NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - After a 25-year absence from the No 1 album spot, J Records artist
Rod Stewart with his album
Stardust ... The Great American Songbook: Volume III enters the Billboard 200 Album chart at No 1 on a first week Soundscan total of 240,043 copies sold.
The Songbook albums are a musical and cultural phenomenon, and are now the biggest-selling ongoing series of new music recordings in history. This is also Rod Stewart's first ever No 1 debut on the Billboard Top 200 chart.
Stardust is the follow-up to 2002's It Had To Be You ... The Great American Songbook (which spent 85 weeks on the chart, and holds the No 83 position this week) and 2003's As Time Goes By ... The Great American Songbook, Volume II (which spent 39 weeks on the chart and holds the No 66 spot this week on the Top 200).
Both were Grammy Award-nominated titles, and both are certified RIAA double-platinum in the U.S., with combined worldwide sales of more than 10 million copies. Stardust... now represents Rod's all-time highest sales week in the Soundscan era, topping As Time Goes By's 221,646 units during Christmas week of 2003.
For Rod Stewart, the return to the No 1 position with Stardust is cause for celebration. Stardust is Rod's first No 1 debut ever, and his first No 1 album since Blondes Have More Fun back in 1979. The first two albums of The Great American Songbook series, It Had To Be You ... (released October 2002)
Here's the countdown of the Top 10 albums for this week:
1. Stardust...The Great American Songbook: Volume III, Rod Stewart (240,000 copies)
2. Suit, Nelly (153,000)
3. 50 Number Ones, George Strait (141,005)
4. Confessions, Usher (135,000)
5. Genius Loves Company, Ray Charles (99,000)
6. Futures, Jimmy Eat World (98,000)
7. Greatest Hits Collection II, Brooks & Dunn (83,000)
8. Miracle, Celine Dion (81,000)
9. Hilary Duff, Hilary Duff (79,000)
10. Live Like You Were Dying, Tim McGraw (71,000)
Other notable debuts: John Mellencamp/ Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits (No 13), Elliott Smith/ From a Basement on the Hill (No 19), Pat Green/ Lucky Ones (No 28), Juvenile/ The Greatest Hits (No 31) and Lil' White/ Phinally Phamous (No 64).
