E! Online News
May 30, 2002, 9:00 AM PT
David Jenison
Wal-Mart banned it, street vendors bootlegged it and cyber-pirates burned it--but The Eminem Show still made record-sales history.
After moving up his album's release date--twice--Eminem's third disc hit stores Sunday (rather than Tuesday, the norm for most albums), meaning just a single day of sales would go toward this week's SoundScan numbers.
But for Eminem, one day was all it took: For the week ended Sunday, The Eminem Show landed at number one, selling 285,000 copies on that day alone, according to SoundScan. a d v e r t i s e m e n t
To date, all three Em albums have opened on top. The trash-talking rapper, whose previous album holds the record for best single-week sales by a solo artist with 1.7 million copies, is now the only artist ever to take the number-one spot with just one "official" day in the retail racks.
Some even suggest Em might crack the one-million mark in his first full week, because many fans might not have realized the album's release date was moved up once again. Early sales also will be heavy since his label, in an effort to combat Internet and street-vendor piracy, included bonus DVD footage exclusive to the first two million copies sold through stores.
P. Diddy's We Invented the Remix lost the top spot in Em's wake, dropping to number two with 144,000 copies sold. Still, it was enough to best the week's second-highest debut, Marc Anthony, who landed at number three, selling 111,000 copies of Mended, his second English-language album.
The rest of the Top 10, all holdovers, included: Cam'ron's Come Home With Me at four, Ashanti's self-titled debut at five, Celine Dion's A New Day Has Come at six, Musiq's Juslisen at seven, Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 9 at eight, Kenny Chesney's No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems reentered the top 10 at nine and Moby's 18 at ten.
Box Car Racer, the side project of Blink 182's Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker, just missed the top 10 at number 12, selling 65,000 copies of their self-titled debut. The Blink spin-off just barely outsold another spin-off, Now That's What I Call Music!'s new hip-hop line, Off the Hook. The premiere installment, which sold about a 1,000 fewer copies at number 13, includes songs by Lil' Bow Wow, Aaliyah and Jennifer Lopez.
Amy Grant, Christian music's premiere pop crossover artist, sold 47,000 copies to land at number 21 with her umpteenth compilation, Legacy...Hymns and Faith. She's followed at number 39 by Tommy Lee, rock's unintentional crossover porn star, who sold 29,000 copies of Never a Dull Moment (not quite as popular as his bootlegged Pam and Tommy Lee video).
Other notable debuts included Phil Lesh and Friends' There and Back Again at 79; NOFX's 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records at 80; Superjoint Ritual's Use Once and Destroy at 87, NASCAR comp Crank It Up at 90; Something Corporate's Leaving Through the Window at 101; Poison's Hollyweird at 103; the long-time-no-see Breeders at 130 with Title TK; Goldfinger's Open Your Eyes at 136; MxPx's Ten Years and Running at a crawling 147; and Dio's Killing the Dragon at a retirement-ready 199.
Here's a rundown of the top 10 albums for the week ended Sunday:
1. The Eminem Show, Eminem
2. We Invented the Remix, P. Diddy
3. Mended, Marc Anthony
4. Come Home With Me, Cam'ron
5. Ashanti, Ashanti
6. A New Day Has Come, Celine Dion
7. Juslisen, Musiq
8. Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 9, various
9. No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems, Kenny Chesney
10. 18, Moby
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