Chart News For October 12, 2011: Scotty McCreery Makes History

Below are some bullet points of the chart information followed by the Top 20 and 5 interesting country albums in chart form. We know they were absent last week and that was simply an error, not a new trend. Enjoy! Also, don’t forget to return next week when we’ll see if Lauren Alaina can out-sell Scotty, Hunter Hayes and Martina McBride (and we’ll also see how the release of “Footloose” the film affects the soundtracks sales (which is around 8,000 for two weeks).

• One more Scotty nugget: Clear As Day is the biggest sales week of any Idol winner’s first album since David Cook started at #3 with his self-titled rock album. The last two idol winners, 2009’s Kris Allen launched at #11 with 80,000 sold (but sold many digital singles) while last year’s Lee DeWyze gets to join Taylor Hicks as idol winners who lost their record deal after only one ‘bad-selling’ album (hicks’ still went platinum.
• Lady Antebellum has sold 605,000 copies of Own The Night in one month, with about 160,000 of those coming the last three weeks.
• Rodney Atkins debuts in the All-genre top 10 at 8 but has the #3 country album this week as Take A Back Road sold nearly 35,000 copies. The title track single has sold over 700,000 copies and is a good example of why album sales have ‘plummeted’ in the digital era. It’s a strong showing for an artist who gets little, if any, crossover airplay.
• Jason Aldean’s My Kinda Party has hit the 1.9 million scanned mark but is already certified platinum.
• Luke Bryan rebounds into the Top 5 best-selling country albums, according to SoundScan. He has now sold 360,000 copies of Tailgates & Tanlines.
• Brantley gilbert is nearing the 250,000 sales mark for Halfway To Heaven thanks to the Deluxe Edition selling briskly and a Top 10 single (which no doubt will be his first Gold award as an artist (he’s already got Gold and Platinum awards for being the writer of “My Kinda Party” and “Dirt Road Anthem” for Jason Aldean).
• George Strait has now sold less – 192,000 – in 5 weeks than Scotty McCreery has sold in one, for whatever that’s wort. Still title track Here For A Good Time looks primed to hit #1 in the next couple of weeks, adding to George’s already legendary total.
• With George’s album country music has 1/3 of the Top 21 selling albums on the SoundScan chart.
• Eric Church better be careful or it’ll only be 2-3 weeks before EMI/Capitol label mate Luke Bryan surpasses him on the sales charts. Chief’s sales have slowed down a wee bit whilst Bryan’s sales have stayed up a la Aldean (could be the result of a successful, well-publicized pair of tours). Either way, both EC and Luke are looking at Gold and possibly Platinum sales for both their albums.
• The Pistol Annies scored a 44% sales increase this week to see Hell On Heels rebound into the Top 10 of the SoundScan Country Albums chart. The album which has received little airplay to date – outside of XM/Sirius The Highway, shows that Miranda Lambert’s likely to sell very consistently when Four The Record is released later this month.
• Blake Shelton rounds out the Top 10 with Red River Blue. The album has sold 346,000 copies thanks to Platinum-selling “Honey Bee” and soon to be certified Gold and future #1 single “God Gave Me You.”
• The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams project that features finished versions of the songs written in Hank Sr’s notebooks. Artists like Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Jack White, Bob Dylan, Holly Williams (Hank’s granddaughter) and Merle Haggard are on the project that hit #11 this week with nearly 10,000 copies in the hands of fans.
• Taylor Swift is set to release some special deluxe editon of Speak Now this fall which will undoubtedly get superfans to buy it again like they did her first two records, yet it still has sold nearly 3.7 million copies w/o such tactics in less than a year on the charts while Lady A is right behind her at nearly 3.7 million as well with their juggernaut sophomore LP Need You Now.
• Zac Brown Band rounds out the Top 15 and gives country music roughly 1/4 of the top 50 albums sold this week. They’ve now sold 1.21 million copies of You Get What You Give.
• Jake Owen leads the last quarter of the Top 20 SoundScan Country Albums this week with Barefoot Blue Jean Night now in the hands of nearly 120,000 fans.
• Justin Moore’s Outlaws Like Me has now sold over 261,000 albums.
• Proving that some fans still like compilation albums of nothin’ but the hits, Now Country IV has sold over 170,000 copies.
• Brad Paisley has scanned past Gold with This Is Country Music, meaning that every studio album he’s released to date has gone Gold or Platinum (with the exception of the mostly instrumental Play).
• Leann Rimes rounds out the Top 20 with Lady & Gentlemen the new Vince Gill-produced album has sold nearly 20,000 copies.
• The interesting albums section starts off with The Oak Ridge Boys’ It’s Only Natural having moved nearly 18,000 copies in three weeks (it is the 81st best-selling album in the USA this week). You can only get the album via Cracker Barrel stores.
• Eli Young Band’s Life At Best has sold nearly 100,000 copies since being released while lead single and Top 10 hit “Crazy Girl” is marching towards Platinum in digital single sales.
• Chris Young’s Neon is nearing the 200,000 sold mark and it’s likely he’ll get the record to Gold with two to three more singles following the first two singles on the record.
• Tim McGraw’s Number One Hits is already gold thanks to sales over 250,000 (it’s a double album so they count twice according to RIAA) and that means that with 441,000 copies now sold of what may be the final release by Tim as an active Curb Records artist, the collection is nearing Platinum status.
• Merle Haggard’s  latest Vanguard album Working In Tennessee rounds out our chart rundown this week with it selling nearly 3,000 copies this week (it’s debut week).