Jackson Is Able to Say Beat It to Iglesias and Backstreet Boys
Michael Jackson is once again king of the charts.
His “Invincible” album sold 366,000 copies in its first week in stores, giving it an easy victory over another new arrival, Enrique Iglesias’ “Escape.” The latter finished second with sales of 267,000. Another new release, the Backstreet Boys’ “The Hits--Chapter One” finished fourth with 197,000.
The “Invincible” total came close to the 391,000 first-week sales of Jackson’s last album, the two-disc “HIStory” package in 1995. But the figure was far behind this year’s top opening-week mark: the 1.88 million copies sold by ‘N Sync’s “Celebrity” in July.
Among other new entries in the Top 15: Lenny Kravitz’s “Lenny” (No. 12) and Jermaine Dupri’s “Instructions” (No. 15).
The remaining places in the Top 10 were claimed by DMX (No. 3), Enya (No. 5), Nickelback (No. 6), the “God Bless America” compilation (No. 7), Ja Rule (No. 8), Linkin Park (No. 9) and Incubus (No. 10).
Looking ahead, retailers expect Britney Spears’ “Britney” to enter at No. 1 next week, though it isn’t expected to come close to the 1.3 million opening-week sales of last year’s “Oops! ... I Did It Again.”
Whitney Houston’s “The Star-Spangled Banner” is the nation’s best-selling single for the fifth consecutive week.
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