Music Blogs

Jonas Brothers

Jonas Brothers-Kevin, 20, Joe, 19 and Nick, 15-is the second group to reach #1 that included two teenagers. New Kids On The Block hit #1 with Hangin' Tough in September 1989 when two members-Joey McInytre, 16, and Jordan Knight, 19-were still in their teens. (In a neat coincidence, New Kids' Greatest Hits debuts this week at #22.)

The brothers' sophomore album, Jonas Brothers, jumps from #11 to #10. This is the first time a group has placed two albums in the top 10 simultaneously since another teen sensation, *NSYNC, scored for five weeks in late 1998 with their debut album N Sync and their holiday album Home For Christmas.

Jonas Brothers have made rapid climb to the top. The new album's first-week sales are more than seven times the opening-week sales of Jonas Brothers. That album debuted (and peaked) at #5 in August 2007 with first-week sales of 69,000. The trio's out-of-print 2006 debut album, It's About Time, bowed (and peaked) at #91 in August 2006, with first-week sales of 10,000.

Jonas Brothers' first-week sales number is markedly bigger than that which greeted Miley Cyrus' Breakout three weeks ago (371,000). Earlier this year, Jonas Brothers were the opening act on Cyrus' Best Of Both Worlds Concert, which was a hit concert, movie, soundtrack and now DVD. Of course, this is hardly the first time an opening act became hotter than the headliner. It happens, especially in the fast-moving world of teen pop. Two decades ago, New Kids on the Block were opening in concert for Tiffany when they were on fire and her momentum was noticeably cooling. (To be fair, Cyrus isn't cooling. The Jonases are just, well, burnin' up.)

Heart-throb Joe Jonas has 17 entries on Hot Digital Songs, which ties the mark David Cook set 12 weeks ago, right after he was crowned this year's American Idol. The tally counts 15 Jonas Brothers songs (10 from the new album, four from the previous album and one from Camp Rock), as well as a duet with Demi Lovato and a solo, both from Camp Rock.

The Jonases are the first brother act to reach #1 since The Isley Brothers scored five years ago with Body Kiss. The veteran group, at that point, consisted of brothers Ronald and Ernie Isley. In the 52-year history of Billboard's weekly album chart only two other acts comprised solely of siblings have reached #1. Those acts are the Carpenters and the Bee Gees. Karen and Richard rang the bell in 1974 with their splendid greatest hits album, The Singles 1969-1973.  Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb topped the chart with three straight albums from 1978 to 1980--the era-defining Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, Spirits Having Flown and Greatest.

Hanson, another brother trio, came very close to hitting #1. Its breakthrough album, Middle Of Nowhere, peaked at #2 in June 1997. The Hanson brothers were even younger at the time than Jonas Brothers are now. Isaac was 16, Taylor was 14 and Zac was 11. Other groups and duos that consisted entirely of siblings to reach the top 10 include the Jackson 5, the Brothers Johnson, the Vaughan Brothers, Pointer Sisters, the Everly Brothers and the Osmonds.

The Disney entertainment empire has four albums in the top 10-the two Jonas Brothers albums, the Jonas-studded Camp Rock TV soundtrack and Miley Cyrus' Breakout. Walt would be proud.

Catalog Action: Revived by the success of Mamma Mia!, ABBA's Gold-Greatest Hits logs its fifth week at #1 on the Catalog Albums chart. The album sold 28,000 copies this week and would have held at #11 on the big chart if older, catalog albums were allowed to compete there.

Twelve weeks after David Cook's "The Time Of My Life" debuted at #1 on Hot Digital Songs, David Archuleta's "Crush" achieves the same feat. "Crush" had 166,000 paid downloads this week. This dramatizes that both of this season's American Idol finalists have strong followings.

Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 albums.

1. Jonas Brothers, A Little Bit Longer, 525,000. This is the third biggest weekly sales tally of the year, behind only Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III , which bowed with first-week sales of 1,006,000, and Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, which opened with sales of 721,000. Of the Jonas Brothers' total, 57,000 copies were sold digitally, making it the week's #1 Digital Album. Ten songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Burnin' Up" at #10.

2. Various Artists, Mamma Mia! soundtrack, 110,000. The soundtrack slips to #2 after topping the chart last week. This is the fourth week in a row that the album has sold more than 100,000 copies. This is the sixth straight week that Mamma Mia! has been the #1 movie soundtrack. The movie has grossed $116 million in five weeks. The album continues to do well even though the songs are running out of gas. Meryl Streep's "Mamma Mia" is the only song from the soundtrack still listed on Hot Digital Songs. It falls to #145.

3. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus, 101,000. After three weeks at #4, the album moves up a notch to #3. This is the first time the album has topped the 100,000 weekly sales mark since the week it debuted in October (with sales of 172,000). This is the album's 10th week in the top 10. But it reached that milestone the hard way. It spent its first three weeks in the top 10 in October, then fell as low as #82 in March, and has spent the last seven weeks back in the top 10.

