"Now!" Too Popular for Los Lonelys

Latest edition of pop hits series easily outsells Los Lonely Boys' Sacred; Rodney Atkins lands only other Top 10 debut in slow sales week

By David Jenison Jul 26, 2006 9:45 PMTags

It might be lonely at the top, but it's even lonelier at number two.

For the second straight week, the pop hits collection Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 22 ruled the album chart, easily outselling the latest from Los Lonely Boys. Now! 22 was the only album to register six-figure sales for the week ended Sunday, selling 207,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures today.

Now! 19 was the last installment to hold the top spot for consecutive weeks, a feat accomplished at this same time last summer.

Los Lonely Boys' Sacred had to settle for the biggest debut of the week, checking in at number two with 67,000 copies. The Grammy-winning Tex-Mex rockers first broke big in 2004 with the smash single "Heaven" off their self-titled debut disc. The new album's single, "Diamonds," is an updated version of a song they first released nine years ago.

Country singer Rodney Atkins followed at three, with If You're Going Through Hell (which he prophetically titled before the current heat wave) selling 55,000 copies. The Knoxville-born singer previously had modest success with his 2003 debut Honesty.

It was a typically slow midsummer week at retailers--overall CD sales were down 4 percent from the previous week and 13 percent from the same period in 2005. Year-to-date sales are lagging 5 percent behind last year.

With no other Top 10 debuts, two albums--the Dixie Chicks' Taking the Long Way and the Pussycat Dolls' PCD--climbed back in at nine and 10, respectively.

Thanks to the radio hit "Face Down," Floridian rockers Red Jumpsuit Apparatus landed the week's next best bow at 25 with Don't You Fake It, while Eric Church's Sinners Like Me opened at 29.

New self-titled discs by Eighteen Visions and Black Stone Cherry landed at 74 and 90, respectively, while Golden Smog's Another Fine Day came in at 95, Third Eye Blind's hit disc A Collection opened at 103, Billy Ray Cyrus' Wanna Be Your Joe broke at 113, Alien Ant Farm's Up in the Attic entered at 114 and Helmet's Monochrome registered at 159.

Finally, Dane Cook's Retaliation celebrated its one-year anniversary on the charts this week. The comedy album currently sits at 84 with nearly 800,000 total copies sold; its number four bow last summer made it the most successful comedy debut since Steve Martin's 1979 classic, A Wild and Crazy Guy.

Here's a rundown of the Top 10 albums, per Nielsen SoundScan:

1. Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 22, various
2. Sacred, Los Lonely Boys
3. If You're Going Through Hell, Rodney Atkins
4. St. Elsewhere, Gnarls Barkley
5. High School Musical soundtrack, various
6. Me & My Gang, Rascal Flatts
7. Loose, Nelly Furtado
8. Girl Like Me, Rihanna
9. Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks
10. PCD, Pussycat Dolls