Kenny Chesney Gets Lucky on the Charts

Wed., Oct. 22, 2008 5:00 PM PDT by David Jenison

Nancy Kaszerman/ZUMAPress.com

Kenny Chesney might just be country music's lucky star.

After scoring four No. 1 albums in a row, Chesney fell short with last year's Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates at No. 3. To his good fortune, the country crooner's bounced right back with Lucky Old Sun, which topped the charts for the week ended Sunday by selling 176,000 copies, per Nielsen SoundScan.

Lucky Old Sun is also lighting up the airwaves with its calypso-flavored hit "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven," which recently became the singer's 15th single to top the Hot Country Songs chart.

The album notably features the title track "That Lucky Old Sun," a 1949 song previously performed by artists ranging from Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong to Ray Charles and Brian Wilson. The Chesney version features Willie Nelson, who likewise recorded the song for his 1976 album The Sound in Your Mind.

Ultimately, though, it's not all four-leaf clovers for the former Mr. Renée Zellweger.

Chesney returned to the pole position with his weakest first-week sales this side of Y2K. Of course, that was still enough to push T.I.'s Paper Trail into the runner-up spot on 132,000 copies sold.

Northeastern singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne followed at No. 3 selling 60,000 copies of Gossip in the Grain. The Maine man's new album features the White Stripes drummer tribute "Meg White."

Keane's Perfect Symmetry, which currently tops the U.K. charts, sold 43,000 copies for a No. 7 bow in the New World. All three Keane albums have entered the British charts at No. 1.

Lucinda Williams sweetened the Top 10 at No. 9 as Little Honey sold 35,000 copies. Her previous album, last year's West, peaked at No. 14 but on stronger first-week sales.

On the heels of his platinum breakthrough Doin' Somethin' Right, country singer Billy Currington narrowly missed the Top 10 with Little Bit of Everything selling 25,000 copies at No. 13.

Other noteworthy debuts included Ingrid Michaelson's Be OK at No. 35, cellist Yo-Yo Ma's Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy & Peace at No. 41, Copeland's You Are My Sunshine at No. 48 and Christian head-bangers Haste the Day at No. 68 with Dreamer.

Overall sales might be up two ticks from last week, but they're still down nearly 18 percent compared to the same week in '07 when Bruce Springsteen's Magic topped the charts.

To recap, the Top 10 albums are as follows:

1. Lucky Old Sun, Kenny Chesney
2. Paper Trail, T.I.
3. Gossip in the Grain, Ray LaMontagne
4. Death Magnetic, Metallica
5. Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson
6. Rock N Roll Jesus, Kid Rock
7. Perfect Symmetry, Keane
8. Year of the Gentleman, Ne-Yo
9. Little Honey, Lucinda Williams
10. Covers, James Taylor