McCartney CD heats up charts
Paul McCartney reached his highest spot on the US pop charts in a decade yesterday with his first album for coffee retailer
"Memory Almost Full," the 21st solo album of McCartney's career, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, his highest ranking since the No. 2 start for "Flaming Pie" in 1997. The album's sales of 160,541 copies marked a 33 percent improvement over those for "Flaming Pie," which kicked off with 121,000. The former Beatle's "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," released in 2005, opened at No. 6 with 92,000 copies.
McCartney's performance is especially notable because the music industry has been in a free fall for much of the past decade. Many artists have seen their chart fortunes fade as consumers turned to online piracy and other forms of entertainment. Labels and retailers have shrunk accordingly.
"Memory Almost Full" marks the first release on Hear Music, the new label formed by Starbucks and privately held jazz specialist Concord Music Group.
McCartney, who turns 65 Monday, spent most of his 45-year career with EMI Group Plc., which still distributes the Beatles' catalog.
Starbucks, which aims to turn itself into a leisure destination that does more than sell coffee, signed McCartney about three months ago after learning that his EMI contract had lapsed. Its innovative marketing plans melded with McCartney's desire to find a fresh way to promote his albums.
On Monday, the day of its international release, Starbucks played the album all day in its 10,000-plus stores around the world. The album was released the following day in the United States.
The Billboard 200 chart was led by releases from two R&B singers: T-Pain's "Epiphany," which sold 171,000 copies in the week ended June 10, and Rihanna's "Good Girl Gone Bad," which beat McCartney with 162,000 copies.
