Chart Beat
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Liam Gallagher is king of the U.K. Albums Chart with Knebworth 22 (via Warner Records).
Recorded live last year at the scene of one of Oasis’s most iconic events, Knebworth 22 keeps the streak alive for Gallagher, who now boasts five solo chart leaders, including As You Were (2017), Why Me? Why Not (2019), MTV Unplugged (2020) and C’mon You Know (2022).
As a member of Oasis, Gallagher claimed eight No. 1s, including all seven of the Britpop legends’ studio albums. Gallagher’s post-Oasis project Beady Eye released two albums, 2011’s Different Gear, Still Speeding (peaking at No. 3) and 2013’s BE (No. 2).
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By securing top spot on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, published Aug. 18, Liam goes one better than his brother Noel Gallagher, whose own post-Oasis career has yielded four No. 1s and a narrow miss with Council Skies, which came in at No. 2 on the national chart earlier in the year behind Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are.
The leader at the halfway mark, Knebworth 22 is the biggest selling album of the week on vinyl and downloads, according to the Official Charts Company.
Coming in at No. 2 on the national chart is the Hives’ sixth album The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons (Disques Hives). That’s the Swedish rockers’ highest charting LP in the U.K., besting the No. 7 for their 2002 collection Your New Favourite Band, released through Alan McGee’s Poptones label, and its followup from 2004, Tyrannosaurus Hives (Polydor).
Completing an all-new top three is Jungle’s Volcano (Caiola), which erupts at No. 3. All four of the British electronic music pair’s albums have cracked the U.K. top 10.
Also new to the top 10 is London rapper Fredo with Unfinished Business (PG Records) arriving at No. 9, for his fifth top tier appearance, while new releases from Lucy Spraggan (Balance at No. 24 via CTRL) and John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd (End of World at No. 33 via PIL Official) impact the U.K. top 40.
Finally, Taylor Swift makes her presence felt on the top 40 with eight titles, including three in the top 10. Leading the way is 1989 at No. 5, which reenters the top 5 for the first time since 2015, the OCC notes, powered by the announcement that her re-recorded 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will arrive Oct. 27.
Travis Scott’s Utopia scores a third total and consecutive week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Aug. 26), as the album earned 185,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 18 (up 26%), according to Luminate. With three total weeks at No. 1 (the set debuted atop the tally), Utopia has the most weeks at No. 1 for a rap album in nearly two years, since Drake’s Certified Lover Boy spent five nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 (Sept. 18-Nov. 6, 2021, charts). Plus, Scott ties his longest Billboard 200 reign, among his three No. 1s; Astroworld led for three weeks in 2018.
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Also in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, Karol G logs her second top five-charting set of 2023 (and of her career), as Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season) launches at No. 3. The new effort follows the similarly titled Mañana Será Bonito, which debuted at No. 1 on the March 11-dated list. (Though they have nearly the same title, the albums’ tracklists are different.)
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 26, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Aug. 22. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Utopia’s 185,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 17, album sales comprise 99,000 (up 169%), SEA units comprise 86,000 (down 22%, equaling 124.13 million on-demand official streams of the streaming set’s 19 songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (down 38%).
Utopia’s album sales grew in the set’s third week thanks in part to a promotional offer in Scott’s official webstore, which discounted the Utopia vinyl LP from $50 to only $5 for a limited time. Of Utopia’s 99,000 sales for the week, vinyl accounted for 93,000. That sum marks Utopia’s best week on vinyl yet, the seventh-largest sales week on vinyl for any album since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991, and the biggest week for an R&B/hip-hop or rap album on vinyl in that same period.
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time is a non-mover at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, with 94,000 equivalent album units earned (up 2%).
Karol G collects her second top five-charting album of 2023, as Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season) debuts at No. 3 with 67,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 49,000 (equaling 68.26 million on-demand official streams of the streaming set’s 10 tracks), album sales comprise 17,000 (it was available as a digital download album, CD and vinyl LP) and TEA units comprise 1,000.
The Barbie soundtrack dips 3-4 on the Billboard 200 with 65,000 equivalent album units earned (down 12%).
Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) falls 4-5 with 61,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%). It’s the first of four Swift albums in the top 10. It’s joined by former leaders Midnights (5-6 with 58,000; up 3%), Lover (6-7 with 54,000; up 6%) and 1989 (13-9 with 45,000; up 13%). The lattermost album, which debuted at No. 1 in 2014, returns to the top 10 for the first time since early 2016. It surges up the list thanks to publicity and consumption generated by Swift’s announcement on Aug. 9 that 1989 would be her next re-recorded album, and that it will be released on Oct. 27. Swift holds four albums in the top 10 for a fourth time, having become the first living artist to achieve the feat in nearly 60 years last month.
