Chart Watch: Beatles, Backstreets
December 13 -- Fab: Well, it turns out that The Beatles' 1 is the Christmas gift of the year 2000. After spending two weeks at No. 2, the album has jumped back into the No. 1 slot, selling more than 670,000 copies, for a grand total of more than 2.5 million.
Coming in at No. 2, of course, is the Backstreet Boys' Black & Blue, which falls out of No. 1 in its third week on the charts. While it's easy to look at the album as a failure, compared to the success of Jive labelmates 'N Sync with No Strings Attached, its worth pointing out that the 2.8 million copies of Black & Blue sold since its release have made it the No. 14 best-selling album in the United States this year.
At No. 3, for the third week in a row, is volume five of the That's What I Call Music series, which sells more than 383,000, followed by Creed's Human Clay at No. 4, with sales of more than 299,000. Britney Spears' sophomore album, Oops! … I Did It Again jumps three spots to No. 5, selling 207,000, just slightly better than Tim McGraw's Greatest Hits, which sells 206,000 at No. 6.
At No. 7 is Charlotte Church's Dream a Dream, which jumps nine notches, racking up sales of more than 204,000, while the latest from Limp Bizkit comes in at No. 8, selling more than 193,000. The Baha Men keep asking Who Let the Dogs Out at No. 9, selling yet another 187,000 copies, while the aforementioned 'N Sync rounds out the Top 10, selling another 186,000 copies of No Strings Attached.
Almost Famous: Shaggy's Hotshot has been climbing toward the Top 10 for quite some time, and this week comes thisclose to making it, selling 172,000 copies at No. 11.
Notable Debuts: Rage Against the Machine's album of covers, Renegades, and its final studio effort with former frontman Zack de la Rocha, bows the highest this week, selling 151,000 copies at No. 14. Memphis Bleek's Understanding comes in at No. 16, which sales of 149,000, while K-Ci and JoJo's X sells 118,000 at No. 21.
Flopping: The true definition of a flop is hard to come by — more often than not, it simply means that an album did not live up to what we've come to expect from an artist. That said, there are several artists on the charts at the moment that had much more success with their previous albums. Probably the biggest flop of the year is Forever, the Spice Girls' third album, which has dropped to No. 150 after five weeks on the charts, with total sales of just more than 107,000. The Deftones looked to break big with White Pony this summer, but the album is down at No. 185 and has sold fewer than 750,000 copies in six months of release. The Wallflowers' Bringing Down the Horse went quadruple-platinum, while their latest, the far superior Breach, has sold just 300,000 copies. And of course, we can't overlook Marilyn Manson, whose latest effort, Holy Wood, has dropped to No. 101 in its fourth week on the charts, selling just 22,000 copies for a total of 215,000. Master P's Ghetto Postage also falls onto this list, and perhaps spells hard times for his No Limit empire, selling just 152,000 copies in two weeks and falling to No. 51. Really, the Backstreet Boys don't belong here, but perhaps Ricky Martin does. The pop star's latest album, Sound Loaded, has sold 760,000 copies in four weeks — not bad, but his last effort, his self-titled English-language debut, went seven-times platinum.
