Tool Schools the Charts

05/10/2006 3:33 PM, E! Online
David Jenison

After a long wait, it's Tool time on the charts.

The hard rock band's first album in five years, 10,000 Days, led five newcomers into the Top 10 debuts with a huge debut. For the week ended Sunday, the disc topped the Billboard 200 with nearly 564,000 first-week copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers.

That's nearly 9,000 copies more than Tool's last release, Lateralus, sold in its May 2001 debut.

Between the two discs, frontman Maynard Keenan released a pair of albums with his alternate band, A Perfect Circle, Thirteenth Step and the covers album eMOTIVe. Both discs opened at number two.

Keeping Tool company at the top of the charts was Pearl Jam, whose new eponymous disc checked in at number two. The album, featuring the radio hit "World Wide Suicide," sold more than 279,000 copies--over 100,000 copies more than 2002's Riot Act. The band last landed the top spot 10 years ago with No Code.

Mobb Deep's G-Unit debut, Blood Money, sold 106,000 copies at number three. The revered rap duo, best known for the landmark 1995 album The Infamous, got some from G-Unit mastermind 50 Cent on Blood Money.

Decidedly less hardcore, Jewel's Goodbye Alice in Wonderland said hello to the charts at number eight, selling 82,000 copies. That falls short of 0304's number two bow in 2003 but bests This Way's number nine debut in 2001. Goodbye Alice in Wonderland's lead single, "Again and Again," has been getting solid spin at Adult Top 40 radio.

Rounding out the Top 10 newbies is cowboy crooner Phil Vassar's Greatest Hits Vol.1, which lassoed the 10 spot. . The 15-song collection sold 64,000.

With all the new blood at the top of the chart, Godsmack's IV fell from number one to seven with just under 84,000 copies in its second week. The other Top 10 holdovers were Disney's High School Musical soundtrack at four, Rascal Flatts' Me & My Gang at five, Now That's What I Call Music! 21 at six and Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions at nine.

Speaking of Jersey, the Garden State's Thursday debuted at 20 with City by the Light Divided selling 45,000. The post-hardcore group celebrates its 10th anniversary next year.

Giving momentum to classic rock's resurgence, Wolfmother's self-titled CD howled in at 22, while Rebel Meets Rebel--a collaboration between country maverick David Allen Coe and Pantera alumnus Vinnie Paul--followed at 38 with its own eponymous release.

Other noteworthy debuts include Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell at 74 with his Christian pop debut, Welcome Home, and Gomez's How We Operate at 106.

Though not a new release, KT Tunstall's Eye to the Telescope got a boost from her recent American Idol visit. The album jumped 23 spots to 33 in its 13th week of release.

Finally, 23 years after its release, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon celebrated its 1,500th week on the chart. The disc first opened at 95 in March of '73, and it spent 14 years on the Billboard 200. After briefly dropping off, it had another long stint on the 200 followed by 759 weeks on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart.

By comparison, Bob Marley's Legend has the second-longest run, yet he trails Pink Floyd by a two-to-one margin. Dark Side has sold roughly 40 million worldwide copies to date.

SoundScan reports that 10.1 million CDs were sold last week; that's up 6 percent from the previous week but down 9 percent compared to the same time last year. Year-to-date sales are now down 2 percent from 2005, which is bound to make label execs sweat.

Next week, look for the Red Hot Chili Peppers to make a play for their first ever chart-topping debut.

Meantime, here's a recap of last week's Top 10:

1. 10,000 Days, Tool
2. Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam
3. Blood Money, Mobb Deep
4. High School Musical soundtrack, various
5. Me & My Gang, Rascal Flatts
6. Now That's What I Call Music! 21, various
7. IV, Godsmack
8. Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, Jewel
9. We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, Bruce Springsteen
10. Greatest Hits, Vol. 1, Phil Vassar