MCA’s revamped version of Mary J. Blige’s “No More Drama” powered the disc’s 18-place jump to No. 10 on the U.S. pop charts in a week that saw the nation’s top nine albums remain in the same spots as last week.
Blige’s disc sold more than 61,000 copies between its re-release Jan. 29 and Sunday, according to SoundScan figures issued Wednesday.
Alan Jackson’s “Drive” (Arista) remains the No. 1 album on sales of 189,000, followed by Creed’s “Weathered” (108,000) and Linkin Park’s “Hybrid Theory” (90,000), which has moved over 6 million copies to date.
The Blige disc features a new album cover; a new mix of the single “No More Drama,” featuring P. Diddy; a remix of “Dance for Me,” featuring Common; and two previously unreleased tracks: “Rainy Dayz,” with Ja Rule, and the ballad “He Think I Don’t Know.” “Rainy Dayz” is the new single.
Four albums debuted in the top 50. The “State Property” soundtrack (Def Jam), with tracks by Beanie Siegel and others, sold almost 52,000 copies to reach No. 14. One slot down was Columbia’s two-CD Barbra Streisand career overview “Essential Barbra Streisand,” which sold 51,000. The Chemical Brothers’ “Come With Us” (Astralwerks) came in at No. 32 on sales of 30,000 and Dream Theater’s two-disc set “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” (Elektra) moved 24,000 to take the 46th slot.
While album sales are going through the usual cyclical dip, a considerable number of titles are holding their own week to week and some are posting gains, such as V2’s “I Am Sam” soundtrack of Beatles covers, up to 46,000 units in its fourth week of release.
Next week will be interesting to see if a flood of music programming related to the Super Bowl and the opening of the Olympics has any effect on retail.
