Weekly Register: Chesney Dukes It Out In Three-Way Chart Battle

This week’s albums chart featured a three-way battle for No. 1, as Kenny Chesney‘s The Big Revival, Barbra Streisand‘s duets album Partners, and Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga‘s Cheek To Cheek fought for the top position.

Bennett and Gaga came out on top, selling 131k, followed by Chesney at No. 2 with 130k, and Streisand and her leading men at No. 3 with 127k units moved.

And there’s always a Nashville connection: The Streisand/Blake Shelton duet featured on Partners, titled “I’d Want It To Be You,” was written by Bobby Tomberlin, Steve Dorff and Jay Landers.

The top 5 selling Country albums this week were Chesney, followed by Tim McGraw‘s Sundown Heaven Town with 23k, George Strait‘s The Cowboy Rides Away: Live From AT&T Stadium with 22k, Luke Bryan‘s Crash My Party at 8.8k, and Lee Brice‘s I Don’t Dance with 8.8k.

There were several additional worthy debuts this week. Lee Ann Womack‘s The Way That I’m Livin‘ moved 3.4k units, while Big & Rich‘s Gravity moved 6.6k, and Josh Abbott Band‘s EP Tuesday Night moved 5.5k.

Overall album sales are down 14.3 percent YTD, while overall digital sales are down 11.5 percent. Country sales are down 18.8 percent YTD, while Country digital sales are down 12 percent.

Next week’s Weekly Register will include numbers for Blake Shelton‘s Bringing Back The Sunshine, Lady Antebellum‘s 747, and Chase Bryant‘s digital EP.

Tracking Tracks

Megan Trainor‘s “All About That Bass” shakes off Taylor Swift‘s “Shake It Off” this week to become the top selling track, with 253k. Swift moves to No. 3, with 224k this week, cracking the 2 million in sales mark for “Shake It Off.”

The top debut track overall, coming in at No. 4 is Jason Aldean‘s “Tonight Looks Good On You,” which moved 90k. That also makes it the No. 1 Country track this week.

Aldean also take the No. 2 best-selling Country track this week, with “Burnin’ It Down” at 77k. Florida Georgia Line‘s “Dirt” moved 62k, while their “Anything Goes” debuted with 58k sold. Blake Shelton‘s “Neon Light” is the fifth best-selling Country track this week, with 39k sold.

Overall track sales are down 12.9 percent from last year, while Country track sales are down 17.8 percent from this time last year.

Numbers according to Nielsen Soundscan.

Special Note: MusicRow sends our condolences to Spielberg Entertainment’s Neal Spielberg on the passing of his Uncle Dave Benjamin. Spielberg shared, “I lost a very dear relative and inspiration in my life. He is the reason I do what I do when it comes to the music business.” Benjamin was the first WEA Florida sales manager in 1971, after years working for Henry Stone at Tone Distributors.