Ailing Vandross Dances Atop Album Chart




Despite being hospitalized, Luther Vandross scores his first No. 1 on The Billboard 200 with "Dance With My Father." The J Records set sold 442,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, to give the R&B singer his best sales week in the SoundScan era.

Vandross suffered a stroke on April 16 and has been hospitalized in New York ever since. Last week he was moved out of the intensive care unit at Weill Cornell Medical College, and his business manager reported that his health was improving.

The first-week numbers for "Dance With My Father" more than double the opening week total of his 2001 self-titled J debut. That album opened with 135,000 copies and peaked at No. 6. "Dance With My Father" is the sixth album from Vandross to reach The Billboard 200's top-10. His previous chart high was No. 4 with 1994's "Songs" (Epic).

In a strong week for new releases, Vandross leads six albums into the top-10, including impressive first week sales for Radiohead, Annie Lennox and George Strait. But none were able to best the first full week of Metallica's "St. Anger" (Elektra). After racking up sales of 418,000 copies during a four-day sales period and debuting last week at No. 1, the album sold an additional 363,000 copies in its first full week in stores, and is No. 2 in its second week on the chart.

Radiohead's latest effort for Capitol, "Hail to the Thief," enters at No. 3 with sales of 300,000 copies. This bests the first-week sales totals of 2000's "Kid A" and 2001's "Amnesiac," despite the fact that "Hail to the Thief" was illegally available online 10 weeks prior to hitting stores. "Kid A" entered at No. 1 with 207,000 copies, and "Amnesiac" arrived at No. 2 with 231,000 copies.

"Bare" (J Records), the first solo album in eight years from Eurythmics principal Lennox, lands at No. 4 on sales of 153,000 copies. Her 1995 set "Medusa" debuted and peaked at No. 11 with 73,000 copies sold.

he'll be bumped next week from #1 by someone who has one of the same songs on his album on her album.

Just thought it was nice. He can't go out and do every daytime/nighttime talk show, morning concert,E news, MTV, in-store autograph promo junket, but still his fans represent. If only for a week.

GOOD FOR "LUFAH!"

jthad1129 said:

i agree... it's a solid album too, minus the busta/foxy brown/queen latifah tracks... (imo)

suomynona said:

I liked those songs. The album doesn't have anything really bad on it, just some stuff is stronger than others. I think the best is "She Saw You" with high marks for "Apologize" and "If I Didn't KNow Better" (should be the second single). I think you should get rid of the cameos of the rappers, not the songs! Actually, Queen Latifah isn't too bad on there ("You've been avoiding Mr. Jones these days/He wants to talk to you about his raise"). I don't care for the new Beyonce duet cover of "The Closer I Get To You" (too slow or something). Overall good and quite funky in a few areas and it deserved to be number one based onthe music (although I liked Annie Lennox's album more and I'm glad she got a Top 4 debut).

And if only "N.E.W.S" had a number one debut!

It is possible that they feel sorry for him. So they bought the album.

VinnyM27 said:

I wish singers would just leave the guest stars, rappers and duets to a remix or separate release. Release the cd and then put the Foxy/Busta stuff on a maxi.

jthad1129 said:

Good point but who is releasing maxis that much anymore. Damn music industry! THe only thing that made sens on the album was the Beyonce deut and the rappers for the most part felt like extra and they really didn't belong on there, mostly on "Lovely Day" which stood fine on its own!

2freaky4church1 said:

Luther is hands down the greatest R&B vocalist to emerge in the past 20 years. WHO else deserves it more than Luther? NO ONE. Let his CD have its day.

BlaqueKnight said:

And keep in mind he really is riding the success of his last album which was a surprise hit. It's a good disc. What happened to him put him back in the spotlight but it wasn't the only reason people bought his new disc. You got to love the music too! I must admit that I bought this one but not LV but I did regret not buying LV (I like "Take You Out" a lot and it gets some decent radio play still) and I will get up off my ass sooner or later and look for it at a cheap price then snatch it up!

2freaky4church1 said:

I would hope this is not the case because regardless if he was well or sick like he is now the cd still stands out as quality. Nothing more nothing less!!!

2freaky4church1 said:

That could be true, but most folk don't know what they have until it's almost gone.

He IS the Black Pavarotti, after all!