No Doubt Attains a Certain Rank as ‘Kingdom’ Ascends

No Doubt’s “Tragic Kingdom” has risen to No. 10 on the Billboard magazine top pop albums chart. The rock band from Anaheim has passed the 1 million mark in U.S. album sales, according to its label, Trauma Records.

No Doubt becomes the second Orange County band of the alternative rock era to reach the Top 10. It follows the Offspring, whose 1994 album “Smash” peaked at No. 4 en route to selling some 5 million copies in the United States and 8 million worldwide.

No Doubt would have to rise to No. 1 to be the all-time O.C. titleholder in terms of chart ranking: Jose Feliciano, who came up on the New York City folk scene but made Orange County his base from 1966 until 1990, scored a No. 2 album with his 1968 release, “Feliciano!”

The Righteous Brothers are the only other O.C. rockers to have hit the Top 10 on the Billboard albums chart. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ ” reached No. 4 in 1965 (the classic title track was a No. 1 single); their “Just Once in My Life. . .” hit No. 9 in ‘65, and “Soul & Inspiration,” featuring another No. 1 title single, reached No. 7 in 1966.

Rage Against the Machine, with its current release, “Evil Empire”; Stone Temple Pilots, with its 1994 album, “Purple”; and Metallica, with “Metallica” (1991) and “Load,” which has been No. 1 since its release four weeks ago, are bands with O.C. connections who have topped the Billboard albums chart. All three feature key members who were raised in O.C. and who spent some of their scuffling days on the local rock scene, but none of these bands regards Orange County as a home base.

The same goes for Jackson Browne, who spent his high school years in Fullerton but is regarded as a Los Angeles (rather than an Orange County) artist. Browne had a streak of four Top 10 albums from 1976 to 1983, with “Hold Out” reaching No. 1 in 1980.

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OTHER FISH TO FRY: No Doubt is featured on “MOM: Music for Our Mother Ocean,” a new compilation CD benefiting the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental organization based in San Clemente. No Doubt’s track is a cover of “Sailin’ On,” originally done by the Bad Brains, a punk-reggae band from Washington, D.C.

Adding to the local flavor of the compilation is Sublime’s “Badfish,” culled from the Long Beach band’s “40oz. to Freedom” CD. “MOM” also features Pearl Jam (covering a 1964 surf oldie, “Gremmie Out of Control”), the Ramones, Soundgarden, Beastie Boys, Everclear and Jewel, among others.