November 19, 2009

Bon Jovi's 'The Circle' Hits The #1 Spot On Billboard

By Gil Kaufman (MTV.com)

Music fans appear to have taken a break from holiday shopping last week, as sales of the top albums took a noticeable dip, and the latest #1 debut did just about half the business Carrie Underwood's Play On did the week before to hit #1.

Jersey icons Bon Jovi take over the top spot on next week's Billboard albums chart with their latest, The Circle, which sold just about 163,000 copies according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan. That was just over half of what the band's previous #1, the country-tinged Lost Highway, did in its first week in 2007. It was enough, however, to keep tenor Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas at #2 (136,000) and to knock Underwood down to #3 (128,000) as her second-week sales plummeted by 60 percent.

The only other debut in the top 10 is from righteous metallers Flyleaf, whose Memento Mori lands at #8 on sales of 56,000. The rest of the top 10: the Michael Jackson's This Is It soundtrack (#4, 117,000), Taylor Swift's Fearless (#5, 91,000), Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 32 (#6, 68,000), Michael Buble's Crazy Love (#7, 58,000), Glee: The Music Vol. 1 (#9, 56,000) and the soundtrack to New Moon(#10, 53,000).

Among other new releases, Switchfoot touch down at #13 with Hello Hurricane (39,000), and Dashboard Confessional's Alter the Ending hits #19 (30,000). Buzz rapper Wale sneaks in at #21 with Attention Deficit, followed by Britney Spears' Singles Collection at #22 (27,000).

The deck should get shuffled next week with the long-awaited release of 50 Cent's Before I Self-Destruct, the latest from Norah Jones, John Mayer, Leona Lewis and OneRepublic, as well as debuts from Justin Bieber and Kris Allen.