Adele conquers Lady Gaga to retake the Billboard 200

'The Book of Mormon' has a huge comeback; Tech N9ne, Ronnie Dunn bow big

By Katie Hasty Wednesday, Jun 15, 2011 6:27 PM

Adele's "21"

Adele’s “21” returns to the top of The Billboard 200 for a 10^th non-consecutive week, toppling Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” after only two weeks at No. 1. The British singer’s set moved No. 2 to No. 1 and sold 114,000 (a sales decrease of 5%). Mother Monster’s moved 100,000 (-42%).

The original Broadway cast recording of “The Book of Mormon” crashes back onto the chart at No. 3 with 61,000 copies (+2,116%) after the musical took home nine Tony Awards on Sunday. That makes it the highest charting Broadway cast album since 1969, when “Hair” took the summit for 13 weeks and the biggest sales week since Nielsen started tracking sales data in 1991. The musical – created by “South Park’s” Try Parker and Matt Stone and “Avenue Q” co-writer Rob Lopez -- was initially sold digital-only three weeks ago (and it landed at No. 31) and went physical on June 7 in time for the awards show. It was off of the chart before this previous week.

Rapper Tech N9ne’s “All 6’s & 7’s” debuts at No. 4 with 56,000, making it his best sales and chart week ever. His previous bests were with 2008’s “Killer,” which bowed at No. 13 with 36,000.

Ronnie Dunn -- of Brooks & Dunn – makes a solo bow at No. 5 with his self-titled set, selling 45,000. It’s his first solo album.

All Time Low’s “Dirty Work” enters at No. 6 with 44,000; their last “Nothing Personal” (2009) was greeted at No. 4 with 63,000.

Jason Aldean’s “My Kind of Party” climbs No. 8 to No. 7 (41,000, +23%), Brad Paisley’s “This Is Country Music” falls No. 6 to No. 8 (38,000, -29%), “Now 38” slips No. 7 to No. 9 (31,000, -20%) and Death Cab For Cutie’s “Codes and Keys” moves No. 3 to No. 10 (30,000, -71%).

Sales are down less than 1% compared to last week’s sum, and down 2% compared to the same week last year. Sales for the year are up less than 1% compared to last.

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.