the ‘90s and beyond, but none are perhaps more ghoulish than Slipknot.

Emerging from Des Moines, Iowa in 1995, Slipknot quickly made a name for itself ...

<< MORE >>

Hollywood  1944

Producer: John Fields

Track listing: BB Good / Burnin’ Up / Shelf / One Man Show / Lovebug / Tonight / Can’t Have You / Video Girl / Pushin’ Me Away / Sorry / Got Me Going Crazy / A Little Bit Longer



August 30, 2008
2 weeks

In spite of their relatively young age, the Jonas Brothers were no overnight sensations when their third album, A Little Bit Longer, debuted on top of The Billboard 200.

Nick, the youngest of the brothers, first gained notice at the age of six and performed on Broadway ...<< MORE >>

Decca 011439

Executive producers: Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus

Track listing: Honey, Honey [Amanda Seyfried, Ashley Lilley &Rachel McDowall] / Money, Money, Money [Meryl Streep, Julie Walters & Christine Baranski] / Mamma Mia [Streep] / Dancing Queen [Streep, Walters & Baranski] / Our Last Summer [Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard, Seyfried & Streep] / Lay All Your Love on Me [Dominic Cooper & Seyfried] / Super Trooper [Streep, Walters & Baranski] / Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) [Seyfried, Lilley & McDowall] The Name of the Game [Seyfried & Skarsgard] / Voulez-Vous [The Cast, Philip Michael, Baranski, Walters & Skarsgard] ...<< MORE >>