Country Billboard Chart News July 12, 2012

Country Billboard Chart News July 12, 2012

Chris Brown earns his second No. 1 album on the Billboard Top 200 chart. His album FORTUNE debuts atop the chart, selling 134,642 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. It follows his last release, and first No. 1, 2011's "F.A.M.E." That album launched atop the list with 270,000 which is more than double the start of "Fortune." Brown is the second R&B hitmaker in a month to debut at No. 1 with a comparably soft launch.

Kenny Chesney's WELCOME TO THE FISHBOWL is down from #6 - #8 on the Top 200 with 42,616 copies sold (A weekly drop of 30%). In his first 3 weeks Kenny has shifted 297,638 of FISHBOWL and he remains at the top of the Billboard Country albums chart.

Zac Brown Band are highly likely to unseat Kenny’s number one ride next week when they debut their third major-label album UNCAGED. The last ZBB last album YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE has moved up the charts to a number eight place. With sales of 10,000 this week the total sales rank at 1,539,000 for an album first released on September 21, 2010. The Associated Press described it as "one of the best country albums of the year" and called it "country-plus".

Industry sources indicate UNCAGED could top the Billboard 200 with between 200,000 and 220,000 copies sold by the end of the tracking week on July 15. That number is a little larger than expected, thanks to Amazon MP3 sale pricing the 11 track set for just $3.99 (Amazon.com LINK) . The retailer has discounted the title since its July 10 release.

Lionel Richie’s TUSKEGEE moved up 12 places on the Top 20 and 5 places on the Country chart landing a #2 position. This 111% boost in sales (22K sold) was due to a pre-4th of July $1.99 and 99¢ sale at Amazon.com. He has now sold 934,000 copies in the album.

At #40 on the Top 200 is Alan Jackson with THIRTY MILES WEST. After three weeks in the Top 5 Country chart he finds himself at #6 with sales this week of 13k (16% weekly loss) that is 162,000 sold in 5 weeks since its release.

Skylar Laine
EP Cover artwork



18 year old Skylar Laine who was placed fifth on the eleventh season of American Idol has released her American Idol: Season 11 Highlights EP.

The 5 tracks include:

“Where Do Broken Hearts Go”, “Gunpowder And Lead”, “Wind Beneath My Wings”, “Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You” and “Islands In The Stream” - Featuring Colton Dixon.

This Walmart exclusive has sold 8,000 copies in its first week and she debuts at #12 on the Country chart (#68 on the Top 200)

Billboard Top 200 ( Country Album positions #1 - #20)

(LW) Last Week. (TW) This Week, Co (Country Album Chart placing)
 

LW	TW	Artist	Album	TW Sales	LW Sales	Total Sales	Co
6	8	Kenny Chesney	Welcome To The Fishbowl	42,616	61,084	297,638	#1
36	22	Lionel Richie	Tuskegee	22K	10,410	934K	#2
13	24	Luke Bryan	Tailgates & Tanlines	20K	21,622	1,246,000	#3
24	35	Carrie Underwood	Blown Away	15K	15,172	617K	#4
25	37	Eric Church	Chief	14K	15,140	921K	#5
22	40	Alan Jackson	Thirty Miles West	13K	15,505	162K	#6
28	47	Various	Now Country 5	11K	13,475	68K	#7
71	51	Zac Band Brown	You Get What You Give	10K	6,014	1,539,000	#8
39	53	Jason Aldean	My Kinda Party	9K	9,788	83K	#9
32	56	Josh Turner	Punching Bag	9K	11,414	83K	#10
27	60	Chris Cagle	Back In The Saddle	8K	14,719	23K	#11
NEW	64	Skylar Laine	American Idol: Season 11: Highlights (EP)	8K	-	8K	#12
57	71	Lee Brice	Hard 2 Love	7K	7,099	156K	#13
63	75	Brantley Gilbert	Halfway To Heaven		6,789		#14
60	79	Kip Moore	Up All Night		6,914		#15
66	84	Lady Antebellum	Own The Night		6,408		#16
69	87	Hunter Hayes	Hunter Hayes	6K	6,231	160K	#17
67	89	Rascal Flatts	Changed		6,293		#18
90	104	The Band Perry	Band Perry		4,825		#19
121	114	Toby Keith	Clancy's Tavern		4,060		#20

BILLBOARD HOT COUNTRY SINGLES NEWS

Brantley Gilbert, lands his second career and consecutive No. 1 single with "You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” this week.