Rounding out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, Peso Pluma’s Génesis is stationary at No. 8 (46,000 units; down 1%), while Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album sits still at No. 10 (nearly 44,000 units; up 2%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Bailey Zimmerman posts his third straight career-opening top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Aug. 26), as “Religiously” rises 11-9. In the Aug. 11-17 tracking week, the song increased by 8% to 19.1 million audience impressions, according to Luminate. The song, co-written by the 23-year-old, is from his LP Religiously. The Album., which arrived […]
Legendary singer-songwriter and producer Babyface scores his first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 as a producer in 23 years, thanks to his work on SZA’s “Snooze.”
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The song, released in December on SZA’s 10-week Billboard 200 No. 1 album SOS, jumps 15-10 on the Hot 100 (dated Aug. 19). Babyface, who co-produced the track with BLK (real name: Blair Ferguson) and The Rascals (the production duo comprising Khristopher Riddick-Tynes and Leon Thomas III), last appeared in the top 10 as a producer in December 2000, with P!nk’s “Most Girls.” The song climbed to No. 4 the prior month, becoming P!nk’s first career top five hit (of an eventual eight to date).
Babyface is also one of five credited co-writers on “Snooze” (however SZA solely wrote the lyrics).
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While “Snooze” marks Babyface’s return to the Hot 100’s top 10 as a producer, he’s tallied three additional top 10s on the Hot 100 this century as a writer, thanks to samples and interpolations of his older hits. (When a song is sampled on another track, credited writers of the original typically receive writing credits on the new song.)
Babyface is credited as a co-writer of Mariah Carey’s 2005 14-week No. 1 “We Belong Together,” thanks to its interpolation of “Two Occasions” by The Deele, in which he was a member; the latter song hit No. 10 on the Hot 100 in 1988. He even gets a shoutout in the lyrics of Carey’s lost-love song: “I gotta change the station / So I turn the dial, tryin’ to catch a break / And then I hear Babyface, ‘I only think of you’ / And it’s breaking my heart.”
In 2020, Babyface notched another top 10 as a writer, via Lil Mosey’s “Blueberry Faygo” (No. 8 peak). The track samples Johnny Gill’s 1990 No. 10 hit “My, My, My,” which he co-wrote with Daryl Simmons. In 2021, Babyface tallied another top 10, thanks to a writing credit on Drake’s “Fair Trade,” featuring Travis Scott (No. 3). The collab samples Charlotte Day Wilson’s 2019 song “Mountains.”
Of Babyface’s top 10 Hot 100 hits in any role (producer, writer or recording artist), seven have hit No. 1. They’ve combined to spend just shy of a year at the summit: 51 weeks.
Here’s a recap:
Artist Billing, Title (Peak Year; Role)Whitney Houston, “I’m Your Baby Tonight” (1990, one week at No. 1; producer, songwriter)Boyz II Men, “End of the Road” (1992, 13 weeks; producer, songwriter)Boyz II Men, “I’ll Make Love to You” (1994, 14 weeks; producer, songwriter)Madonna, “Take a Bow” (1995, seven weeks; producer, songwriter)Whitney Houston, “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” (1995, one week; producer, songwriter)Toni Braxton, “You’re Makin’ Me High”/”Let It Flow” (1996, one week; producer, songwriter)Mariah Carey, “We Belong Together” (2005, 14 weeks; songwriter)
Babyface praised SZA in an interview on Billboard’s Pop Shop Podcast in January. ““I think SZA is amazing,” he said. “She’s so unique and I’m amazed by her talent, to be honest, and very happy for her success. I think it’s very well-deserved.”
Of his own versatility, and longevity, he said, “I think as a musician, I’ve always tried to not be one particular thing and be able to cross different genres. I always kind of look at it [as], if you’re a full musician, then you should be able to do more than one thing. And what allows you to do that is to not have an ego, to the point to where you think what you do is the best thing and always the best. So, it’s always great to collaborate and get into a room and learn.”
A&M Records is one of the most successful and admired labels in music history. A&M had more than 100 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962, when Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss founded the label, and 1989, when they sold it to PolyGram NV. The label’s first top 10 hit was Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ bullfight-inspired instrumental “The Lonely Bull,” which reached No. 6 in December 1962. Its last in the years Alpert and Moss owned the label was Janet Jackson’s “Miss You Much,” which logged four weeks at No. 1 in October 1989.
As the industry continues to mourn Moss’ death on Wednesday (Aug. 16) at age 88, we give you this list of A&M’s 50 biggest hits in the 27 years that Alpert and Moss owned the label. Carpenters have eight entries on the list, followed by Jackson, with six; Captain & Tennille, with four; Billy Preston and Styx, with three each; and Alpert, The Human League, Breathe and Simple Minds, with two each. (Sting has two if you combined one solo hit and one megahit with The Police.)
