Zac Brown Band Captures No. 1 Spot, Maroon 5 Close Behind
During a week of mighty album debuts, the fight for No.1 on the Billboard 200 was close. But Zac Brown Band’s project delivered the upset on Maroon 5’s highly-anticipated set.
In a race for first place, Maroon 5 was upsetted this week by country-pop band Zac Brown Band when both acts released new albums last week. Maroon 5’s Hands All Over came in at #2 on the Billboard 200 this week; selling 142,000 units. Zac Brown Band’s You Get What You Give sold 153,000 last week; giving them their best debut so far. 2009’s Foundation peaked at #9 and sold only 62,000 its first week.
Maroon 5 fails to reach the record sales of their 2007 sophomore record, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, which debuted at #1 with 429,000 units sold. It was led by the single “Makes Me Wonder,” which spent three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart previous to the album’s arrival. “Misery,” the first from “Hands All Over,” has so far peaked at No. 17.
According to last week’s reports from Billboard.biz, Maroon 5 was predicted to be this week’s leader with more units being pushed to retailers and with A&M/Octane’s last minute decisions to spark incentives for retailers with $4-off rebates and with a strong marketing strategy to help spike sales.
Other albums dominating the Top 10 this week include the John Legend & the Roots’ debut Wake Up! (#8, 63,000 units), Selena Gomez and the Scene’s album debut (#4) and last week’s Number 1 album, Linkin Park’s A Thousand Suns (#3). Sales for Linkin Park’s new album dropped 71 percent from last week’s debut. Santana’s all-star reunion on Guitar Heaven also came in at #5. Trey Songz’s Passion, Pain & Pleasure bowed at #7 on the second week of its release.
