The Big News: Grammy wins helped propel Amy Winehouse and Herbie Hancock into the top five, but it wasn’t enough to unseat last week’s champ and Rolling Stone cover boy Jack Johnson. Johnson’s new album Sleep Through the Static sold 179,545 in its second week, while Winehouse’s Back to Black sold 115,309 to jump from number twenty-four to number two. But the biggest mover was Herbie Hancock’s Album of the Year-winning River: The Joni Letters which witnessed a sales jump of 967% from the previous week to catapult from 159 to five. Other albums getting Grammy boosts: Foo Fighters‘ Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, Taylor Swift’s self-titled debut and Eagles‘ Long Road Out of Eden.
Debuts: Besides WOW Gospel 2008, there were only two noteworthy debuts: Simple Plan’s self-titled third album at fourteen, and Widespread Panic’s Free Somehow at seventy-eight.
Last Week’s Heroes: Last week’s top ten got all sorts of mixed up by the Grammy resurrection set, with only Johnson, Alicia Keys‘ As I Am (three) and Juno (six) holding their ground. Sheryl Crow’s Detours and Lenny Kravitz’s Graduation crossed into double platinum territory.
