Ask Billboard is updated every week. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.
TWICE IS NICE, TWICE, FOR ADELE
Dear Gary,
During the chart weeks of May 21 through June 4, 2011, and again the week of June 25, Adele sat atop the Billboard 200 album chart with "21" while "Rolling In the Deep" was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs survey.
Last week, it appears that "Someone Like You" spent its final (fifth) frame atop the Hot 100 while "21" made its way back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a 13th week.
I was wondering: have any other artists simultaneously led the Hot 100 with two songs from the same album while that album was No. 1 on the Billboard 200?
Thanks, as always, for your weekly notes on the charts.
Sincerely,
Brandon Meyers
Lansing, Michigan
Hi Brandon,
While Adele descends on both surveys this week, she has attached her name to yet more chart history. (Notably, "Someone Like You" is the first No. 1 ballad sporting only vocals and piano accompaniment of the Hot 100's 1,009 leaders, while "Rolling in the Deep" last week became one of just 10 songs in the history of the Adult Contemporary chart to tally at least 19 weeks at No. 1).
To answer your insightful question, Adele is just the 11th act to send two songs to the Hot 100 summit while reigning on the Billboard 200 with a parent album, dating to the Aug. 17, 1963, premiere of the first Billboard 200 that consolidated stereo and mono album sales.
Here is the full list (artist, album, No. 1 songs/dates):
Bee Gees
"Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack
Feb. 4-25, 1978, "Stayin' Alive"
March 18-May 6, 1978, "Night Fever"
Donna Summer
"Bad Girls"
June 16, 1979, "Hot Stuff"
July 14-Aug. 4, 1979, "Bad Girls"
Michael Jackson
"Thriller"
March 5-April 16, 1983, "Billie Jean"
April 30-May 14, 1983, "Beat It"
Prince and the Revolution
"Purple Rain" soundtrack
Aug. 4, 1984, "When Doves Cry"
Sept. 29-Oct. 6, 1984, "Let's Go Crazy"
Phil Collins
"No Jacket Required"
March 30-April 6, 1985, "One More Night"
July 6, 1985, "Sussudio"
George Michael
"Faith"
Feb. 27-March 5, 1988, "Father Figure"
May 28-June 11, 1988, "One More Try"
Milli Vanilli
"Girl You Know It's True"
Sept. 23-30, 1989, "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You"
Nov. 25-Dec. 2, 1989, "Blame It on the Rain"
Mariah Carey
"Daydream"
Oct. 21-Nov. 4, 1995, "Fantasy"
Dec. 30-Jan. 13, 1996, "One Sweet Day," with Boyz II Men
Nelly
"Nellyville"
July 13-27, 2002, "Hot in Herre"
Aug. 31, 2002, "Dilemma," featuring Kelly Rowland
Usher
"Confessions"
April 10-May 8, 2004, "Yeah!," featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris
May 22-June 5; June 19, 2004, "Burn"
Adele
"21"
May 21-June 4; June 25, 2011, "Rolling in the Deep"
Nov. 5, 2011, "Someone Like You"
Adele is clearly in elite company, as all the acts above - except for Milli Vanilli - have sustained lengthy careers in the pop culture spotlight. The feat also reinforces Adele's standing as an album act capabale of selling more than just singles.
As reported in last week's "Weekly Notes" Chart Beat column, Columbia will release "Rumour Has It" as the next single from "21" to adult pop (Nov. 22), pop and adult contemporary radio. The uptempo song topped the adult alternative Triple A chart in August.
Should "Rumour" reach the Hot 100's apex and "21" concurrently return to the top of the Billboard 200, Adele would become the first artist to simultaneously top the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 with three singles from the same album.
Ask Billboard is updated every week. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.
CHER INFORMATION, YES?
Hi Gary,
I love reading your Chart Beat section and I wonder if you could help me out. As the "Burlesque" soundtrack should soon pass 500,000 in sales, what are Cher's top-selling albums and singles are since the advent of Nielsen SoundScan tabulation in 1991?
Thanks,
Stephen Nield
England
Hi Stephen,
The "Burlesque" soundtrack has totaled sales of 497,000, according to SoundScan. As it's averaged approximately 3,000 in sales in recent weeks, it's possible that the set will hit the half-million mark next week.
In the meantime, here's a recap of Cher's five best-selling albums and downloads during the SoundScan era.
Albums:
3.6 million, "Believe" (released in 1999)
2.8 million, "The Very Best of Cher" (2003)
964,000, "Heart of Stone" (1989)
955,000, "If I Could Turn back Time - Cher's Greatest Hits" (1999)
598,000, "Love Hurts" (1991)
Digital Songs:
394,000, "If I Could Turn Back Time" (released in 1989)
375,000, "Believe" (1999)
372,000, "I Got You Babe" (Sonny & Cher) (1965)
226,000, "After All" (with Peter Cetera) (1989)
212,000, "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" (1971)
"Believe," released before the dawn of the digital era, has sold 1.8 million physical singles, Cher's top sales sum for the configuration.
More importantly than sales figures, Cher recently saved a Kenyan school facing eviction.
"While watching TV from her hotel room in Europe, Cher heard a story on Sky News about a Kenyan school that was losing its lease and was being evicted," an entry reads on her official website. "The school, serving the poorest of the poor, could not raise enough money to buy its own land or build a new school on rented land.
"Cher immediately called the school's pastor and offered to help by funding the necessary five acre land purchase. She hired an architect and a builder to construct a new school for the children on the new land, the Shikimana School."
Read more about the icon's cleverly-titled philanthropic "Cher Cheritable Foundation" here.
Ask Billboard is updated every week. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.
TURN BACK THE CLOCK
Hi Gary,
I'm so excited we get an extra hour's sleep this weekend!
Gary Trust
New York, New York
Hi Gary,
You and me both.
Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, and Standard Time begins, granting us an additional hour before Monday.
To help remember to turn back your clocks (if you still have any non-electronic ones that don't update automatically), here's a quite literal musical reminder.
After Johnny Hates Jazz reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 with "Shattered Dreams" in May 1988 and follow-up "I Don't Want to Be a Hero" peaked at No. 31, the trio never again appeared on the chart. Still, the melodic title track from the group's first album, "Turn Back the Clock," rose to No. 5 on Adult Contemporary.
Enjoy the extra z's!