Weird Al Yankovic might have just taken the first comedy album to the top of the Billboard 200 in more than 50 years, but it wasn't just because it was a weak sales week. The performer moved 104,000 copies of his record Mandatory Fun, which marks the highest sales week in the performer's career, at least since Nielsen Soundscan began tracking numbers. Much of the credit can be attributed to his release of a new music video every day during the last week through a variety of media outlets. The last comedy album to top the charts, by the way, was Allan Sherman's "My Son, The Nut."
Three more debut albums fill out the top four spots on the chart. Billboard got a little excited when reporting Jason Mraz's no. 2 album, Yes!, and forgot to give the actual sales total. They suggested the album was projected to sell between 70,000 and 75,000 copies, so that's a safe bet. No. 3 came from Rise Against, whose album The Black Market moved 53,000 units. The final new release in the Top 10 this week comes from the ever-successful Kidz Bop franchise, which sold 46,000 copies of Kidz Bop 26, which features tracks such as "Happy" and "Dark Horse."
Although there were four new titles in the first four spots, one old favorite rounds out the top five. The Frozen soundtrack stays in the top five for at least one more week, marking more than 30 weeks within the range. The only other album to top it was Adele's 21, which spent 39 weeks there. Frozen sold another 43,000 copies this week.
Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran have moved back into position to be associated together as the solo British male performers in the Top 10, after a week apart. Smith fell to no. 6 with In The Lonely Hour, which sold 35,000 copies, while Sheeran's x sold much less, at 24,000 copies, but still came in at no. 7.
Now 50 continues to hang around, meaning that 20 percent of the Top 10 albums are now essentially Top 40 compilations. The set moved another 23,000 units to single-happy buyers. Trey Songz lasted at least one more week on the chart (his third) after Trigga sold just less than 23,000 copies.
Miranda Lambert finally lost her Top 10 spot this week to her husband, of all people. Blake Shelton's Based On A True Story... was offered at a discounted rate of $5.99 on iTunes, which resulted in sales of more than 22,000 copies. The album jumped from no. 63 to no. 10, a rise in sales of nearly 386 percent.
