BillBoard Magazine: Midler’s It’s The Girls – Highest Debut Of Her Career

Billboard Magazine
Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ Spends Second Week at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart
By Keith Caulfield, Los Angeles | November 12, 2014 11:00 AM EST

Meanwhile, Bette Midler and Calvin Harris score Top 10 debuts on the albums chart.

As expected, Taylor Swift’s blockbuster 1989 album spends a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

The set sold 402,000 copies in the week ending Nov. 9, according to Nielsen SoundScan – down a moderate 69 percent compared to its 1.287 million bow.

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The album’s second-week haul is the second-biggest week for an album in 2014, following 1989’s debut a week earlier. 1989 has sold 1.688 million copies in its first two chart weeks.

Swift’s last album, 2012’s Red, fell by 72 percent in its sophomore frame (1.21 million to 344,000). The album before that, Speak Now, also started with more than a million (1.047 million) and slipped by 69.5 percent (to 320,000) in week two.

It seems the music industry mostly avoided releasing albums from A-list artists to compete with 1989’s second week. Thus, the top 10 sees only two new arrivals: Bette Midler’s It’s the Girls (No. 3) and Calvin Harris’ Motion (No. 5). Last week’s No. 2 set, the Now 52 compilation, holds in the runner-up slot with 59,000 (down 42 percent).

Midler’s tribute to girl groups – which features covers of such tunes as TLC’s “Waterfalls” and The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” – bows with 40,000 sold. The Warner Bros. Records release is Midler’s highest debut ever, and second-highest charting album following the No. 2-peaking Beaches soundtrack. (The latter consists entirely of Midler tunes, as heard throughout the film.)

It’s the Girls is Midler’s first album since 2008’s greatest hits set Jackpot! The Best Bette, and first album of new material since the 2006 Christmas effort Cool Yule.

Below Midler is Jason Aldean’s former No. 1 Old Boots, New Dirt, which rises 5-4 with just over 35,000 (down just 17 percent). It’s one of the albums in the top 10 that benefit from exposure on the Country Music Association Awards (CMA Awards) on Nov. 5. Aldean performed the album’s “Burnin’ It Down” on the broadcast.

Calvin Harris scores his first top 10 album as his fourth studio release, Motion, bows at No. 5. It also easily clocks his best sales week yet with 35,000 sold. His previous high was logged by his last album, 18 Months, when it debuted and peaked at No. 19 in 2012, starting with 17,000 sold.

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Florida Georgia Line’s Anything Goes is steady at No. 6 with 30,000 (down 21 percent), Barbra Streisand’s Partners climbs 11-7 with 28,000 (down 2 percent) and Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour jumps 14-8 with 27,000 (up 2 percent). Brantley Gilbert’s Just As I Am zooms 62-9 with 26,000 (up 306 percent) as it was deeply discounted to 99-cents during the tracking week in the Google Play store. Sam Hunt’s Montevallo rounds out the top 10, sliding 3-10 with 25,000 (down 64 percent).

Over on the Digital Songs chart, Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” bounces back to No. 1 (up one spot) with 190,000 (up 43 percent). The song’s sales were aided by its performance by Trainor on the CMA Awards with Miranda Lambert.

Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” slips 1-2 with 164,000 (though up 5 percent), while Swift’s “Shake It Off” re-enters at No. 3 with 130,000 (up 1,020 percent). The latter song fell off the tally last week due to complete-my-album transactions in the iTunes Store (effectively exchanging the song for an album purchase of its parent album, 1989).

Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” holds at No. 4 (123,000; up 16 percent) and Maroon 5’s “Animals” dips 3-5 (114,000; up 4 percent).

Selena Gomez scores her second-biggest debut sales week, as “The Heart Wants What It Wants” bows at No. 6 with 102,000. It’s the first single from her upcoming greatest hits album, For You, due out Nov. 24. Gomez’s biggest sales start came with 2011’s “Who Says,” which launched with 116,000.

Sam Smith’s “I’m Not the Only One” climbs 11-7 with just over 84,000 (up 20 percent) and Carrie Underwood’s “Something In the Water” bounds 35-8 with 84,000 (up 144 percent). The song was performed on the CMA Awards (Nov. 5), while its music video premiered the same night.

“Bang Bang,” by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj rises 10-9 with 83,000 (up 17 percent) and Tove Lo’s “Habits (Stay High)” descends 5-10 with 81,000 (up 3 percent).

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Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Nov. 9) totaled 4.95 million units, down 15 percent compared with the sum last week (5.80 million) and down 13 percent compared with the comparable sales week of 2013 (5.68 million). Year to date album sales stand at 204.14 million, down 13 percent compared to the same total at this point last year (234.33 million).

Digital track sales this past week totaled 18.29 million downloads, up 6 percent compared with last week (17.29 million) and down 11 percent stacked next to the comparable week of 2013 (20.62 million). Year to date track sales are at 953.65 million, down 13 percent compared to the same total at this point last year (1.09 billion).

Next week’s Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2013 when: Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP debuted at No. 1 with 258,000. The previous week’s leader, Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2, fell to No. 2 with 210,000 (down 73 percent).

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