Andrea Bocelli earns his 10th top 10 on Billboard’s Album Sales chart (dated Nov. 28), as his latest release, Believe, bows at No. 5. The set was released on Nov. 13 via Sugar/Decca Records, and sold 20,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 19, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
Also in the top 10, AC/DC’s Power Up launches at No. 1, Chris Stapleton’s Starting Over debuts at No. 2, Pentatonix’s We Need a Little Christmas arrives at No. 8 and a flurry of catalog titles see major gains thanks to sale pricing at Walmart.
Billboard’s Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The Album Sales chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Pure album sales were the measurement solely utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Bocelli got his first top 10 on the Album Sales chart in 1999 with Sogno, which debuted and peaked at No. 4. He landed his first No. 1 with 2018’s Si.
Through his career, Bocelli has sold 24.3 million albums in the U.S. Believe also gives Bocelli his 20th No. 1 on the Classical Albums chart and his 14th No. 1 on the Classical Crossover Albums tally. He extends his own record for the most No. 1 albums on both charts.
The Classical Albums ranks the most popular classical albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, combining album sales, track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The Classical Crossover Albums chart ranks the top-selling classical crossover titles of the week.
Back in the top 10 of the new Album Sales list, AC/DC’s Power Up debuts at No. 1 with 111,000 copies sold. As earlier reported, the album also enters at No. 1 on the multi-metric consumption Billboard 200 chart – the band’s first No. 1 since 2008.
Chris Stapleton’s latest effort Starting Over starts at No. 2 with 75,000 copies sold, while Queen’s Greatest Hits blasts 46-3 (a new peak) with 24,000 sold (up 737%) – its best sales week since 2007. The bulk of the latter’s sales (23,000 in fact) came from vinyl LP sales, thanks in large part to a Walmart sale where all vinyl in-store on Nov. 14 was marked down to $15. Greatest Hits, which was initially released in 1981, also reaches the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for the first time.
Greatest Hits logs its best sales week since the Dec. 8, 2007-dated chart, when it sold 36,000 copies (in the tracking week ending Nov. 25 – which reflected the busy Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping holidays that year).
Dolly Parton’s A Holly Dolly Christmas returns to its peak of No. 4 on Album Sales, as it rises two spots with 21,000 copies sold (up 90%).
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours jumps 18-6 with 17,000 sold (up 261%), with vinyl LP sales comprising 16,000 of that sum (up 369%). Rumours was also a beneficiary of Walmart’s $15 sale pricing. Rumours additionally reaches the top 10 on the Album Sales chart (whose history dates to May 25, 1991) for the first time, and marks the band’s first top 10 since the 2003 album Say You Will debuted and peaked at No. 3 (May 3, 2003-dated chart). Rumours also tallies its best sales week since the May 21, 2011-dated chart, when it sold 30,000 copies in the wake of the premiere of the Glee TV episode dedicated to the album (May 3).
Carrie Underwood’s holiday set My Gift is pushed down 3-7 on the new Album Sales chart, but posts a gain, as it sold just under 17,000 copies (up 17%).
Pentatonix’s latest holiday album We Need a Little Christmas bows at No. 8 with 16,000 sold. It’s the 11th top 10 for the vocal group. Of those 11 top 10s, six have been Christmas titles.
Bob Marley and The Wailers’ Legend: The Best Of… vaults 48-9 with 15,500 sold (up 453%). It also was goosed by the Walmart vinyl sale, as the title sold nearly 15,000 on vinyl LP (up 639%).
Legend logs its best overall sales week since the Sept. 20, 2014-dated chart, when the album sold 41,000 copies after it was discounted to 99-cents in the Google Play store.
Closing out the new top 10 on the Album Sales chart is another title that gets a lift from Walmart, as Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits rises 59-10 with 14,000 copies sold (up 485%). Of that sum, 13,000 are in vinyl LP sales (up 776%). Chronicle nets its best sales week since the Aug. 17, 2013-dated chart, when it moved 15,000 copies.
