After five weeks of The Eminem Show reruns, music fans put Nelly's Nellyville into the top spot. Fueled by its Neptunes-produced hit single "Hot in Herre," Nellyville closed the week ended Sunday by selling a monster 714,000 copies according to SoundScan numbers. That was more than double the 308,000 copies Em sold at number two.
Technically, Nellyville's 714,000-copy first week set a 2002 sales record for an album making its chart debut. The reason: The Eminem Show's release was bumped up to a Sunday, and with the sales charts based on the Sunday-to-Sunday period, Eminem's first-week sales of 285,000 were based on just one day's tally. In the two weeks following, Em's latest sold 1.3 million and then 808,000 copies, respectively, which means Nelly might have the best opening week but only the third best sales week of 2002.
Still, this makes Nelly two-for-two in chart-topping albums. The St. Louis rapper's debut disc, Country Grammar, hit number one in April 2000 on its way to selling more than 9 million.
Although Eminem slipped a spot, he has still sold more than 3.6 million copies of The Eminem Show--not bad for an album that was released early purportedly because it was widely bootlegged online.
Meanwhile, over on the singles chart, there was a major Elvis sighting. Even though the 25th anniversary of his (alleged) death will be marked on August 16, the King ruled again as the remix of "A Little Less Conversation" by Dutch deejay JXL debuted at number one, selling more than seven times as many copies as Nelly's "Hot in Herre," which had been tops for three weeks.
It's Elvis' first U.S. chart-topper in 30 years--his last was 1972's "Burning Love."
First heard in the 1968 Elvis film Live a Little, Love a Little, the remix was the first approved by the Presley estate and was prominently featured internationally in Nike's World Cup soccer advertising campaign. The track hit number one on the British charts three weeks ago (giving Presley 18 U.K. number ones to the Beatles' 17) and, aside from the U.S. and U.K., currently reigns in Japan, Hong Kong, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia and Mexico.
"A Little Less Conversation" will also be included in the upcoming Elv1s 30 #1 Hits, RCA's answer to the Beatles' monster-selling compilation 1. The disc will likely be a contender for the top slot when it comes out September 24.
Back on the album charts, rapper Noreaga, billing himself as N.O.R.E., landed at number three with God's Favorite selling 119,000 copies. Dr. Dre protégé Truth Hurts also made a strong showing, opening at number five with Truthfully Speaking selling 89,000 copies. With Eminem at number two, this gives Dre two disciples in the Top 5.
The rest of the Top 10, all holdovers, included Avril Lavigne's Let Go climbing to four, Ashanti's self-titled debut at six, Korn's Untouchables at seven, Papa Roach's Lovehatetragedy at eight, Totally Hits 2002 at nine and Pink's M!ssundaztood holding at 10.
Debuting outside the Top 10 was Will Smith, whose Born to Reign slipped in at a relatively disappointing 13. The holiday release of Men in Black II might help sales next week.
Gorgeous country artists SHeDAISY made a spectacular showing with their latest album, Knock on the Sky, selling 39,000 copies to open at 23. Soulfly's 3 landed at 46, Nonpoint's Development came in at 52 and Punk-o-Rama 7 (Epitaph Records' punk rock answer to the Now! series) debuted at 67.
Further down the list of newbies was Reel Big Fish's Cheer Up at 115 and Sonic Youth's Murray Street at 126.
To recap, the Top 10 albums for the week ended June 30 were:
1. Nellyville, Nelly
2. The Eminem Show, Eminem
3. God's Favorite, N.O.R.E.
4. Let Go, Avril Lavigne
5. Truthfully Speaking, Truth Hurts
6. Ashanti, Ashanti
7. Untouchables, Korn
8. Lovehatetragedy, Papa Roach
9. Totally Hits 2002, various
10. M!ssundaztood, Pink