It was first released on December 12, 2011 by Valory Music Group as the second single from the 2011 deluxe edition of his 2010 album HALFWAY TO HEAVEN. It was written by Brantley along with Jim McCormick and was produced by Dann Huff. 

Brantley Gilbert
Single artwork



(Press Release Big Machine Music July 9,  2012)  The GOLD-certified ballad shows a softer side of Country music’s newest bad boy and continues a winning streak set late last year with his first #1 – the GOLD-certified, fist-pumping “Country Must Be Country Wide.”

With his rough-and-tough exterior and moments of vulnerability when referencing the fairer sex, it’s clear why Gilbert has such mass appeal to a variety of fans. Recently, he was also named “Country Music’s Most Eligible Bachelor” (photo!) in a Taste Of Country poll – besting Kenny Chesney, Chris Young and Scotty McCreery – nabbing the title with over 30% of the votes.

“Man I can’t believe it; this is just so amazing … what an incredible ride this past year has been! I can’t begin to thank everyone involved enough,” said Gilbert. “Thanks so much to Country radio, my management team, the great folks at Valory and most importantly the BG Nation; we are here because of you.”

Later this month, Gilbert will share the third single from his GOLD-certified album, HALFWAY TO HEAVEN. Proving to be a fan favorite, “Kick It In The Sticks,” has surpassed 11.2 million views on YouTube. The hit-maker is currently playing the tune while on tour with Toby Keith.

While still revelling in the excitement of his second consecutive #1 hit, Brantley announced on July 11 his first headlining tour on. The HELL ON WHEELS TOUR will kick off Thursday, September 27 in Lafayette, IN. Special guest Uncle Kracker, Greg Bates and Brian Davis will be featured on various dates.

The hot Country rebel has already received much praise for his fist - pumping, high - energy live show as an opener on both Eric Church and Toby Keith’s tours.

“In the past few years, the Georgia native has developed into one of country's hottest newcomers. In front of a big, rowdy crowd, he wore that rebellious streak on his sleeve and in the songs from his sophomore album, "Halfway to Heaven." (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Further eading / Audio: Brantley joined 100.3 KILT’s Foley & Thunder morning show to catch up on how crazy things have gotten for him… especially at his shows! - Link

>>   [LISTEN] Brantley Gilbert  "You Don't Know Her Like I Do"

        The track is available for Download on  US iTunes and as an MP3 on  Amazon.com  

Brantley Gilbert with “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” jumps up 2 slots to Top the chart!

Eli Young Band with “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” stays at #2

Dierks Bentley with ‘5-1-5-0’ moves up one place, # 4 - #3

Kenny Chesney with “Come Over”, is up one #5- #4

Luke Bryan with last weeks #1 ‘Drunk On You’ drops to #5

Glorianna with “(Kissed You) Good Night”, is up one, #7- #6

Toby Keith with ‘Beers Ago’ is up one notch, #8 - #7

Eric Church with former #1 “Springsteen” drops from #6 - #8

Love And Theft with “Angel Eyes” is up one, #10 - #9

The Band Perry with “Postcard From Paris” is down, #9 - #10

Blake Shelton with “Over” stays at #11

Josh Turner with ‘Time Is Love” stays put at #12

Keith Urban with “For You” stays at #13

Jana Kramer with “Why Ya Wanna” remains at #14

Dustin Lynch with Cowboys And Angels sticks at #15

Thomas Rhett with Something To Do With My Hands stays at #16

Zac Brown Band with “The Wind” is up one, #18 - #17
Thompson Square with “Glass” is up down one place, #17 - #18

Hunter Hayes with “Wanted” is up one spot, #20 - #19

Little Big Town with “Pontoon” jumps up from #24 - #20

Singles due to drop

July 16
Lauren Alaina/Eighteen Inches/Mercury Nashville-19 Recordings-Interscope
Kelleigh Bannen/Sorry on the Rocks/EMI Nashville
Levi Riggs/There’s Still A Place For That/Flying Island
Lonestar/The Countdown/4 Star Records
Shooter Jennings/The Real Me/eOne
John Karl/Redneck Rich (Hillbilly Happy)/Pour Boy
Don Williams feat. Alison Krauss/I Just Come Here For The Music/Sugar Hill
Brinn Black/Should Have Been Us/SMG Records.

