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Who Charted? Neil Young and Beach Boys’ Collective Nostalgia Can’t Beat Adele

Neil Young / Photo by Getty Images

First! As is the natural order of things, Adele is back at the top of Billboard 200 for the 24th week overall, after her NBC special “Adele Live in London” aired last Sunday and boosted sales of 21 by 30 percent. The album sold 72,000 copies, presumably all to one super-fan because there can’t possibly be anyone in the country who hasn’t bought this record yet. That puts her at 9.3 million copies sold worldwide and ties 21 with Prince & the Revolution’s Purple Rain for the record for most weeks at No. 1.

2 Through 10: Besides Adele, this week’s top slots are largely dominated by legendary gentlemen. No. 2 belongs to country legend Alan Jackson, who sold 73,000 copies of his 12th top 10 record and his first since leaving Arista Nashville for EMI Nashville, Thirty Miles West. The Beach Boys take No. 3 with That’s Why God Made the Radio (61,000) with help from a QVC pre-sale (apparently they took note of Lionel Richie’s success with home shopping); believe it or not, it’s their first top-10 album since their 1974 greatest hits compilation took the top slot. No 4 is the debut of Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Americana (44,000), which was helped by the old get-the-album-when-you-buy-concert-tickets routine. Big K.R.I.T.’s awesome Live From the Underground debuts at No. 5 with 41,000 copies sold. One Direction’s Up All Night takes No. 6 (40,000), while John Mayer’s third-week tally of 39,000 copies of Born and Raised gets him No. 7 after two weeks at No. 1. No. 8 belongs to the debut of The Stoned Immaculate, Curren$y’s eighth and highest-charting studio effort (36,000), while Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away reels in 27,000 at No. 9 and Brandi Carlile’s fourth record Bear Creek squeezes into a No. 10 debut with 27,000.

Seriously, Call Her Maybe: If you’re the guy who keeps ignoring Carly Rae Jepsen’s number in your phone, it’s time you hit “call” already, if simply for the greater good. She’s sold another 296,000 downloads of the song your friends keep singing at you (no, not that one), keeping “Call Me, Maybe” at No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart.

Looking Forward: Next week will see the debuts of a bundle of potential top-10ers, including Bobby Womack’s Damon Albarn-produced Bravest Man in the Universe, Metric’s Synthetica, Waka Flocka Flame’s Triple F Life, Rush’s Clockwork Angels, Smashing Pumpkins’ Oceania, and of course, Usher’s Looking 4 Myself, all of which saw their debuts yesterday.