Record Store Day 2022’s fingerprints are all over Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 7), as six of the top 10 have sales owed to a special release for the annual indie retailer holiday.
Leading the pack at No. 1 is Childish Gambino’s Kauai EP, which debuts atop the list with 17,000 sold in the U.S. in the week ending April 28, according to Luminate. It’s his first No. 1 on the chart, and third top 10.
Kauai was originally released in 2014 as digital download at retail, and charted for five weeks that year. It was issued on vinyl for the first time for Record Store Day (April 23) and nearly all of the album’s sales in the week ending April 28 were from its vinyl LP. Kauai was pressed on three surprise color vinyl variants randomly distributed globally.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Bonnie Raitt’s new studio album Just Like That… bows at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with 14,000 copies sold. It’s her highest-charting effort on the tally since Longing In Their Hearts hit No. 1 in 1994. Jason Aldean’s Georgia – the second of his two-part album project, following last year’s Macon – starts at No. 3 with 13,000 sold.
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ former No. 1 Unlimited Love is a non-mover at No. 4 with 13,000 sold (up 42%). The album is in its fourth week on the list, but garnered a new silver-colored vinyl release for Record Store Day, which fueled its sales increase.
Stevie Nicks’ Bella Donna debuts at No. 5 with 12,000 sold (up 6,984%) – nearly all from vinyl sales of its new Record Store Day pressing. The classic album, which was released in 1981 and hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, was reissued exclusively for Record Store Day retailers as a double-vinyl set with outtakes, b-sides and demo recordings added as bonus material.
Kirk Hammett’s solo debut effort, Portals, starts at No. 6 with a little over 11,000 sold. The four-track instrumentals EP from the Metallica guitarist saw most of its sales come from two editions released initially through participating Record Store Day retailers: an ocean blue-colored vinyl record and a standard CD.
Wallows’ Record Store Day-exclusive Wallows Singles Collection 2017-2020 enters at No. 7 with 10,000 sold. The compilation was pressed on sky blue-colored vinyl.
Anne Wilson’s My Jesus debuts at No. 8 with just over 9,000 sold, while Jack White’s former leader Fear of the Dawn falls 3-9 with 9,000 (down 21%).
The Cure’s Pornography debuts at No. 10 (9,000; up from essentially no sales in the week previous) thanks to sales generated by its Record Store Day-exclusive picture disc vinyl pressing. Pornography was originally released in 1982, but this week marks its debut on any U.S. Billboard chart. It also bows on The Billboard 200, Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums, Catalog Albums, Vinyl Albums and Tastemaker Albums.
In the week ending April 28, there were 2.342 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 34.2% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.941 million (up 42%) and digital albums comprised 384,000 (up 4.9%).
There were 615,000 CD albums sold in the week ending April 28 (up 1.9% week-over-week) and 1.316 million vinyl albums sold (up 74.8%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 10.702 million (down 12.3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 12.667 million (up 4%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 30.395 million (down 8% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 23.536 million (down 4.1%) and digital album sales total 6.869 million (down 19.3%).
