Green Day topped the U.S. pop albums chart for a second consecutive week Wednesday, passing the two million sales mark and extending its lead over Eminem during a quiet sales period. Overall U.S. album sales in the week ended Jan. 16 were down 9.5% from the previous week at 9.6 million units and 8.6% lower than the same week last year. Year-to-date sales stand at 20.3 million units, down 20% from 2004. Green Day’s “American Idiot” (Reprise) sold almost 100,500 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan, up 271 copies from the previous week. Along with Shania Twain’s “Greatest Hits,” which bolted… Read more »
Civic Tour 2003, the hugely successful Honda and Alpine music tour partnership, is extending beyond the traditional concert venues that entertained nearly 400,000 young fans of rockers New Found Glory, Good Charlotte and special guests Less Than Jake and MxPx, at 50 concert stops across the U.S. American Honda Motor Co., Inc. and Alpine Electronics of America aren’t letting the music stop as they extend the non-stop energy of Civic Tour through featured appearances at select Hot Import Nights (HIN) events across the country this summer. Part auto and electronics showcase, part party, HIN is one of the largest import… Read more »
Twenty-five years after his death, Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n Roll, is about to do something he never managed in life – debut an album at No. 1 on record charts around the world. According to industry watchers, Presley’s “Elvis 30 Number One Hits” compilation, which was released by Bertelsmann AG’s RCA Records on Sept. 24, is poised to top the charts in at least 12 countries around the world. Sales in the United States alone are expected to hit almost 500,000 units in the last week, said a spokesman for RCA, noting it would be the first… Read more »
Kurt Cobain fans are closer to Nirvana than they have been in years. A studio version of the unreleased Nirvana track “You Know You’re Right” has surfaced online in its entirety. The song, which was reportedly recorded in January 1994, less than three months before frontman Cobain took his own life with a shotgun in his Seattle home, is expected to a appear on the long-awaited Nirvana greatest-hits album, which, according to Courtney Love, is due by Christmas. A Universal Music Group spokesperson, however, said that while the LP would come out, there was no specific release date. By Monday… Read more »
Like the greatest-hits package that preceded it, the upcoming U2: The Best of 1990-2000 will include a limited edition B-sides album. When it hits stores on November 5, the follow-up to U2: The Best of 1980-1990 will be accompanied by The Best of the B-Sides, a collection of 14 non-album favorites including “Summer Rain” and “Your Blue Room.” Ten of the tracks on the B-sides album are remixes, including Paul Oakenfold’s popular take on “Even Better Than the Real Thing.” William Orbit’s remix of the new single “Electrical Storm” is featured on U2: The Best of 1990-2000, while the original… Read more »
“Elvis is in your jeans.” “He’s in your cheeseburgers.” “Elvis is in Nutty Buddies!” “Elvis is in your mom!” Never has punk novelty act Mojo Nixon’s 1987 song “Elvis is Everywhere”* been more accurate than now. In the year of the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, the King of rock ‘n’ roll topped the British charts. His songs grace Walt Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” movie soundtrack. Hundreds of thousands of fans each year converge at Graceland, his home in Memphis, to pay homage to “The King.” Now, taking a page from the handbook of his most loyal subjects, The… Read more »
Aerosmith’s latest greatest hits collection is due June 25th. As yet, the album is still untitled, but the collection will span thirty years, featuring hits from the band’s self-titled debut, as well as recent hits like “Jaded.” “We’ve got our Columbia era, we’ve got our Geffen era and we’ve got our neo-Columbia era, and we want to cover all that,” bassist Tom Hamilton told Rolling Stone in March. “Really from [1975’s] Toys in the Attic until now.” The upcoming compilation will have three new tracks on it, including “Girls of Summer,” which Aerosmith played a few bars during their MTV… Read more »
Known for their psychedelic, funk-infused hip-hop rhythms and all-around off-the-cuff attire, Outkast, with four studio albums under their belt, are just about ready for a greatest-hits record. Unlike the typical lists of memorable hits put together for most musical collages, Big Boi & Dre Present Outkast will feature songs that make fans not only shimmy and shake, but also stop and think. The message Outkast hope to get across takes form on the album’s first single, “The Whole World,” which is one of three new songs on the collection. A “The Wiz”-meets-“Alice in Wonderland” musical extravaganza, “The Whole World” is… Read more »
The Backstreet Boys release their first-ever greatest-hits package, titled The Hits: Chapter One, on Tuesday (October 30). The 13-song collection includes the group’s new single “Drowning” and also comprises songs from the group’s 1996 album Backstreet Boys, 1999’s Millennium, and last year’s Black & Blue. In conjunction with the album release, the group will also release a VHS/DVD video titled The Video Hits: Chapter One on November 6. Singer Brian Littrell revealed that the Backstreet Boys had little trouble when it came time to select their favorite songs. “You know, we always agree on what the best song is for… Read more »
I had the honor of talking to long time friends Patent Pending about the Mario And The Brick Breakers: “Hey Mario” Movie, as well as their new album Patent Pending Presents: M&TBB Greatest Hits.
