Blige, Duff ride VMAs to sales; Zevon bows at 16
Arista stable takes spots 3 through 5
Blige and Duff appeared on Saturday's MTV Video Music Awards, which helped drive sales during a typically slow period. Blige's "Love & Life," now on Geffen after 10 years and six albums with sister imprint MCA, sold nearly 286,000 units. "Metamorphosis" (Buena Vista), the debut release from Duff, known to the preteen set as TV's Lizzie McGuire, moved nearly 204,000 copies.
Arista had an impressive run from three to five. Last week's No. 1, "Neptunes Present ... the Clones" (Arista), slid to No. 3 on sales of 115,000. The album it dethroned, Alan Jackson's "Vol. 2 Greatest Hits" (Arista Nashville), dipped to No. 4, selling 113,000. "Drankin Patnaz" (La Face/Arista), the sophomore release from Atlanta rap duo Youngbloodz that includes a bonus DVD, sold 85,000 copies, good for a fifth-place finish.
Other top-10 acts that appeared on the VMAs saw sales spikes. Sales of Beyonce's "Dangerously in Love" (Columbia) rose by more than 10,000 units to 78,000, lifting it to No. 6. Coldplay's "Rush of Blood to the Head" (Capitol) stormed all the way to No. 10 from 21 as sales rose by 40% to 61,000-plus. Johnny Cash, whose name was in the news because he was unable to appear at the awards, saw his "Man Comes Around" (Def America) return to the top 100 on sales of 13,000.
Besides Zevon's Artemis disc "The Wind," which sold nearly 48,000 copies, other debuts included Nappy Roots' "Wooden Leather" (Atlantic) at No. 12, on sales of 59,000, and Cher's "Live: The Farewell Tour" (Rhino), which debuted at No. 40 with sales of 26,000. A deluxe edition of "The Very Best of Cher" bowed at No. 83.
