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NEWS :
STORIES
Chumbawamba are living up to their now-famous lyric, "You're never gonna keep me down." Though country superstar Garth Brooks and his Sevens remained the king of Billboard's album charts for the week ending Dec. 14, persistant
With SoundScan reporting total sales of 1.2 million, the album has held firmly in the top 10 since Nov. 5, making its way slowly but surely up the ranks. "Tubthumping," the record's first single, first washed up on American shores in July as a part of a College Music Journal CD sampler. Boston, Mass., modern rock station WFNX-FM was the first station to play it, and Laurie Gail, the station's music director said she instantly recognized the song's potential. "It's such a hit," she said just two weeks before the single's release. "The whole song is just one big chorus. It's hooky, tongue-in-cheek and flip -- just a lot of fun." When "Tubthumping" became the station's most requested song, modern rock stations from coast-to-coast began to add the veritable ear-worm to their playlist. The single was rush-released to stores and Tubthumper landed at #60 on the Billboard album charts with its release in October. Continued airplay on alternative and top-40 radio, as well as heavy MTV play and a U.S. club tour helped move Tubthumper up the charts. In its second week of release, Tubthumper moved up to #48 on the charts. The next week saw the album once again moving upward, this time reaching the #31 slot and surpassing that week's major alternative rock release, Everclear's So Much For The Afterglow, which landed at #33. A month after its release, Tubthumper finally cracked the top 10, and radio trade magazine Radio & Records listed "Tubthumping" as the most-played song on alternative radio and the fifth most-played song on pop radio. The album has dwelled near the lower-half of the top 10 for the past few weeks, but this week the album seemed to get a second wind and began another surge, climbing to an all-time high of #5 based on sales of 253,100 copies. Those sales represent a 45 percent increase from last week's total. Also going platinum this past week was Metallica's Re-Load. The album remained in the #8 position but saw SoundScan reported sales of 193,000, a 14 percent increase over last week's total. On Thursday (Dec. 18), Metallica will seek to increase sales even further with "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You," a radio special during which the mega heavy-metal group will play live, call fans, play records and have special guests. That show, which begins at 7 p.m. (PST), will be aired on radio stations all over the U.S. and will be available on the SonicNet website. Meanwhile, electronica bad boys Prodigy managed to move 43,000 copies of The Fat Of The Land out of record stores despite the album's pulling from Wal-Marts and Kmarts across the U.S. The album was pulled after the National Organization for Women protested the group's latest single, "Smack My Bitch Up." The album, which has sold 1.6 million copies to date and was at #55 this week, will now bear a parental-warning sticker in Target stores. Also continuing a pattern of sales increases are the Spice Girls. SpiceWorld, the bubblegum quintet's second album, remained in the #6 slot on sales of 223,000, a 22 percent leap over last week's totals. When SpiceWorld didn't debut in the top spot, speculation arose that critical backlash against the group was finally taking hold on consumers. Still, SpiceWorld has racked up higher sales week after week, with SoundScan reporting total sales of 838,000. In addition, Spice, their debut, moved up two slots to #15. Holiday sales may have helped many acts move up the charts. Smash mouth's Fush Yu Mang went from #32 to #26, Usher's My Way climbed from #35 to #27, Third Eye Blind's self-titled debut nudged up from #69 to #53 and Marcy Playground got enough people interested in "Sex and Candy" to jump from #147 to #124. Meanwhile, Ben Folds Five, one of last week's re-appearing acts, stayed on the charts and moved up 23 slots to #171. Despite all the uplifting news, it wasn't as good a week for two posthumous releases. The only album to fall out of the top 10 was late rapper Tupac Shakur's R U Still Down? (Remember Me). The two-CD collection, which was assembled posthumously by Afeni Shakur, Tupac's mother, sold 129,000 copies but tumbled 11 places to #16. According to SoundScan, the album has thus far sold 873,000 copies. The Diana, Princess of Wales Tribute compilation, which features such artists as hip-hop's Puff Daddy, Irish crooner Sinead O'Connor and Mariah Carey, dropped 18 places in its second week of release, landing at #33. The rest of the best: Celine Dion (#2); Barbra Streisand (#3); LeAnn Rimes (#4); Shania Twain (#7); Hanson (#9); and Mariah Carey (#10). [Wed., Dec. 17, 1997, 6:00 p.m. PST]
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