U2’s ‘Zooropa’ Zooms to Top of the Charts

U2’s new “Zooropa” album will enter the U.S. sales charts Saturday at No. 1 after selling more than 377,000 copies--the biggest first-week sales of the year.

The Dublin rock band’s collection knocks Barbra Streisand’s “Back to Broadway” album out of the top spot, outselling it by more than 267,000 copies.

The “Zooropa” total is the fifth highest first-week figure since the New York research firm SoundScan began monitoring record sales in May, 1991.

“This huge sales showing is a testament to the strength of U2’s enormous fan base,” said Gerry Kopecky, vice president of sales at PolyGram Label Group, which releases U2’s music. “We know they are the biggest group in the world but we didn’t anticipate selling this many the first week out.”

PolyGram created a very low-key marketing campaign for “Zooropa,” relying almost entirely on word-of-mouth street buzz to fuel sales. Unlike Janet Jackson and most pop stars, U2 did not run a saturation of newspaper or TV ads or release a single to stimulate demand.

Still, retailers talked Wednesday of a phenomenal response for “midnight-madness” sales at record stores across the country, including West Hollywood’s Virgin Megastore.

“The response for U2’s midnight sale was our biggest ever,” said Megastore sales clerk Lucy Taylor. “We had 600 fans show up and the enthusiasm was unbelievable. It was like they were lined up outside to see the band perform live or something.”

Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion II” holds the record for first-week sales since SoundScan began monitoring sales. The Los Angeles hard-rock band’s album sold 770,000 units in September, 1991. The runners-up: Metallica’s “Metallica” (598,000 units), Garth Brooks’ “The Chase” (403,000) and Def Leppard’s “Adrenalize” (380,000).

Whitney Houston’s “Bodyguard” soundtrack didn’t sell enough during its first week in the stores last November to enter at No. 1, but the album holds the SoundScan record for the most units sold in a seven-day period. Thanks to the success of the film and the holiday sales season, “Bodyguard” sold more than 1 million copies during one week in early January.

Janet Jackson’s “janet.,” which spent six weeks at No. 1 before being knocked out of the top spot last week by the Streisand album, will slip to No. 3 on Saturday’s chart with about 95,000 units sold. Billy Ray Cyrus’ “It Won’t Be the Last” drops to No. 5 with 83,000 in sales.