4. Miley Cyrus, Breakout, 85,000. After two weeks at #2, the album falls to #4. This is Cyrus' fourth straight week in the top five, but she still has a ways to go to match her personal best. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus logged its first 12 weeks in the top five. Five songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "7 Things" at #22.

5. Sugarland, Love On The Inside, 67,000. Two weeks after reaching #1, the album falls from #3 to #5. It's the first country album to spend its first four weeks in the top five since Dixie Chicks' Taking The Long Way spent its first seven weeks in the top five from May to July 2006. (And that was before the album cleaned up at the Grammy Awards.) Two songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "All I Want To Do" at #46.

6. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III, 62,000. After nine straight weeks in the top five, the album slips to #6. The album is #1 for the year to date. If it's still out front at year's end, it will be the third rap album to finish as Nielsen/SoundScan's top-seller of the year. Eminem's The Eminem Show was #1 for 2002. 50 Cent's Get Rich Or Die Tryin' was #1 for 2003. Five songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "A Milli" at #28.

7. Coldplay, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, 50,000. The album drops from #6 to #7 in its ninth week in the top 10. The band's last album, X&Y, spent its first 10 weeks in the top 10 in 2005. It wound up as the #6 best-seller of that year. Two songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Viva La Vida" at #7.

8. Various Artists, Camp Rock soundtrack, 50,000. The TV soundtrack holds at #8 in its ninth week in the top 10. Camp Rock this week surpasses Juno as the top-selling soundtrack of 2008. Camp Rock has sold 861,000 copies, making it the #10 album for the year-to-date. Juno has moved 837,000 copies since Jan. 1 (and an additional 37,000 copies in the final three weeks of 2007). Three songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "This Is Me" by Demi Lovato & Joe Jonas at #60.

9. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad, 42,000. The album holds at #9 in its ninth week in the top 10. The album logged its first two weeks in the top 10 in June 2007, dropped as low as #124 in June 2008 and has spent seven of the last nine weeks back in the top 10. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Disturbia" at #2.

10. Jonas Brothers, Jonas Brothers, 31,000. After spending its first two weeks in the top 10 in August 2007, the album fell as low as #53 in June before climbing back into the top 10 this week. This is #18 on the year-to-date chart for 2008. It ranked #52 on the year-end chart for 2007. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "S.0.S." at #109.

Two albums drop out of the top 10 this week to make way for the two Jonas Brothers albums. Lloyd's Lessons In Love falls from #7 to #17. Heidi Newfield's What Am I Waiting For dips from #10 to #23. (To answer your question, Heidi, I think you're waiting for Jonas Brothers mania to subside.)

Daddy Yankee's Talento De Barrio soundtrack debuts at #13. This is the reggaeton star's second straight album to debut in the top 15. El Cartel: The Big Boss bowed at #9 in June 2007, with sales of 82,000.

Yung Berg's first full-length album, Look What You Made Me, opens at #20. The rapper debuted at #32 in July 2007 with Almost Famous (Sexy Lady EP). (I wonder if Yung Berg and Yung Joc get each other's mail.)

As noted above, New Kids On the Block's Greatest Hits debuts at #22. It's the group's highest-charting album since January 1991. (I won't say that was a long time ago, but Vanilla Ice and M.C. Hammer held the top two spots on the chart.) The album does not include the group's recent comeback hit "Summertime," which will be featured on a new studio album, The Block, due next month. Incidentally, this week is the 20^th anniversary of New Kids' first appearance on the pop album chart.

Toby Keith's Beer For My Horses soundtrack opens at #74. The title song, which originated on Keith's 2002 album, Unleashed, has been very good to the country star. It reached #22 on the Hot 100, which puts it in a tie with "Who's Your Daddy?" (also from Unleashed) as Keith's biggest crossover hit.

Ups & Downs: Brandi Carlile's The Story re-enters the chart at #88. The album first charted in April 2007. Sales jumped 368% compared to last week, the biggest percentage increase of any non-debuting album. Hillsong's This Is Our God jumps from #158 to #55 in its second week.  The Faint's oddly-spelled Fasciinatiion drops from #46 to #172 in its second week. That represents a sales drop of 68%, the biggest decline, on a percentage basis, in the top 200.

Heads Up: Three of the key albums that are expected to debut high on next week's chart carry Parental Advisory stickers. Staind, which opened at #1 with its last three studio albums, is due with The Illusion Of Progress. Ice Cube, who has started in the top 10 with his last six studio albums, is due with Raw Footage. Shwayze is due with Shwayze. The hip-hop duo has a hit song, "Corona And Lime," and a hit MTV reality show, Buzzin.' The week's big G-rated release is The Cheetah Girls' One World soundtrack. The TV spin-off act has had a string of hit albums dating back to 2003. The Girls' highest-charting album to date is The Cheetah Girls 2, which opened at #5 in 2006.