Aging ‘Hotshot’ Is No. 1 Album

The first blockbuster album of 2001, the Dave Matthews Band’s “Everyday,” has been knocked out of the No. 1 spot on the national sales chart after just two weeks by Shaggy’s 7-month-old “Hotshot.”

“The Shaggy record is just unstoppable,” says Wherehouse Entertainment senior pop buyer Bob Bell. “With [MCA Records] just starting to work a second single now, this record has a long way to go.”

Indeed, “Angel,” the new single from “Hotshot,” was played a record 8,000 times nationwide last week on the 124 Top 40 radio stations that report weekly to Airplay Monitor, a sister publication to Billboard magazine.

That helped “Hotshot” sell 210,000 copies last week, 11,000 more than DMB’s “Everyday” posted in its third week of release, according to SoundScan. “Hotshot” has now sold 4.3 million copies.

“It’s an amazing thing,” Scott Levin of the Musicland/Sam Goody chain says about “Hotshot.” “People still continue to discover that it’s so deep with singles. I think it’s starting to liken itself to Santana’s [‘Supernatural’] record.”

“Everyday,” which sold 733,000 copies its first week out and has sold 1.2 million in just three weeks, may have lost the No. 1 slot for now, but retailers expect the album to remain in the chart’s upper reaches for a long time.

“The more time I spend with that record,” Levin says, “the more I feel that’s going to be another one like the Shaggy and Santana records.”

Aerosmith’s “Just Push Play” dropped one notch in its second week to No. 3 with sales of 126,000, a little more than half of its debut figure of 240,000.

Eric Clapton’s “Reptile” was the highest-debuting album of the week, entering at No. 5 with sales of 102,000.

Two R&B; acts entered the Top 10 with debut albums: singer-songwriter Tank, whose “Force of Nature” entered at No. 7 with first-week sales of 98,000, and singer Jaheim, whose “Ghetto Love” sold 80,000 to debut at No. 9.

The remainder of the Top 10 slots were held by Dido, Eve, DJ Clue and Limp Bizkit.

The Best Buy chain is projecting first-week sales of 240,000 for vocal group 112’s “Part III” album, which was released Tuesday. That would make it a strong contender for a No. 1 debut next week, and Bell says he expects it to be the Wherehouse’s top-selling album of the week.

Other new releases that appear headed for Top 10 debuts next week are R&B; singer Jon B.’s “Pleasures U Like” and Trick Daddy’s “Thugs R Us.”

The nation’s best-selling single is “Get Over Yourself” by Eden’s Crush, which jumped from No. 97 on the singles sales chart last week. Shaggy’s “Angel” won’t be available retail until April 24.