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Take a lesson, boy bands: No group is bigger than the Beatles.
Two weeks after being bounced from the top of the Billboard 200 album chart by the Backstreet Boys, the Fab Four's new compilation The Beatles 1 will reclaim the No. 1 spot on next week's chart, according to sales figures issued by SoundScan on Wednesday, December 13.
The compilation, which includes such hits as "Help!" and "Yesterday," sold more than 670,000 copies last week. It surged past the Backstreet Boys' Black & Blue, which slipped to No. 2 on the chart after selling 546,000 copies, down from the 689,000 it sold the previous week.
Part of the boost in sales for The Beatles 1, which sold 606,000 copies the week before, could be attributed to the media attention surrounding the 20th anniversary of John Lennon's death on December 8.
Several of Lennon's catalog albums and compilations, including Imagine, Shaved Fish, and the John Lennon Anthology boxed set, also showed sales increases, but nothing remotely close to the 64,000-unit jump for the new Beatles compilation.
The Beatles 1 and Black & Blue, two albums representing pop music's past and present, have tallied similar sales figures - The Beatles 1 has moved 2.5 million copies during its first month in stores, while Black & Blue has totaled 2.8 million copies in just three weeks in release, including a 1.6 million-unit opening week.
Holding strong at No. 3 on the album chart is the newest edition in the Now That's What I Call Music! series, as Volume 5, which collects recent radio hits from Nine Days, 'N Sync, Destiny's Child, and 3 Doors Down, moved more than 383,000 copies.
Creed's resurgent 1999 album, Human Clay, and Britney Spears' Oops! … I Did It Again round out the top five by selling 299,000 and 207,000 copies, respectively, with Spears' sophomore record jumping to No. 5 from the No. 8 spot. Creed were named Rock Artist of the Year and Spears won the Albums Artist of the Year nod at last week's Billboard Music Awards.
The week's biggest debut comes from a band with a questionable future, as Rage Against the Machine's Renegades, featuring covers of tracks by Bob Dylan, the MC5, EPMD, and Afrika Bambaataa, sold more than 151,000 copies to land at No. 14.
In comparison, Rage's previous studio album, The Battle of Los Angeles, stormed to the top of the Billboard chart in November 1999, with more than 430,000 copies sold during its first week in stores.
Other notable debuts were turned in by Roc-A-Fella rapper Memphis Bleek, at No. 16 with The Understanding; former Jodeci singers K-Ci & Jo-Jo, at No. 21 with X; and New York hip-hop DJ Funkmaster Flex, at No. 26 with 60 Minutes of Funk, Volume IV: The Mixtape, featuring appearances from Dr. Dre, DMX, Nelly, and Ginuwine.
The only other debut to crack the top 100 comes courtesy of teen female trio 3LW, whose self-titled debut album lands at No. 69. Rounding out the debuts in next week's top 200 are new live releases from ex-Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, at No. 136; Alice in Chains, at No. 142; and Neil Young, at No. 169.
