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Idol runner up Daughtry sees sales soar |
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Written by Jim Farber, MCT
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Wednesday, 31 January 2007 |
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Winning isn't everything.
Ask Taylor Hicks — or Chris Daughtry, for that matter.
The gray-haired retro-soul singer seized the "American Idol" crown last year, leaving the chome-domed rocker wheezing as fourth runnerup.
Fast-forward eight months and it's Daughtry who's now modeling the tiara while Hicks stands muttering on the runway.
"Daughtry" became the No. 1 album in the country this week, with sales of nearly 1.3 million copies so far. While the disk only beat out the "Dreamgirls" soundtrack by a hair (just 130 copies separated the two), Daughtry's album keeps building in sales and chart position with no end in sight. It's all driven by his song "It's Not Over," which has cracked the upper reaches of the Adult Top 40 chart and gone No. 1 on the iTunes digital song list.
Meanwhile, Hicks' CD has fallen to No. 50, scanning less than half the sales of Daughtry: roughly 580,000 copies.
The rocker's march north (highlighted by a 30 percent jump last week) rates as an even higher achievement since his CD is older than Hicks', with three more weeks on the market.
As it turns out, Hicks' tepid performance can't be blamed entirely on the album's '80s-style mall soul music, or on the public's reaction. In fact, Hicks' prerelease single, "Do I Make You Proud?" (which wasn't included on the CD), went No. 1 last summer. Only now, however, has J Records gotten around to releasing a single from the new album: "Just to Feel That Way."
Perhaps they had a good reason for biding their time. But even if the song catches on, they've lost the momentum of holiday sales, and the clearer field they would have had if they had put something out sooner. At this point, Hicks has to compete with the debut from the first runnerup, Katharine McPhee, whose self-titled disk came out Tuesday.
Hicks isn't the only Idol cooling his heels these days. Fantasia released her second CD at the same time Hicks' dropped. Now her disk is down to No. 66, with sales of just over 250,000 copies. While the scratchy-voiced singer's single, "Hood Boy," cracked the top 25 of the R&B/hip-hop chart, it never crossed over to pop.
Fantasia's new, harder-edged sound meant to move her beyond "Idol's" nicey-nice image. But the gamble failed to rope in enough tougher R&B fans to make up for its apparent turnoff to the pop variety.
Meanwhile, the world of rock has suffered its own stumble — even though this one may make guitar fans cheer in the end. Audioslave's third CD, "Revelations," has reversed the band's earlier fortunes. While the group's debut sold over 3 million copies, and their second disk over 1 million, the new one hasn't even cracked 400,000. At this point, it's barely in the top 200 (193 this week).
At the same time comes an announcement that three-fourths of Audioslave will join singer Zack de la Rocha in a brief reformation of their original group, Rage Against the Machine. Right now, it's just for a one-off performance at California's Coachella Festival in April. But given Audioslave's downward spiral, don't be surprised if news of a full-scale Rage reunion arrives soon.
Here's hoping. | Only registered users can write comments.
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