Bruce Springsteen”s “Wrecking Ball” blasts Adele”s “21” out of the top spot on the Billboard 200 in an action-filled week.
“Wrecking Ball” sold 196,000 copies last week, according to Nielsen Soundscan, topping “21” by a slim 4,000 units. For now, that ends “21”s” 23 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1, but the title has been known to bounce back up into the top spot (although there”s a fairly heavy slate of big-name albums coming up and she has nothing on her horizon that would pump the set, so this may really be it).
Not only is “Wrecking Ball” Springsteen”s 10th No. 1 album, it ties him with one of his musical heroes, Elvis Presley, for that feat. They are tied for the third-most No. 1s, behind Jay-Z (12) and The Beatles (19), according to Billboard.
Springsteen is one of three acts with debuts in the Top 10: Luke Bryan”s EP,” Spring Break 4–Suntan City” bows at No. 9 with sales of around 30,000, barely beating Andrew Bird”s “Break It Yourself,” which comes in at No. 10 and marks a career high for the singer/songwriter.
Then it gets weird. In an effort to boost its profile, Google Play offered a number of dowloadable titles for a quarter each for a day last week and AmazonMP3 matched Google”s offer. Three of those selected digital albums saw big increases: “Now That”s What I Call Music 41” increased sales by 235% to 152,000, but since it was already high up on the chart, it only moved two spaces 5-3. Four other participating titles also benefitted: Lady Antebellum”s “Own The Night” jumped 16-4, Coldplay”s “Mylo Xyloto” zooms 29-5, Drake”s “Take Care” skips 8-7 and Lil Wayne”s “Tha Carter IV” rockets 37-8. Expect them all to plummet next week.
Whitney Houston”s “The Greatest Hits” falls 2-6 to round out the Top 10.
Even with the crazy promotion, overall sales were up less than 1% compared with the same sales week in 2011. However, sales for the year are up 3% overall.
Follow Melinda Newman on Twitter @hitfixMelinda