The sale to PolyGram NV, announced in October 1989, became effective in January 1990. Alpert and Moss stayed on after the sale, but it wasn’t quite the same. Gil Friesen, who became A&M’s second employee in 1964 and succeeded Moss as president in 1977, resigned in April 1990. Others followed. After the sale, A&M became a little less special, a little more corporate. On June 18, 1993, Alpert and Moss left A&M which now operated as a division of PolyGram. The glory days of the label were when it was an indie – initially the little label that could – that earned the admiration of the industry.
For the record, A&M had more than 40 additional top 10 hits on the Hot 100 after Alpert and Moss relinquished ownership, including No. 1s by Jackson, Amy Grant, Extreme, Bryan Adams, Fergie and Maroon 5.
Methodology: Songs, which peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962, when A&M was founded, and the end of 1989, when Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss sold the label to PolyGram, are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, “If You Leave”
ITZY, Mammoth WVH and TOMORROW X TOGETHER all debut in the top 10 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Aug. 19) with their latest efforts, while Mac Miller’s Swimming surges 77-10 after the release of its fifth anniversary vinyl reissue.
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At No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Travis Scott’s Utopia holds for a second week (37,000; down 85%) after bowing atop the list a week ago. NewJeans’ 2nd EP ‘Get Up’ is a non-mover at No. 2 with 27,000 (down 31%).
ITZY’s Kill My Doubt bows at No. 3 with 23,000 copies sold, marking the Korean pop act’s fourth top 10-charting set. As is typical with many K-pop projects, the set was issued in collectible CD packages (14 different versions in all) that contain branded merchandise (including randomized elements).
Rock act Mammoth WVH scores a No. 4 debut with its second album, Mammoth II. It launches with just over 20,000 copies sold and follows the act’s self-titled set, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 in 2021.
Taylor Swift’s chart-topping Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) rises 4-5 with 20,000 sold (down 14%) and the Barbie soundtrack is a non-mover at No. 6 with 14,000 (down 30%).
TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s Sweet starts at No. 7 with 14,000 sold. The Japanese-language project was issued in four collectible CD iterations and grants the Korean act its sixth top 10-charting title on Top Album Sales.
Rounding out the top 10 on the new Top Album Sales chart are two former No. 1s from Swift (Folklore moves 9-8 with 11,000; up 5% and Midnights rises 10-9 with 10,000; up 11%) and Mac Miller’s Swimming. The latter flies 77-10 with 10,000 sold (up 409%) after the release of a fifth anniversary vinyl edition of the album. The set debuted and peaked at No. 2 in 2018.
In the week ending Aug. 10, there were 1.788 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 13% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.447 million (down 9.8%) and digital albums comprised 341,000 (down 24.2%).
There were 655,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Aug. 10 (down 9.7% week-over-week) and 782,000 vinyl albums sold (down 9.9%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 21.59 million (up 3.1% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 28.728 million (up 20.9%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 62.069 million (up 7.6% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 50.651 million (up 12.5%) and digital album sales total 11.418 million (down 9.8%).
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Taylor Swift passes P!nk for the most No. 1s among soloists in the history of Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart as “Cruel Summer” climbs to the top of the tally dated Aug. 26. The song becomes Swift’s 11th leader. Among all acts, she trails only Maroon 5, with an overall record 15 No. 1s.
The Adult Pop Airplay chart, which began in Billboard’s pages in March 1996, measures songs’ weekly plays, as tabulated by Mediabase and provided to Billboard by Luminate, on around 80 U.S. adult top 40 radio stations.
Here’s a recap of Swift’s 11 No. 1s on Adult Pop Airplay.
Title, Weeks at No. 1, Year(s):
“Cruel Summer,” one (to date), 2023
“Karma,” two, 2023
“Anti-Hero,” nine, 2022-23
“Willow,” three, 2021
“Delicate,” four, 2018
“Wildest Dreams,” four, 2015
“Bad Blood,” three, 2015
“Style,” two, 2015
“Blank Space,” six, 2015
“Shake It Off,” eight, 2014
“I Knew You Were Trouble,” one, 2013
Originally released on Swift’s 2019 album Lover and now being promoted by Republic Records as a single, the song has been gaining momentum in recent months, as Swift has been performing it on her The Eras Tour. It’s the first tour in which she’s been able to spotlight songs from Lover, which was released shortly before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The song becomes the first Adult Pop Airplay No. 1 from Lover, following four top 10s: “Me!,” featuring Brendon Urie (No. 5 peak, June 2019); “You Need to Calm Down” (No. 3, November 2019); the title track (No. 6, February 2020); and “The Man” (No. 9, April 2020).
