Thursday, June 2, 2016

Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan & Tom Petty's Mudcrutch Storm Top Rock Albums Chart

Eric Clapton is back atop Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart (dated June 11) for the first time in nearly six years with I Still Do, which debuts with 44,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen Music. Clapton's 23rd solo studio album is his first No. 1 on Top Rock Albums since 2010's self-titled LP, which started with 47,000.

The new record also bows at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, arriving as Clapton's 16th top 10 title as a solo artist, dating to his first, 1972's History of Eric Clapton, which peaked at No. 6.

Clapton is followed on Top Rock Albums by two more legacy acts. Bob Dylan's Fallen Angels starts at No. 2 with 42,000 sold. His previous studio album, 2015's Shadows in the Night, debuted at No. 1 (50,000). The new set, Dylan's 37th solo studio release, features 12 covers. On the Billboard 200, Fallen Angels is Dylan's 22nd top 10 (No. 7), a tally begun with 1965's No. 6-peaking Bringing It All Back Home.

Fallen Angels also premieres at No. 1 on the newly renamed Americana/Folk Albums chart, where it's Dylan's record-extending sixth chart-topper, following 2009's Christmas in the Heart; 2010's The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964; 2012's Tempest; and 2015's Shadows in the Night and The Bootleg Series, Vol. 12: 1965-1966.

At No. 3 on Top Rock Albums, Mudcrutch, the pre-Heartbreakers band of rock stalwart Tom Petty, debuts with 32,000 sold of its sophomore release, 2. (Mudcrutch includes two Heartbreakers: Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench.) The band also hit No. 2 with its 2008 self-titled debut, recorded 37 years after the act's formation. On Americana/Folk Albums, 2 starts at, aptly, No. 2.

Concurrently, 2 lead single "Trailer" hitches itself to the top 20 of the Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart, rising 22-20. The group reached No. 6 on the tally in 2008 with "Scare Easy." ("Trailer" was originally planned for Petty and the Heartbreakers' 1985 album Southern Accents; they eventually released their version on the 1995 box set Playback.)

Petty and Dylan also debut at No. 39 on Top Rock Albums and No. 10 on Americana/Folk Albums with their collaborative Live On Air: Radio Broadcast 1986, a recording, released the first time, of a session originally broadcast on KSAN-FM San Mateo, Calif. Petty and Dylan, of course, combined as two-fifths of supergroup Traveling Wilburys, which released two sets in 1988 and 1990 (with the jangly "Trailer" recalling the Wilburys' classic sound).

Jeff Lynne's ELO Announces 2024 North American Fall Tour

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