TOP 30 DIGITAL SINGLES in Country Music (11 July 2012)

LBT are making waves this week and having a party! Little Big Town‘s “Pontoon”, the first single from their forthcoming fifth studio album has topped the Billboard Digital Singles Chart selling 86,000 downloads. With a tally of 437,000 it might well hot gold next week reaching ½-million sales.

Little Big Town
Single Cover artwork
(amazon)



The song written by Natalie Hemby, Luke Laird and Barry Dean was first released on April 30, 2012 by Capitol Nashville. The song is already being hailed as “the single of the summer” by numerous media outlets.

The inspiration behind the lyrics to Little Big Town‘s forthcoming single ‘Pontoon’ were a bit of a mix up, but for the band and the writers, it has proved to be a very, very good mix-up!  ‘Pontoon’ was crafted by the amazing minds of Luke Laird, Natalie Hemby and Barry Dean.

“Natalie and I wrote a song called ‘Fine Tune’ for Miranda Lambert, and it’s on her ‘Four the Record’ album,” said Luke Laird. “We wrote the song, and Natalie’s publisher had heard about it and asked, ‘What’s this song you and Luke wrote called ‘Pontoon’?’ And she was like, ‘No, it’s called ‘Fine Tune.”

After Hemby corrected him, the two thought that they had a cool idea to write a song called "Pontoon”!

Back that hitch up into the water / Untie all the cables and rope / Step onto the Astro Turf / Get yourself a koozie, let’s go

>>   [LISTEN]  Little Big Town - "Pontoon" 

        The track is available as an MP3 download on Amazon.uk &  Amazon.com

Capitol Nashville artists Little Big Town—consisting of members Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman and Phillip Sweet also made the news this week, (Monday, July 9), as they unveiled another fun creation recently recording the promo campaign and theme song for a new ABC show “Good Afternoon America”.  The song entitled “Good Afternoon” was co-written by Little Big Town, Brett Warren and Brad Warren and produced by Jay Joyce (Little Big Town/Eric Church/Wallflowers) this past Monday in Nashville, TN. "Sometimes you get unexpected opportunities as an artist," said Karen Fairchild. "We loved getting the chance to write and record a song for such a cool show."  >>  YouTube Clip

The top 10 songs remain mostly the same the same as last week

Luke Bryan drops down to #2 with “Drunk On You” (another 72,000 copies sold) and he has now passed 1.5 million mark (1,559,000).

Kenny Chesney’s “Come Over” at number three is a mere 6,000 sales from Gold certification too.

Hunter Hayes stays at #5 with “Wanted” and passed the 600,000 sales mark (630K)

Tim McGraw‘s first single for Big Machine Records, “Truck Yeah,” debuted at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart, his best debut and with 54,000 copies sold, Tim’s single lands at #6 on the Digital Singles chart.

Toby Keith’s “Red Solo Cup” made weekly gains of 36% with an additional 8,000 copies being shifted by Keith’s thirsty Summertime fans. It is just 10,000 downloads away from  the double platinum 2-million mark.

Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” moved up 5 places to #24 and at 97k copies sold will flew past 100,000 next week. 

The Zac Brown Band’s “The Wind” drew a weekly 143% weekly increase in sales (34,000 copies sold) and leapt up 21 places returning to the Top 30 at #12. The single is currently Top 20 at country radio as the lead off single from the brand new album UNCAGED.

Fourth of July week prompted a 400% sales boost for Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA” moving up 64 slots on the chart.

Likewise Toby Keith re-entered the chart at #46 with “Courtesy of the Red White And Blue”. Some 10-years ago on July 20, 2002 Keith occupied the #1 position on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It was inspired by Keith's father's death in March 2001, as well as the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The single is now 21,000 sales away from Platinum certification.

The Top 30 SoundScan Digital Singles for The Week of July 11, 2012.

Digital sales rounded to nearest thousand.

