‘Elvis’ Soundtrack Surges to Top 10 on Album Sales Chart

August 10, 2022 E Jazz Reporter

The Elvis soundtrack vaults back onto Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Aug. 13), as the set’s CD release on July 29 prompts its re-entry at No. 9 – its first week in the top 10. The multi-artist soundtrack, led by Elvis Presley, spent one previous week on the list, dated July 9 (at No. 35), following its initial release via digital retailers.

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In the tracking week ending Aug. 4, the Elvis soundtrack sold 8,000 copies (up 1,466%), with 7,500 of that sum on CD. (The remaining 500 were digital album purchases.) On Top Album Sales, the Elvis soundtrack – billed as by Elvis Presley & Various Artists – gives Presley his sixth top 10 on the chart since it launched in 1991.

Elvis also returns to No. 1 on the Soundtracks chart for a second nonconsecutive week. It opened atop the list dated July 9.

Also in the new top 10 on Top Album Sales: the latest efforts from Beyoncé, ATEEZ, ENHYPEN, Grateful Dead, Dance Gavin Dance, Maggie Rogers and Whiskey Myers arrive in the region.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Beyoncé’s Renaissance rules Top Album Sales, debuting at No. 1 with 190,000 copies sold. That marks the third-largest sales week of 2022, and the largest among albums by women. The only bigger weeks were logged by the opening frames of Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (330,000; chart dated June 4) and BTS’ Proof (266,000; June 25 chart).

Renaissance sold 121,000 copies on CD; 43,000 via digital downloads; and 26,000 on vinyl.

Renaissance’s initial album sales figure is largely driven by direct-to-consumer sales of the album through Internet retailers, with 72% of its first-week sales coming through web-based sellers (136,000 of 190,000). Those sellers included Beyoncé’s official webstore (where she sold four limited edition deluxe boxed set editions of the album containing a T-shirt and a CD – all of which are sold out).

Beyoncé’s webstore was also the exclusive seller in the tracking week of the album’s vinyl LP, which had a limited pressing and an alternative cover and sold 26,000 copies. That marks the largest sales week for an R&B/hip-hop album on vinyl by a woman in the modern era, since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. The vinyl LP sold out on Beyoncé’s webstore before the album’s release on July 29. On Sept. 16, the album will garner a wide release on vinyl through all retailers, with expanded packaging and its standard album cover.

ATEEZ achieves its highest charting effort on Top Album Sales, and second top 10, as The World EP.1: Movement bows at No. 2 with 47,000 copies sold. That marks the best sales week for the South Korean group.

Like many K-pop releases, the CD configuration of The World EP.1 was issued in collectible deluxe packages (eight total, including a version exclusive to indie retailers), each with a standard set of items and randomized elements (such as photocards); 97% of the album’s first-week sales were on CD. The other 3% were digital album sales (a little over 1,000). The set was not released in any other format, such as vinyl or cassette.

ENHYPEN nabs its fourth top 10 album on Top Album Sales as Manifesto: Day 1 debuts at No. 3 with 38,000 sold – the South Korean group’s best sales week. The six-song effort was released on July 4 via streaming services and digital retailers and was released on CD on July 29, which prompts its debut on Top Album Sales.

The CD configuration of Manifesto was issued in collectible deluxe packages (11 total, including a version exclusively sold through Target), each with a standard set of items and randomized elements (like photocards). Effectively all of its sales for the week were on CD (a negligible number were sold via digital download); the set was not issued on any other physical format.

Grateful Dead’s Dave’s Picks, Volume 43: San Francisco, 11/2/69 – Dallas, 12/26/69 debuts at No. 4 on Top Album Sales with 28,000 sold. That marks the largest sales week for the band in over 25 years — since Hundred Year Hall debuted at No. 26 on the Oct. 14, 1995-dated chart with 36,000 sold. Dave’s Picks is the act’s continuing live archival release series, named for the group’s archivist, David Lemieux, that has been going strong since its first release in 2012. Releases in the series are issued exclusively on CD and in limited quantities.

On the Billboard 200 chart, Dave’s Picks, Vol. 43 debuts at No. 11 – Grateful Dead’s highest debut ever and second-highest charting album overall. The only album from Grateful Dead to go higher on the list was 1987’s In the Dark, which peaked at No. 6 (Aug. 22, 1987-dated chart).

Dave’s Picks, Vol. 43 also marks Grateful Dead’s 53rd top 40-charting album on the Billboard 200. The band continues to have the most top 40 albums among groups since the chart began regularly publishing on a weekly basis in March of 1956. The acts with the most top 40 albums on the Billboard 200 are: Frank Sinatra (58), Elvis Presley (58), Barbra Streisand (54), Grateful Dead (53) and Bob Dylan (51). (Thirty-five of Grateful Dead’s 53 top 40-charting albums are from the Dave’s Picks series.)

Rock band Dance Gavin Dance collects its fourth top 10 on Top Album Sales as Jackpot Juicer debuts at No. 5 with 25,000 copies sold – the band’s best sales week ever. The album’s first-week sales got a boost from its availability across multiple color vinyl variants, and in total, the vinyl edition of the album sold 14,000 copies. It bows at No. 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart, behind Renaissance.

Maggie Rogers’ Surrender starts at No. 6 with 19,000 copies sold (her second top 10), Harry Styles’ former No. 1 Harry’s House falls 4-7 with 11,000 sold (down 3%), Whiskey Myers’ Tornillo bows at No. 8 with 10,000 sold (the act’s second top 10) and Grateful Dead’s The Lyceum Theatre London, England 5/26/72 debuts at No. 10 with 8,000 sold (all on CD). The latter is a four-CD set that captures the final show of Grateful Dead’s 1972 tour at the Lyceum Theatre in London on May 26, 1972.

In the week ending Aug. 4, there were 1.986 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 17.1% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.570 million (up 17.1%) and digital albums comprised 416,000 (up 17.1%).

There were 847,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Aug. 4 (up 37.7% week-over-week) and 713,000 vinyl albums sold (down 0.3%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 20.281 million (down 8.9% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 23.063 million (down 0.3%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 55.943 million (down 8.2% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 43.649 million (down 4.4%) and digital album sales total 12.293 million (down 19.4%).