“Cruel Summer” concurrently spends a fourth week atop the Pop Airplay chart, where it became Swift’s 12th No. 1, the most among all artists. Swift scores her longest reign on the survey since 2015, when “Bad Blood” dominated for five frames.
On the most recently published, Aug. 19-dated all-genre, multimetric Billboard Hot 100, “Cruel Summer” rose to a new No. 3 best.
All charts dated Aug. 26 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Aug. 22.
Loud Luxury, Two Friends & Bebe Rexha ascend to the summit on the Aug. 19-dated Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, as “If Only I” rises from No. 3 to No. 1 in its seventh week on the list. They unseat Kylie Minogue, who claimed two weeks atop the list with “Padam Padam,” this week sliding back to No. 2 (down 13% in weekly plays). “If Only I” is the first leader for both Loud Luxury and Two Friends, and the second No. 1 for Rexha.
“If Only I” has been scaling the survey since its July 8 debut at No. 35. Since the July 29-dated list, the song has gained by 17%, 22% and 23% in week-to-week plays, according to Luminate, though gains slow to 4% this week as it reaches the chart’s apex. (The latest chart reflects the tracking week ending Aug. 10 in the U.S.)
All three acts have history on the tally. “If Only I” is the 11th entry for Canadian duo Loud Luxury dating back to 2018’s “Body,” but the first No. 1. It surpasses the previous high of last year’s “These Nights,” which spent two non-consecutive weeks at No. 3 among 20 frames on the list.
It’s also the first leader for Los-Angeles based two-piece Two Friends, bypassing the “Wish You Were Here,” which reached No. 6 last September. Previously, they had charted with “Looking At You” in 2020.
For Rexha, “If Only I” is not only her second No. 1 on the survey, but also her second No. 1 this year. “I’m Good (Blue)” with David Guetta hit No. 1 last October, beginning a non-consecutive 14-week run on top that lasted through the Feb. 18-dated tally.
Rexha has landed 16 titles on the chart altogether, spanning a decade since the Cash Cash collaboration “Take Me Home” rose to No. 2 in November 2013, stuck behind Avicii’s almighty “Wake Me Up,” which was nearing the end of its 10-week reign.
Concurrently, “If Only I” spends a seventh week on the multimetric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart at No. 30.
Yet again, Barbie The Album lands three songs in the top 10 of the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Aug. 19).
Barbie‘s (and Ken’s) global journey began on the June 10-dated lists, when Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” arrived at No. 24 on the Global 200 and No. 26 on Global Excl. U.S. In between its debut and the film’s July 21 opening, the song drifted into the 40s and 50s before hitting the top 10 on the Aug. 5-dated rankings, blasting 46-27-8 and 45-24-5, respectively.
Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua entered the fray on the July 8-dated tallies, when “Barbie World” debuted on the Global 200 at No. 12, fell to No. 61, and shot back to No. 6 in two weeks’ time.
Released just one week before the film, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” was spared the roller-coaster chart run, arriving at No. 18 and flying into the top 10 the following frame.
Barbie and its billion-dollar hype led all three songs into the top 10, but the album’s momentum continues as box office receipts recede. Eilish leads the pack, rising to No. 2 on the Global 200. Lipa follows — up to 3 — while Minaj and Ice Spice, with the most immediate tie-in to the film, given their flip of Aqua’s iconic ‘90s chorus, scored the best debut of all Barbie tracks and has stayed relatively steady since the movie’s premier, returning to their No. 6 high.
Even a song as inextricable from the film’s plot as Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” continues to make progress. The Mouseketeer-turned Oscar-nominated actor-turned global chart phenom rises 79-70 on the Global 200 and 97-87 on Global Excl. U.S.
Further, Charli XCX inches to a new high of No. 58 on the Global 200 with “Speed Drive.” On Wednesday (Aug. 16), she premiered the song’s official music video, which could give it enough juice to become her highest charting global hit yet (dating back to the charts’ 2020 start).
Through Aug. 16, Barbie is the second highest grossing film of 2023 worldwide, at $1.2 billion. Of that global sum, 45% ($541.9 million) comes from the U.S. and 55% ($660.6 million) comes from foreign territories.
Meanwhile, all five of the soundtrack’s charting hits have a larger international share of streams. They range from “Barbie World” at 63% to “Dance the Night” with 74% non-U.S. clicks. That comes in just shy of the average among all globally charting hits, at 76%.
On Aug. 18, 1978, Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty’s “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. A story of long-distance love with the Mississippi River in between, the hit was authored by Becki Bluefield and Jim Owen. It was released as the lead single from Lynn and Twitty’s same-named album, their first […]