Image Credit: Charles KelleSade, Soldier of Love and seemingly unstoppable General Patton of the pop charts, finally relinquished her top spot to co-ed country-pop trio Lady Antebellum, who returned to no. 1 on the Billboard albums chart after three weeks in second place, selling 126,000 copies of Need You Now.
Sade still held it down at no. 2, with 79,000, but much of the top 10 belonged to new chart bows, including naughty Nashville boy Blake Shelton‘s six-song EP Hillbilly Bone (at no. 3 with 71,000), Idol alum Danny Gokey’s own country effort My Best Days (no. 4; 65,000), the Almost Alice soundtrack featuring new songs from Avril Lavigne, Franz Ferdinand and 3Oh!3 (no. 5; 58,000), Lifehouse’s Smoke and Mirrors (no 6; 54,000), Raheem DeVaughn’s The Love and MasterPeace (no 9; 45,000) and twangy newcomer Easton Corbin, whose self-titled debut squeaked in at no. 10 with 43,000.
The old-timers still hanging on to their top-1o spots? Lady Gaga’s The Fame at no. 7 (49,000) and the Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D. at no. 8 (46,000).
Who will rise above the rest next week—the half-decade-absent Gorillaz? The sex-battling Ludacris? Or Lady Antebellum triumph once again?
More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Sade hangs on to the albums chart’s No. 1 spot, followed closely by Lady Antebellum
Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson talks about their first album without Steven Page; plus, watch new video ‘You Run Away’
Widespread Panic’s John Bell on their new album, covering the late Vic Chesnutt, and why he’s ‘not too fond’ of the ‘jam-band’ label
She & Him’s new ‘In the Sun’ video: Watch Zooey Deschanel schoolhouse rock
Lil Wayne goes to prison: Why his career will survive
See, that Kristen Baldwin was WRONG. People love my Danny….
Well, a FEW people do.
Since when does 65,000 = a few? You’re not very bright, are you?
65k only? I was hoping that “pimping the dead wife” would definitely help his sales, but I was wrong I guess.
It is good though he didn’t debut during holiday season. If he had released his album same time as the winner Kris, I think he would have debuted at #13, after Leona lewis..LOL
good for Gokey!
Nice debut for Danny I hope his sales stay strong.
Is 65000 strong? Danny had an entire season to make an impact and a huge venue to debut his first song and to promote his album. Of the 20 some million people who saw him perform, 65,000 bought his record. I think we’ll have to wait a few more weeks to determine how strong it was(he’ll probably fall off into obscurity like most of the also rans).
Selling a small fraction out of the millions who see one perform on national television is not at all unusual or unsuccessful. Allison Iraheta’s performance didn’t even get her album back into the top 200 album chart. What did you expect, 15 million out of 20 million to pick it up? Do you pay attention to typical album sales week-to-week at all? Or are you still trying to keep up the narrative that Danny will be unsuccessful simply because you don’t like him?
Ahem, we seem to have one of the Danny haters on board. Just can’t stand the thought of him being successful.
Don’t worry, Danny is such a wonderful human being, he can’t help but be successful.
Ben: After Allison’s performance, her album came back to #186 – which is definitely in the top 200.
@Michael. Allison’s debut sold only a little over 30,000 copies. Danny sold twice as many copies as Allison! Who would think Danny would sell more than Allison? GO DANNY!
‘ naughty Nashville boy Blake Shelton’ —- Me smile. ;o)
I rarely listen to country music, but I just LUV LUV LUV “Need You Know”. They’ve been playing this song often on my favorite soft rock radio station.
please make blake shelton number one
Congratulations to Danny Gokey for having the highest debut by a male Country artist – since Billy Ray Cyrus in 1992. Congratulations also to Danny for debuting with the most digital downloads by any Country music act – ever.
Kris Allen, the winner of AI only sold 80K in his first week – the worst selling debut of all the winners. And the winner usually gets more promotion, attention, media buzz. Yet Danny debuted in a slower market and still managed to 65K. The winner just sold 15K more than the 3rd place finisher.
Google Danny Gokey and any legit media from Billboard to Rolling Stones to HDD have called this an impressive debut for Danny.
Yeah for Danny Gokey! I went to 3 stores to buy the CD–first two were sold out. Fortunately, I had ordered from Itunes already. I just wanted the hard copy in my hands. Its a great album! Danny has been performing all over the US to very happy fans. Milwaukee was INSANE for his CD release party.
Danny Gokey selling nearly as many albums as Blake Shelton’s cheap EP is pretty impressive. And he sold about half again as many as Easton Corbin, who’s had a popular hit song on radio for months. Best selling new male country artist in nearly two decades? And higher first country album sales than Darius Rucker.
Good for Danny.
Congratulations to Danny on a great start. He has the highest debut of any male Country artist since 1992. His album has also sold the most digitally downloads by any new Country act – ever.
Here is how each of the Top 4 from Season charted on Billboard Top 200 albums in their debut week:
#3 Adam
#4 Danny
#11 Kris
#35 Allison
Doesn’t seem fair they chart the cheap EPs with full CDs. Maybe some day they’ll separate them out.
Yeah Danny! Only one week down; but debuting at #4 on Billboard-nicely done.
Kirsten Baldwin must be choking on her former words, knowing she sure didn’t put the Go in Gokey.
Gotta admire the man for going out, working hard, putting out a very good album and proving all the haters here wrong.
I am sorry…but after following Blake Shelton on Twitter I will NO longer be purchasing or listening to ANY of his songs. It is truly sad because he has an excellent voice but he is a complete arse. He treats his fans horribly, anyone he disagrees with he makes fun of like a 5 year old…I do not see how he keeps his fans…unless of course they don’t follow him on Twitter.
So proud of Danny in his first week of sales! With the promotion going strong, the Sugarland dates coming up, and the Grand Ole Opry appearance this week, he’s sure to be an artist that that 19 can be proud of; go Danny!