Bon Jovi Beat Out White Stripes For Number One

You know those new electronic voting booths that say the majority voted for so-and-so, even though the majority seems to be upset that the person they voted for didn’t win the Presidential election. Well, sometimes I think this happens with Nielsen SoundScan. This week both The White Stripes and Bon Jovi had new albums. Off hand, you’d think the majority would buy white Stripes albums, given their press coverage, headlining festival spots and etc. But much like the Bush/Kerry election, the favorable White Stripes were upset by Bon Jovi, who scored their first Number One album since 1988’s New Jersey. Bon Jovi’s new album Lost Highway sold 288,000 to earn the top honors. Sure, we’d blame it on the band’s recent country –cross over, but White Stripes frontman Jack White just moved to Nashville. How country is that!The White Stripes sold 223,000 copies of Icky Thump, landing them at Number Two. Perhaps, the Stripes would have won top honors if that Chicago DJ didn’t leak the entire album early. White should definitely give that DJ a follow-up “I-told-you-so” phone call, despite the fact that this is the highest chart debut for the duo (2005's Get Behind Me Satan reached Number Three, 2003's Elephant reached Number Six and 2002's White Blood Cells only reached Number 61.)Spots Three and Four went to country albums from Brad Paisley and Toby Keith. Paisley’s 5th Gear sold 197,000 copies to land at Number Four, while last week’s Number One Toby Keith plunged to Number Four, selling 73,000 albums. Paul McCartney only fell two spots to land at Number Five this week, selling 64,000 copies of Memory Almost Full. Linkin Park took Number Six with their platinum-selling Minutes To Midnight, selling another 63,000 records its sixth week out. Moving up this week to Number Seven is Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black. The bee-hived, self-mutilating diva sold another 62,000 records last week. Maroon 5’s It Won’t Be Soon Before Long dropped to Number Eight from Number Four, while Number Nine went to Fabolous’ From Nothin’ to Somethin’.Rounding out the list this week is T-Pain’s Epiphany, which old 56,000 albums.Despite still having heavy airplay of her single “Umbrella,” Jay-Z protégé Rihanna drops from the Top Ten list.