Who Charted?: “Dreamgirls” Tops A Nightmarish Sales Week

noah | January 10, 2007 12:46 pm
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The first week of the year was a soft one on the charts, with most albums seeing overall declines in album sales. At the top of this week’s Billboard 200 heap was the Dreamgirls soundtrack, which sold 66,000 copies–the lowest sales total for a No. 1 album in the entire Soundscan era, which dates back to 1991.

Biggest Debuts: Carly Simon’s Into White, which was promoted on QVC, entered the chart at No. 15 with 40,000 units sold. To get to the next chart debut, you have to go all the way down to No. 72 and find Elvis Presley–his umpteenth hits collection, The Essential Elvis Presley, sold 13,000 copies.

Biggest Slides: It’s hard to find an album that didn’t take a sales hit this week, but Omarion’s 21–last week’s No. 1 album–had a bigger chart plunge than any other album in the top 20, dropping from the top spot to No. 10.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Rascal Flatts’ Me And My Gang, which racked up nearly 3.5 million sales last year, shot back into the top 20 this week. Sure, it had a sales decline of 29%, but the high chart position indicates that there’s still a demand for their smoothed-out honky-tonk music–and shoot, Gang doesn’t even have the “Life Is A Highway” cover that took home two Peoples’ Choice Awards last night.

And We’re Telling You: ‘Dreamgirls’ Sings Way To Top [Billboard]