LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - My, Grammy. What a big start you have, as "Grammy Nominees 2004," in its very first week, establishes the best peak that the sampler series has seen since its launch in 1995 (No. 4, 68,000 copies).
The fast start, in part, is owed to the shuffle that saw the Grammy telecast move from late February to early in the month. That change moved the "Nominees" release date up to the soft sales weeks of January rather than the competitive waters of February.
This marks the first time a "Grammy Nominees" album has bowed in the top 10, but it is not the biggest sales opener in the series' history. That distinction belongs to "Grammy Nominees 2000," which rang 71,000 when it began at No. 19. Prior to this, the series' highest chart start belonged to last year's entry, which began at No. 16 with 65,500 sold in the first week.
"Grammy Nominees 2003" eventually rose to No. 6, breaking the line's previous peak of No. 8, earned by the 1999 edition. In its best sales week, last year's volume moved 113,000, just shy of the "Nominees" record -- 113,500 copies -- earned when the 2000 edition peaked at No. 9.
WINNING UGLY
Suddenly, as a monkey climbs off Paula Abdul (news)'s back, the music industry resembles the 1983 Chicago White Sox.
It was the '83 Pale Sox that popularized the phrase "Winning Ugly," which seems to be the pattern of album sales these days. For the second week in a row, the top 10 resembles a barren desert, with no albums reaching the 100,000-unit mark. Yet despite the ugly numbers at the top of the chart, album volume again beats the numbers from the same week of 2003.
This marks the fifth straight week that album numbers have exceeded those of the same frame in the previous year, a streak that began with the last week of 2003. Thus, year-to-date album sales continue to splash past those of early 2003, now leading last year's pace by 10.5%.
So, what does any of this have to do with the least-picky of the "American Idol" judges? Until now, Abdul's 1991 album, "Spellbound," had the dubious distinction of owning the smallest sum of any No. 1 since the Billboard 200 switched to Nielsen SoundScan data. For the week of June 8, 1991, her sophomore set clocked the first of its two chart-leading weeks with a sum just shy of 88,000 copies.
It marked one of three early SoundScan weeks when the No. 1 title sold less than 90,000 copies, but those light numbers might be attributed to the system's early sample, which in those days had not yet added point-of-sale data from such retailers as Wherehouse and Western Merchandisers (which then included both the Hastings chain and the company now known as Western Merchandisers), plus most Camelot Music and Tower Records stores.
By contrast, the store sample that today yields a chart-topping total of 86,500 for OutKast is quite complete, representing more than 90% of the U.S. music market.
Before anyone tries to ridicule OutKast's seventh week at No. 1, let us all remember that even with a sum under 90 grand, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" still has the distinction of outselling every other title on the market.
The double album has sold more than 3.5 million since its release in September. It was the best-selling album of the fourth quarter and is the best-selling album of the new year, having tallied 436,500 copies in the first four weeks of 2004.
CHANGE IN THE WEATHER
Next week's Billboard 200 will sport at least one robust sales performance, as the new Twista album promises to be the first huge record of 2004.
Based on retailers' first-day sales, chart soothsayers predict the rapper's "Kamikaze" will easily surpass 200,000 copies in its first week. In fact, with Target stores, Kmart and Circuit City low-balling the $13.98-list title for as little as $8.99, the Twista set ran into stock shortages.
With more copies in the pipeline, one chart watcher at a rival label thinks Twista might have a shot at 300,000 for the week.
Another chart hawk notes that the January release schedules this year and last year have been particularly light. While no new albums broke 100,000 in the first four weeks of either year, in the Januarys of 1999 through 2002 there were 10 albums combined that started at 100,000 copies or more.
HEARD IT ON THE RADIO
A recent article in the New York Times suggests that scoring a huge radio hit no longer ensures sales success. While there may be isolated cases where that premise proves true, the common denominator of most of the albums that scoot ahead on this week's Billboard 200 is, indeed, a hot radio track.
That's the case with country star Alan Jackson (news), whose cheaper, single-disc version of "Greatest Hits Volume II" sees a 79% boost, winning Greatest Gainer ribbons on both Top Country Albums (6-2) and the Billboard 200 as his latest song reaches No. 1 on Hot Country Singles & Tracks.
That's true of Britney Spears (news), whose album returns to the top 10 as "Toxic" shapes up as the most successful follow-up radio track of her career. The album scores its second consecutive increase (11-10, up 16%) as the song climbs 21-14 on Top 40 Mainstream and 53-38 on the pan-format chart Hot 100 Airplay.
Yes, the second season of MTV's "The Newlyweds," as well as appearances with husband Nick Lachey on "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Show With David Letterman" help Jessica Simpson (news)'s album jump (28-16, up 23%), just as appearances on "The Ellen DeGeneres (news) Show," "The Late, Late Show With Craig Kilborn" and "Access Hollywood" assist Ruben Studdard's set (8-5, up 6%). But don't forget that both Simpson and Studdard have songs that are growing quickly at radio, as do most of the big chart's upwardly mobile albums.
While there are certainly instances each week when TV proves to be music's best new friend, don't forget that Lachey's "SoulO" has sold only 116,000, logging just two chart weeks since its Nov. 11 release, with virtually no sales bumps from the recent media barrage that he and wife Simpson unleashed.
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - My, Grammy. What a big start you have, as "Grammy Nominees 2004," in its very first week, establishes the best peak that the sampler series has seen since its launch in 1995 (No. 4, 68,000 copies). 
