Yet another boring week on the Billboard album charts. Adele spends a 12th week at the top of the charts with 21, although she only needed to sell 70,000 albums to do it. Country star Trace Adkins and singer/songwriter type Mat Kearney debut in the Top Five. The biggest news comes from hipster-pop band Foster the People, as their debut album, Torches, jumps into the Top 20 and “Pumped Up Kicks” looks to be one of the year’s surprise hits. Over on the singles list, LMFAO is still #1 with “Party Rock Anthem”, Katy Perry hangs for a fifth week at #2 with “T.G.I.F.”, and Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera soar back into the Top 10 with “Moves Like Jagger”, a position that will undoubtedly improve this week with the official debut of the video.
In light of any big news, let’s stick our keys into the time machine again, and venture back in time. We asked you guys what year we should travel back to for today’s column, and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit wins with his suggestion-1975! So let’s take a look at a week in the year when Gerald Ford was President (and probably tripping and falling all over the place), The Jackson 5 left Motown, and I (and probably most of you reading) wasn’t even born yet! These were the Top 20 albums the week of September 13th, 1975!
1) The Heat is On | The Isley Brothers
2) Red Octopus | Jefferson Starship
3) Between the Lines | Janis Ian
4) Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy | Elton John
5) One of These Nights | The Eagles
6) Honey | The Ohio Players
7) The Basement Tapes | Bob Dylan & The Band
8) Greatest Hits | Cat Stevens
9) That’s the Way of the World | Earth, Wind & Fire
10) Fandango | ZZ Top
11) Toys in the Attic | Aerosmith
12) Melissa | Melissa Manchester
13) Pick of the Litter | Spinners
14) Cut The Cake | Average White Band
15) Fleetwood Mac | Fleetwood Mac
16) No Way To Treat a Lady | Helen Reddy
17) Love Will Keep Us Together | The Captain & Tennille
18) Main Course | The Bee Gees
19) Gorilla | James Taylor
20) Non-Stop | B.T. Express
This is a pretty star-studded Top 20, huh? More than half of the artists on this list are enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and even those that aren’t wound up having pretty solid careers. There really isn’t a novelty or a one-hit wonder among the bunch. It’s very interesting to see a lot of the acts here on an upward trajectory towards legendary status. Aerosmith was just breaking out as a new band, That’s the Way of the World was the album that turned Earth, Wind & Fire into a superstar act, The Bee Gees had just begun their disco-flavored resurgence, and Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled effort was their first effort featuring Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.
It was a good time to be around if you were a soul band or group. In addition to EW&F, the Top 20 also featured B.T. Express, The Spinners, The Ohio Players (the immortal Honey album, the cover of which played a part in the alleged “Love Rollercoaster” murder), and at the top of the charts, The Isley Brothers. The six-track set The Heat Is On (no, it was not uncommon for albums in that era to have six tracks) featured the future classics “For the Love of You” and “Fight the Power”. It was the last chart-topper for the Isleys until 2003’s Body Kiss debuted at #1.
Next week, it’s all about Kanye & Jay, as Watch the Throne will top the charts in spectacular fashion, with a number north of 500,000 copies. Country star Luke Bryan and the 39th installment of the Now That’s What I Call Music series will also debut in the six-figure range. Check out this week’s Top 20 albums after the jump.
1) 21 | Adele
2) Chief | Eric Church
3) Proud to Be Here| Trace Adkins
4) Young Love | Mat Kearney
5) Victorious Cast Album | Victorious Cast
6) My Kinda Party | Jason Aldean
7) Kidz Bop 20 | Kidz Bop Kids
8) 4 | Beyonce
9) Slow Grind | Various Artists
10) Red River Blue | Blake Shelton
11) Born This Way | Lady Gaga
12) King | O.A.R.
13) Here I Am | Kelly Rowland
14) Hell: The Sequel | Bad Meets Evil
15) When the Sun Goes Down | Selena Gomez & The Scene
16) Back to Black | Amy Winehouse
17) Now That’s What I Call Music 38 | Various Artists
18) Sigh No More | Mumford & Sons
19) Teenage Dream | Katy Perry
20) Torches | Foster The People
2 comments
Chris says:
Aug 11, 2011
There are some stone classics on that ’75 list. Popular music now is just so damn depressing.
blerd says:
Aug 11, 2011
Yeah, it’s difficult to tell how many albums in, say, this week’s Top 20 will be considered classics thirty years from now. 2? 3? That’s partially due to the fact that the amount of music releases is so high that everything’s diluted. The other thing is that Soundscan methodology is such that albums debut high and then disappear while the (admittedly flawed) previous methodology allowed albums to climb up the charts and stay there for a longer time.