Jamie Foxx returns to US chart pinnacle

Friday January 27, 2006

Jamie Foxx's debut album Unpredictable returns to the top of the US album chart this week, dethroning Mary J. Blige's Breakthrough for the second time, writes Alan Jones.
 
Foxx's album sold 97,233 copies last week, to take its five week sales tally to 1,131,624, while Blige's album ticked up to 1,253,614, with 94,780 sales last week.
 
Meanwhile, the cinematic success of the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line helped the soundtrack album to improve 38-29 and, more significantly, hoisted the compilation The Legend Of Johnny Cash from number 10 to number five.
 
Its sales up 37% week-on-week at 54,588, the album is the late country legend's highest charting album since his At San Quentin album reached number one in 1969.
 
James Blunt's Back To Bedlam continues its recent surge, increasing sales for the fift h week in a row - by 10.7% - and reaching a new chart peak. With the single You're Beautiful also attaining top 10 status for the first time, the album sold 40,949 copies last week, to take its 16 week cume to 425,779. Further details of Blunt's achievements can be found in a separate story elsewhere on these pages.
 
Another Brit enjoying a good week is Matt Hales, better known as Aqualung. The compilation Strange & Beautiful featuring tracks from both UK Aqualung albums, peaked at number 134 last year, and has continued to sell ever since. It was recently reissued as a 'dualdisc' and re-enters the chart this week at number 157, with sales of 5,813, an improvement of 40% week-on-week. Released 44 weeks ago, Strange & Beautiful has sold 182,905 copies to date, and also jumps 12-3 on the Heatseekers Chart.
 
TV appearances drive gains by Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten album, which improves 134-95, with sales up 34% t o 46,773 in the week, while her cume now stands at 249,413. The title track explodes 28-14 on the Hot 100, thanks to both increasing airplay and sales of the Manny Marroquin remix of the track, which jumps 107-70 on the digital downloads tracks, with 10,535 buyers last week, increasing its cumulative digital sales to 385,722.
 
Overall it's a quiet week, with sales up 0.8% week-on-week but down 0.8% on the same week last year. Of just three new entries to the Top 200, the highest ranked is gospel singer Juanita Bynum's Piece Of My Passion, which debuts at number 55 on sales of 16,064.