November 29, 2024

Pharrell Glides Into Oscar Sunday Holding Down #1 Singles Spot

It’s good to be Pharrell Williams. Just days before he makes his Oscar telecast debut Sunday night, Skateboard P can celebrate the second week
 at #1 for his “Despicable Me 2” smash “Happy.”

The song, also #1 on the iTunes singles chart, will be included on P’s G I R L
 album, due out Monday and streaming now on iTunes.

“Happy” Sales Are Snappy
With sales up 22 percent, “Happy” sold 402,000 copies, according to Billboard, easily keeping Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” at #2. Sales for KP’s latest hit dipped 9 percent to 251,000 during the same week that she finally released the Egyptastic
 video for the hit. Among the only climbers in a mostly static top 10 were Aloe Blacc’s “The Man,” which was up two spots to #6 (133,000) and Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go” from “Frozen” (up to #7, 125,000).

Deep Freeze Sets In Again
The polar vortex is endless and, let’s face it, who can get enough of Menzel’s Oscar-nominated smash “Let It Go”? That might explain why the soundtrack to “Frozen” will be back at #1 this week on the Billboard 200 album chart after selling 89,000 copies, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

It was the fifth trip to the top for the 1.1 million-selling album from the nearly billion dollar-grossing animated winter wonder. “Frozen” has been on the charts for 13 weeks and has notched more weeks at #1 by any soundtrack since “Titanic” in 1998.

Otherwise, though, the majority of the top 10 releases suffered double-digit drops. The only debuts came from country singer Cole Swindell (#3, 63,000) and metal band Issues, whose self-titled release hit #9 (22,000).

Candice Glover Avoids “American Idol” Record
If you can barely remember season 12 “American Idol” champ Candice Glover
, it’s because her debut album, Music Speaks, had the longest gestation period in the history of the show’s winners.

She did, however, avoid setting another dubious record when Speaks opened at #14 on tepid sales of just under 19,000, besting the #19 bow of season nine winner Lee DeWyze
. Though she beat one-and-done major label refugee DeWyze by five spots, Glover does now own the record for the softest-selling debut week by an “Idol” winner.

Elsewhere, on the heels of the news that he’s hitting the road with Rihanna
, Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 moved another 19,000 copies, putting him just a few weeks away from the double platinum plateau.

Next week will bring some fresh blood, with the chart debuts of new albums from Beck, Kid Cudi, Schoolboy Q, Dierks Bentley and the Fray. Q got a head start on the iTunes album chart, where pre-orders for the deluxe version of Oxymoron
 hit #8.

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