Holy cow. In what has to be one of the most surprising single-week record sales tallies in years, Christian singer Bob Carlisle's "Butterfly Kisses" ousted "Wu-Tang Forever" to become the nation's No. 1 record. Conventional wisdom in the music industry was that the Wu-Tang Clan's second album, which burst onto the charts last week with the second best debut of 1997, would remain No. 1 for weeks to come.
\\Instead, according to SoundScan, for the week ending June 15, "Butterfly Kisses" sold 234,000 copies (up from the previous week's 124,000), while "Wu-Tang Forever" sold 185,000 (down from 612,000 the week before). For Wu-Tang, that represents an astonishing 70 percent drop in weekly sales. (Many blockbuster records suffer significant sales decreases their second week in stores, but hardly ever to that extent.)
\\Meanwhile, "Butterfly Kisses," anchored by the sentimental hit single of the same name, continues to gain momentum. The song about a father's love of his daughter, which became a Christian radio hit last year before crossing over the mainstream this spring, has clearly entered the realm of phenomena. And with last weekend's Father's Day holiday, as well as the thousands of springtime weddings, the record is flying off shelves even faster. (In an astute marketing move, Carlisle's label has not made the single available commercially so consumers will have to buy the album.)
\\Rounding out the week's top ten albums, at No. 3 is Tim McGraw's "Everywhere" (with sales of 181,000 copies), followed by the Spice Girls' "Spice" (139,000); Hanson's "Middle of Nowhere" (108,000); "God's Property" (92,000); The Wallflowers' "Bringing Down the Horse" (77,000); George Strait's "Carrying Your Love" (75,000); the soundtrack to "Batman & Robin" (74,000); and Celine Dion's "Falling Into You" (73,000).
\\Speaking of phenomena, the single "I'll Be Missing You," the hip-hop tribute to Notorious B.I.G. by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans, remains at No. 1 for a third week, selling an amazing 330,000 copies for the week ending June 15. In just three weeks, the single has sold 872,
