As previously reported, P!nk’s “Just Give Me a Reason,” featuring fun.’s Nate Ruess, spends a third week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Who else makes noteworthy moves on the Hot 100 and other song charts this week?
— PSY: “Gentleman” plummets 5-26 on the Hot 100; it debuted at No. 12 two weeks ago, powered by initial online buzz for its video. The song falls 1-6 after two weeks atop Streaming Songs (4.7 million U.S. streams, down 66%, according to Nielsen BDS), notably even ranking below his breakout hit from last year, “Gangnam Style,” which holds at No. 3 on Streaming Songs (5.3 million, down 22%). (“Gentleman” is now up to 253 million YouTube views worldwide [as of this posting]; the Hot 100, however, includes only U.S. views each week.)
Sales for “Gentleman” also decrease by 50% to 36,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The song’s 1.2 million in radio audience, according to BDS, is not yet a significant factor in its chart fortunes, accounting for just 1% of its Hot 100 chart points; its promotional push at pop radio, however, is forthcoming.
— Ciara: “Body Party” debuts at No. 35 on the Hot 100, marking the highest-debuting of her 17 entries dating to her 2004 arrival. The track rockets into the top 10 (41-8) of Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, fueled in part by the release of the song’s Director X-helmed video. The clip, which premiered on the first day of the chart’s streaming tracking week (April 22), garnered 3.8 million U.S. views in its first seven days, prompting a 19-1 leap on R&B Streaming Songs.
Ciara scores her 12th top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and her best chart position since “Ride” rode to No. 3 in August, 2010.
— Sara Bareilles: The singer/songwriter arrives at No. 61 on the Hot 100 with “Brave.” Starting at No. 20 on Hot Digital Songs with 76,000, Bareilles posts her best weekly download sum since her debut smash “Love Song,” which peaked with a 269,000-unit frame, more than five years ago. “Brave” previews her third major-label studio album, The Blessed Unrest, due in July. Her last full-length, Kaleidoscope Heart, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2010.
— Lana Del Rey: “Young and Beautiful,” the lead single from the soundtrack to “The Great Gatsby,” arrives as Del Rey’s highest-charting Hot 100 hit (No. 82). Her prior entry, “Video Games,” spent a week at No. 91 last year. She wrote the new song, which starts on Hot Digital Songs at No. 36 (48,000), with Rick Nowels, who’s penned hits for such stars as Belinda Carlisle, Madonna, Jewel, Dido and Colbie Caillat.
— George Jones: Powered by sales and streaming activity following his April 26 death, the legacy of “He Stopped Loving Her Today” expands, as the 1980 No. 1 re-enters Hot Country Songs at No. 21. Under the chart’s present rules, older songs with renewed activity are allowed to re-enter when they gain enough traction to rank inside the upper half of the 50-position list. The return grants Jones his best rank on the list since “A Few Ole Country Boys,” with Randy Travis, peaked at No. 8 in October 1990.
Widely considered to be Jones’ signature song (no small feat for an artist with 166 charted singles and 97 entries on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart), “Loving” opens at No. 15 on Country Digital Songs with 34,000 sold, up from 1,000 the week before, and at No. 9 on Country Streaming Songs with 783,000 streams.
— Shinedown, Serena Ryder: Two new No. 1s on rock radio scale the Hot Rock Songs chart. As it jumps 37-32 on the tally, Shinedown’s “I’ll Follow You” becomes the band’s eighth No. 1 on the Heritage Rock airplay chart. The coronation ties the band with Nickelback for the most leaders in the list’s 16-year history. 3 Doors Down and Aerosmith follow with five No. 1s each.
Hot Rock Songs also welcomes Serena Ryder’s “Stompa” (a debut at No. 46), which roars 5-1 on Triple A. The Juno Award-winning Toronto native peaked at No. 8 on Triple A with her prior highest-charting song, 2009’s “A Little Bit of Red.” “Stompa” appears on Ryder’s sixth studio set, Harmony, which re-enters Top Canadian Albums at No. 12 (after peaking at No. 11 in March); the album is due in the U.S. on July 16. [Billboard.biz]