You heard it right! Clay is #1 on Billboard's singles charts next week! Check out the link below:

http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/ar...ent_id=1916290

Yeah! Way to go Clay.

It's a bit funny to us in the UK though. America is huge, yet both Ruben and Clay have only sold a quarter of Will Youngs number of CD's. We are obviously very different in our attitude to record buying.

Are you going to do a summing up of the Rolling Stone article for us jms? It would be very much appreciated.

Hi Tally,

Single sales are almost dead in the US. Some record companies don't even release singles in the stores anymore, so that's why Billboard started using radio airplay stats as part of the equation for the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in 1998. You can actually be #1 on the chart without even releasing an actual single in stores if your song becomes a major airplay hit. I've read several industry articles recently, and they said the average single sells about 4,000-5,000 copies. That's all! US record companies are focusing on full albums instead of singles now.

Here are two links for the RollingStone article:

1. This is a visual scan of the article for you to see what it looks like. You better have high speed internet because the pictures are big and take a long to load otherwise.

http://www.angelfire.com/ab7/hlpage/rs.html

2. This is a link where someone actually typed out the whole article.

http://www.angelfire.com/ab7/hlpage/article.html

Enjoy!

Thanks jms. Much appreciated. Reading between the lines. I reckon Clay is p****** at the sperm donor!
Interesting read.

A British person on one of the message boards said that she found Clay's single at the HMV in London. She said it cost about $10 because it was an import, but both Ruben and Clay's singles have made it to the UK. Thought you might want to know that.

Clay is an absolute star - I just knew he'd poll higher than Ruben. I'll be hot footing it down to HMV in derby to see if they also have a copy of it.

Here's a link to an even better interview of Clay and Ruben (separately). The columns start out side-by-side, but then you can continue on reading just Clay's article on the next few pages. I find this article much more interesting and informative than the RollingStone article because the interviewer asks questions we've all wanted to know about American Idol. Finally!

http://www.billboard.com/bb/specialr...iken/intro.jsp

Yay for Clay. I am so happy for him.

That article was great, jms. Clay loves to talk. lol! And I love that he is an Amazing Race fan. I am addicted to that show!

Clay sold 1,440 the week before it was released (must have been some leaked copies) then sold 392,975 then this week sold 143,602 bringing it up to a total of 538,039 so far.

Ruben sold 1,178, 285,917 and 112,083 - total 399,218 to date. Clay is kicking his fat arse

BTW, Kelly Clarkson's "Moment Like This" has sold 621,856 and is still at # 96.

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Here's the full top 20 if you're interested to compare sales. First sales column is this week, then last week, and total sales.


3 RCA 19 1 1 AIKEN*CLAY|BRIDGE OVER TROUBLE 143602 392975 538039
3 J 22 2 2 STUDDARD*RUBEN|FLYING WITHOUT 112083 285917 399218
10 RCA 1 3 3 AMERICAN IDOL F|GOD BLESS THE 8383 13620 275730
10 CAP 56 6 4 CHINGY|RIGHT THURR 7967 8390 18452
3 COL 3 5 5 JEWELL*BUDDY|HELP POUR OUT THE 7277 9018 24218
32 UNSO 2 4 6 KID ROCK FEAT. |PICTURE 6992 9084 335938
2 COL --- 164 7 * BOW WOW|LET'S GET DOWN 6075 149 6224
7 ATLG 4 7 8 JEWEL|INTUITION 5273 6368 43693
2 INT --- 12 9 * MYA|MY LOVE IS LIKE...WO 4391 3556 7987
5 VRGN 7 10 10 PEREZ*AMANDA|ANGEL 4088 4008 17918
8 RCA 6 8 11 AMERICAN IDOL F|WHAT THE WORLD 3805 6083 43044
9 UNBG 5 9 12 AALIYAH|MISS YOU 3749 4521 49583
8 COL 9 14 13 FRANKIE J|DON'T WANNA TRY 3244 3158 25287
12 ARI 8 13 14 DA BRAT|IN LOVE WIT CHU 3135 3527 21509
27 ARI 12 15 15 CANTRELL*BLU|BREATHE 2913 2970 25043
5 VRGN 14 18 16 ORRICO*STACIE|STUCK 2871 2375 9504
5 CAPN 16 20 17 BENTLEY*DIERKS|WHAT WAS I THIN 2463 1981 8310
12 ULTA 13 16 18 PANJABI MC|BEWARE OF THE BOYS 2296 2524 27290
6 MCA 47 11 19 SIGUR ROS|UNTITLED TRACK NO. 1 2101 3888 9672
14 WAR 10 17 20 MADONNA|AMERICAN LIFE 2035 2444 70902

Oh yeah - did What The World Needs Now actually come out then? Why the low sales, was it deleted?

Not much American Idol stuff happening in the US right now. Next week they'll start the tour, and there's a rumor that Clay is shooting his first video this week or something. I'm sure the boards will be buzzing once both of those things start.