Chart Watch: Backstreet's Back
November 29 -- Backstreet's Back: Well, they didn't top 'N Sync, but the Backstreet Boys can't be crying after U.S. fans bought 1,591,191 copies of their latest effort, Black & Blue.
The total gives Black & Blue the third-best single-week sales total ever, behind the aforementioned 'N Sync and Eminem, who sold more than 1.7 million copies of The Marshall Mathers LP in May. But there's no shame at coming in at No. 3 on a list like this — selling 1.6 million copies of a CD in seven days would have been absolutely unheard of just a year ago. And Backstreet publicists point out that the Boys have set a new global record, moving 5 million copies in a single week worldwide.
Gobble Gobble: The Backstreet Boys weren't the only group to see enormous sales. All across the board, sales jumped in tune with the Thanksgiving weekend. The Top 200 sold 11.9 million copies — up from 7.6 million the week before — and almost every album in the Top 50 saw a sales bump.
The Rest: Behind the Backstreet Boys was The Beatles' 1, their new collection of No. 1 hits. Having debuted at No. 1 a week ago, the album sells 662,000 copies this time around — actually outselling its first-week total. That's What I Call Music Vol. 5 also outsold its last total at No. 3, moving another 470,000 copies, while Tim McGraw's Greatest Hits bows at No. 4, with sales of more than 306,000.
In at No. 5 is the new one from the Wu-Tang Clan, The W, which sells almost 302,000 copies in its first week on the shelves. Sade's Lovers Rock sells 260,000 copies at No. 6, followed by R. Kelly's TP-2.com, with sales of more than 239,000. Outkast's Stankonia sells 232,000 at No. 8, while Limp Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water comes in at No. 9, selling more than 226,000 copies.
Ricky Martin's Sound Loaded rounds out the Top 10, but not, perhaps, in a way he's happy about. The new album sells another 193,000 copies in its second week of sales, about 120,000 fewer than in the previous week — not a good sign in an enormous sales week.
