Bon Jovi claim fourth US chart-topper

13:26 | Friday November 20, 2009

The only other new album to muster enough sales to debut inside the Top 10 is Memento Mori, the second album by Texan alt-rockers Flyleaf, which arrives at number eight propelled by sales of 56,000, easily beating the number 57 peak of their eponymous 2005 debut, which nevertheless hung around for 133 weeks and sold 1m copies.

Last week’s number one, Play On by Carrie Underwood, dips to third place on sales of 128,000 copies, while Andrea Bocelli’s My Christmas climbs 3-2 on sales of 136,000.

Bocelli’s album is getting more attention than any other seasonal selection but the Top 200 now includes more than a dozen Christmas-themed set, including our very own Sting’s If On A Winter’s Night..., which slips 9-12 on its third week, while remaining the highest-ranked album by a UK act.

There are also declines for Rod Stewart’s Soulbook (13-23), The Beatles In Stereo (48-53), The Resistance by Muse (63-71), The Ultimate Bee Gees (116-142), Joss Stone’s Colour Me Free! (106-149), and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Or Death & All His Friends (178-190). David Gray is the only climber, moving 157-156 with Draw The Line. Anglo-Aussie metal veterans AC/DC’s new Backtracks compilation debuts at number 39, while UK/US act Foreigner’s Can’t Slow Down dips 11-134.

The Top 200 goes comprehensive next week, when catalogue albums will be allowed back in. This follows an uncomfortable period for Billboard when albums by Michael Jackson and The Beatles were dominating the charts elsewhere in the world but not showing in the Top 200 because of the rule that albums more than 78 weeks old that had dipped out of the Top 100 were regarded as catalogue and ineligible to return.

There are two albums by UK acts that would not have charted this week if catalogue albums were already included in the Top 200: Snow Patrol’s hits set Up To Now, which debuts at number 182, and Robbie Williams’ Reality Killed The Video Star (number 160). The latter album, which was actually the 204th best-seller last week (ie: 44 catalogue albums beat its sales tally of less than 4,000), provides Williams with his fourth US album chart entry and his first since 2002. He previously charted with the compilation The Ego Has Landed (number 63, 1999), Sing When You’re Winning (number 110, 2000) and Escapology (number 43, 2002). Coldplay’s Viva La Vida... has been on the chart for 74 weeks and would have been booted out next month except for the rule change – but the irony is that it will most likely disappear early instead, as it will surely be overwhelmed by a tide of re-entering catalogue next week.