Bruce Springsteen knocks Adele out of the top spot, but barely
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It took the Boss to knock Adele’s unstoppable “21” out of the top spot on Billboard’s Top 200.
Bruce Springsteen scored his 10th No. 1 debut with his latest opus, “Wrecking Ball,” pushing 196,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, barely nudging the Grammy-winning powerhouse out of her plum position on top.
“Wrecking Ball” is the first disc to knock Adele out of the top spot this year. But “21,” which sold an additional 195,000 copies, continues to make music history. As it soared past the 8 million sales mark, it became the first album to do so since Usher’s massive-selling “Confessions” back in 2004.
A handful of albums saw a sales surge thanks to Google Music’s bargain-basement 25-cent sale last week, including the latest installment in the “Now That’s What I Call Music!” The 41st edition (yes, the years are going by) logged 152,000 copies, with 124,000 of those units coming from digital sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Also benefiting from the drastic markdown were Lady Antebellum, Coldplay and Lil Wayne. Lady A’s ‘Own the Night’ jumped to 108,000 from 20,000 the prior week -- 93,000 units came from digital, landing the country trio at No. 4. Coldplay’s ‘Mylo Xyloto’ soared to 99,000 from 18,000, and just like Lady A, 93,000 of those sales came from downloads. Weezy’s “Tha Carter IV” also got a bump when it moved up 29 spots to No. 8 after selling 36,000 copies.
The top 10 is rounded out by the late pop titan Whitney Houston (“The Greatest Hits”); Drake’s “Take Care,” which was also on sale for a quarter but moved up only one spot, to No. 7; Luke Bryan (“Spring Break 4 ... Suntan City”); and Andrew Bird (“Break It Yourself”).
Adele may also take a back seat next week to buzzy U.K. boy band One Direction, whose U.S. debut, “Up All Night,” hit stores Tuesday. RELATED:
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-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
