... Prince lands two albums in top 10

Reuters

By Piya Sinha-Roy

Prince performs during the Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada May 19, 2013.©

LOS ANGELES - Country music artists Blake Shelton and Lady Antebellum raced to the top of the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 chart on Wednesday, while R&B veteran Prince scored two new debuts in the top 10.

Shelton, who is also a judge on NBC's talent show "The Voice," topped the chart with "Bringing Back the Sunshine," which sold 101,000 copies in its first week, according to sales figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan.

Tailing Shelton is Lady Antebellum at No. 2 with "747" selling 74,000 copies. Last week's No. 1 album, "Cheek to Cheek" by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, dropped to No. 4.

R&B singer Prince, who last released an album in 2010, gave his fans two new albums at once. "Art Official Age" notched No. 5, while "Plectrumelectrum," his collaboration with his backing band 3rdeyegirl, landed at No. 8.

Billboard said Prince is the first act in a decade to achieve two simultaneous albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart. Rapper Nelly last achieved that feat in 2004 with his "Suit" and "Sweat" records.

The only other new debut in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, which measures physical and digital album sales, is Irish pop-rockers the Script at No. 10 with "No Sound Without Silence."

For the week ended Oct. 5, total album sales clocked in at 4.35 million units, down 9 percent from the comparable week in 2013, while year-to-date sales totaled 180.01 million, down 14 percent from last year, Billboard said.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Shumaker)

This week Prince is Number 1 in R&B with AOL and Number 1 with PlectrumElectrum in rock on the Billboard charts.

[Edited 10/9/14 14:42pm]

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Gunsnhalen said:

EVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I know y'all are cray about him making hits. But Cannibal Corpse has a higher chance of getting a hit at this point. The dude has over 20 top 40 hits. It's fine if he never has anothe big one again. And he won't... EVER!!!

I'm here for y'all if you need therapy. And don't forget to say something nice about Tony M.

[Flame snip - luv4u]

[Flame snip - luv4u]

Gunsnhalen said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

[Flame snip - luv4u]

[Flame snip - luv4u]

[Bait snip - luv4u]

ethanthomas said:

Gunsnhalen said:

[Flame snip - luv4u]

[Bait snip - luv4u]

Prince Crowns Dual Charts, Scores First Top Rock Albums No. 1

By Amaya Mendizabal, New York | October 09, 2014 4:56 PM EDT

Courtesy Photo

• oncurrent chart-topping debuts as Art Official Age crowns Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, while Prince & 3rdEyeGirl's Plectrumelectrum awards the musician his first No. 1 on Top Rock Albums.

Art Official Age arrives with 51,000 copies sold in the week ending Oct. 5 (according to Nielsen SoundScan), logging Prince his sixth No. 1 on the list, and first in five years. Prince landed his first chart-topping album 30 years ago when the Purple Rain soundtrack reached No. 1 in 1984 and spent 19 weeks atop the list. Art Official Age notches Prince his 15th top 10 on the Billboard 200, where it enters at No. 5.

The rock-driven Plectrumelectrum debuts on at No. 1 Top Rock Albums with 23,000 copies sold, and introduces Prince's all-female backing band, 3rdEyeGirl, to the Billboard charts. The trio (drummer Hannah "Ford" Welton, guitarist Ida Nielsen and guitarist Donna Grantis) was assembled by Prince and first joined him on his Live Out Loud Tour in 2013.

The dual-chart showing is the first time an artist has posted two different No. 1 titles on both lists in the eight-year history of the Top Rock Albums chart. However,Beastie Boys had a simultaneous No. 1 on Top Rock Albums and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in 2011, when Hot Sauce Committee Part Two debuted atop both lists.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6281321/prince-tops-two-charts-rock-album

And watch these albums fall down 40 places next week

If Prince wanted a top ten hit all that he would have to do is duet with any current top 10 charting artist.

kewlschool said:

If Prince wanted a top ten hit all that he would have to do is duet with any current top 10 charting artist.

That still wouldn't help though. Lots of odler artist had a song with Jay-Z and Pharell or even Lady GaGa. And they didn't become hits.

Gunsnhalen said:

And watch these albums fall down 40 places next week

Then watch them re-enter the top 10 when they go on tour.

Gunsnhalen said:

kewlschool said:

If Prince wanted a top ten hit all that he would have to do is duet with any current top 10 charting artist.

That still wouldn't help though. Lots of odler artist had a song with Jay-Z and Pharell or even Lady GaGa. And they didn't become hits.

If Pharell did "happy" as a duet with Prince it still would have been a hit.

kewlschool said:

Noodled24 said:

Presumably you mean singles? Because he's literally got 2 albums in the top 40 right now.

Singles - Probably not under his own name. If THAT Rita Ora song ever gets released he will. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot more duets and "produced/written by Prince" credits in the coming years.

As a solo artist unless he can score again with a soundtrack song or perhaps if he were to licence a catchy song to a TV advert thus drumming it into peoples heads before it was released. It's not hard to imagine a song like "Somewhere here on earth" on some incomprehensible designer perfume advert.

But yeh, he doesn't seem to be keen on doing too much promo for an album so he certainly wouldn't put in the effort needed to work a single into the charts (without a record company really pushing it).

course he will

he will do a song or a song from his back catalogue will be used in a movie or an advert or for a sporting event and it will deliver him a hit just like it has for Elvis, Elton John and many other older acts many years after their 'peak' period

of his own accord, we all know he can do a killer ballad and if promoted right, he could this way too

as for a 50 something artist delivering a hit of another kind, then perhaps only if it is guitar based and promoted properly, in a co-ordinated, sustained way - not one offs, radonmly planned in the same year as the record release - look at All along the watchtower/Best of U mashup and the SuperBowl - he had the audience / he had a great track that awesome (except for when Stern & his loons talked over it) - yet it was never put out for purchase (or seemingly played anywhere else) sadly

kewlschool said:

If Prince wanted a top ten hit all that he would have to do is duet with any current top 10 charting artist.

Prince featuring Rick Ross?!?

Oh hell f***ing no!

kewlschool said:

It is sort of sad, that Whitney and Janet went on into the early-2000s having hits (Michael J and Madonna are another story... they're still having top tens today) and Prince never really left a mark on the charts post-1996. But from 1980-2000, he charted more songs than any other act and has a huge amount of Top 40 hits, really massive. And while other acts would take a year or two break, he'd still be there on the radio every year from 82-97ish.

.

By the way.... Prince HAS had a Top 40 hit in the UK at least in the 2000s... So what the Fuss by Stevie Wonder featuring Prince reached No. 19 in the UK in May 2005. Black Sweat and Cinnamon Girl were so close to the Top 40, IDK what happened there.

Anybody who would use the phrase 'Top 40 hit' to measure succes in this day and age, is still living in the past century.