 (LW) Last Week. (TW) This Week 

LW	TW	Artist	Song Title	TW Sales	LW Sales	Total Sales
2	1	Little Big Town	Pontoon	86K	72K	437K
1	2	Luke Bryan	Drunk On You	72K	77K	1,559,000
3	3	Kenny Chesney	Come Over	71K	66K	494K
4	4	Eric Church	Springsteen	64K	64K	1,404,000
5	5	Hunter Hayes	Wanted	56K	54K	630K
NEW	6	Tim McGraw	Truck Yeah	54K	0	54K
6	7	Dierks Bentley	5-1-5-0	45K	43K	382K
7	8	Eli Young Band	Even If It Breaks Your Heart	42K	41K	695K
9	9	Gloriana	(Kissed You) Good Night	39K	37K	558K
8	10	Kip Moore	Somethin' 'Bout A Truck	36K	38K	1,104,000
11	11	Love and Theft	Angel Eyes	36K	30K	352K
33	12	Zac Brown Band	The Wind	34K	14K	98K
19	13	Toby Keith	Red Solo Cup	30K	22K	1,990,000
12	14	Lee Brice	Hard 2 Love	30K	30K	279K
10	15	Carrie Underwood	Good Girl	29K	35K	1,186,000
13	16	Blake Shelton	Over	28K	28K	182K
15	17	Keith Urban	For You	27K	26K	236K
14	18	Dustin Lynch	Cowboys & Angels	27K	26K	312K
17	19	Toby Keith	Beers Ago	26K	25K	310K
16	20	Jana Kramer	Why Ya Wanna	26K	25K	381K
85	21	Lee Greenwood	God Bless The USA	25K	5K	738K
18	22	Josh Turner	Time Is Love	22K	22K	375K
21	23	Luke Bryan	I Don't Want This Night To End	20K	21K	1,803,000
29	24	Florida Georgia Line	Cruise	20K	16K	97K
23	25	Brantley Gilbert	You Don't Know Her Like I Do	19K	19K	647K
20	26	Jason Aldean	Fly Over States	19K	21K	795K
22	27	The Band Perry	Postcards From Paris	18K	20K	252K
36	28	Zac Brown Band	Chicken Fried	18K	12K	3,385,000
25	29	Luke Bryan	Country Girl (Shake It For Me)	18K	17K	2,011,000
27	30	Chris Young	Neon	17K	16K	140K

Country Digital Singles News Story

Luke Bryan's "Rain Is A Good Thing" this week become the 100th country song to sell 1 million digital copies. It's Bryan's fifth million-seller, which puts him in a tie with Jason Aldean for the most among male country solo artists. Taylor Swift comes out on top with 15 million-sellers, Carrie Underwood with 10 is second place followed by Zac Brown Band with seven.

All but five of the top 100 digital hits are songs from the past 10 years. Each decade since the 1950s is represented with a million-seller except the 1980s

Best-selling country songs in digital history are:

#1 Lady Antebellum - "Need You Now" (5,861,000)

#2 Taylor Swift - "Love Story" (5,357,000)

#3 The Band Perry - "If I Die Young" (4,216,000)

#4 Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me" (4,090,000)

#5 Carrie Underwood - "Before He Cheats" (3,518,000)

#6 Zac Brown Band - "Chicken Fried (3,385,000)

#7 Jason Aldean - "Dirt Road Anthem" (3,158,000)

#8 Taylor Swift - "Our Song" (2,990,000)

#9 Rascal Flatts - "Life Is A Highway" (2,887,000)

#10 Taylor Swift - "Teardrops On My Guitar" (2,711,000)

The top duo are Sugarland: "Stuck Like Glue" (2,489,000), "Stay" (1,860,000) and "All I Want To Do" (1,323,000)

Big & Rich, The Civil Wars and Thompson Square are the 3 other duos who each had one digital million-seller.

Country's only husband and wife team who have each had a digital million-seller are Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill currently just fall short, Faith’s solo hit, "Breathe," (sold 740K) and their duet "It's Your Love," has sold 955K to date.

Johnny Cash is the only deceased country artist who has digital million-sellers: “Ring Of Fire" (1,553,000), "Hurt" (1,365,000) and "I Walk The Line" (1,210,000).

Top-selling country collaborations include: Jason Aldean/Kelly Clarkson “Don't You Wanna Stay" (2,110,000), Zac Brown Band/Jimmy Buffett "Knee Deep" (1,683,000), " Brad Paisley/Carrie Underwood “Remind Me" (1,584,000), Brad Paisley/ Alison Krauss "Whiskey Lullaby" (1,371,000); Taylor Swift/The Civil Wars "Safe & Sound" (1,224,000), Kenny Chesney/Grace Potter "You And Tequila" (1,164,000), Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffett "It's Five O'Clock  Somewhere"(1,139,000), Zac Brown Band/ Alan Jackson "As She's Walking Away" (1,029,000) and Billy Ray Cyrus/Miley Cyrus "Ready, Set, Don't Go" (1,006,000). (Yahoo.com)