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With her latest smash, “Last Friday Night (TGIF),” Katy Perry has beaten a chart record previously held by Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake. But she'll have to wait till next week to find out whether she can match a milestone set by Michael Jackson.
"Last Friday Night" is the fifth song from her latest album to top Billboard’s Pop Songs airplay rankings. That put ahead of Gaga and Timberlake, who'd both had a mere four tunes from a single album land at No. 1 on that chart, which has been around for 19 years.
Perry is poised for a far more significant achievement if she can get the fifth single from her "Teenage Dream" album atop Billboard's historic Hot 100, which combines airplay and sales. Michael Jackson still holds that record, having landed five No. 1 singles from his 1987 “Bad” album.
Expectations were high that "Last Friday Night" might make it to the top of this week's Hot 100 and tie Jackson's mark. But Mrs. Russell Brand was denied by LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem," which is spending a fifth straight week in that slot. She's got a good shot at it next week, having registered another strong airplay increase for the single this week, even as sales slightly declined.
And if that doesn't work, she could always do it with the next single, as EMI surely isn't done milking “Teenage Dream’s” treasure trove of hits yet.
Perry is, notoriously, a former church singer gone (very) secular. It was another Church singer, meanwhile, earning hosannas on the album sales chart.
It turns out country upstart Eric Church was indulging in some self-fulfilling prophecy when he titled his third effort “Chief.” Although he'd never had an album chart above No. 4 before, he easily became the commander-in-chief of the latest Billboard 200 sales chart, as his latest effort debuted on top with 145,000 copies — more than quadrupling the opening SoundScan numbers for his previous album.
Female singers made most of the remaining news on the album sales chart, after Church’s stately bow. Adele fell from the top spot to No. 2, even though, at 83,000, her unit figures were actually up a little, as they have been almost every week.
Kelly Rowland’s ultimate career destiny is still a question mark, as her third solo album, “Here I Am,” entered at No. 3 on sales of 77,000 units — a slight comedown for Beyonce’s former sidekick, despite the urban ubiquity of her “Motivation” single.
Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” sold 54,000 and moved up five spots to No. 4, in its first full week of predictably robust posthumous sales. Another white British soul singer, Joss Stone, enjoyed the week’s final top 10 entry, as “LP1,” her first independently released album, kicked in at No. 9 with 30,000 sold, a slight improvement over her previous major-label-backed effort.
On SoundScan's digital song sales chart, the top spot also belonged to the reigning Hot 100 ruler, LMFOA’s unstoppable “Party Rock Anthem,” which sold another 202,000 downloads. After a slow start last week, Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Otis” jumped up to No. 9 by selling 113,000, setting the stage for next Monday’s release of the superstar collaborators’ full album, expected to be one of the year’s biggest sellers.
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