It’s a resurrection of a resurrection. Taylor Swift‘s “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” her note-for-note remake of her 2008 “Fearless” album, returns to the top of the Rolling Stone chart this week with a staggering 210,900 album-equivalent units, almost all of that from actual physical album sales.
The album first bowed at No. 1 in April, then moving 290,000 units in its first week. The strikingly unusual resurgence now is due to fans finally getting the vinyl version they’ve been waiting for since April… and also to Swift simultaneously putting autographed CDs up for sale on her website, in a case of leaving no physical stone unturned.
Of the 210,900 units she collected this week, 140,000 were full-album sales. The tally for CDs was impressive, with 77,000 digital discs giving her the second-biggest one-week tally of the year for compact discs, trailing only the first week for the same album back in April.
But the real news was on the vinyl front, with 67,000 copies sold of that package, which is spread across three LPs on gold vinyl (or red, for the Target edition) and retails for around $40. That is the second-biggest vinyl number in Alpha Data history… trailing only a bigger figure for, yes, another Swift album, “Evermore.”
Swift has established herself as the queen of contemporary vinyl with her three releases in the last year and a half. There won’t likely be such a gap between No. 1 spots for her next release, though — “Red (Taylor’s Version),” coming in November — because, for the first time, the vinyl version (which will be a four-LP set) is arriving day-and-date with the streaming, download and CD versions.
Drake’s “Certifiable Lover Boy” finally got knocked out of the top spot in its fifth week, with 109,100 units. With almost all of the attention to Swift coming on the physical sales side, Drake remained still the king of streaming, with 136 million individual song streams for the week. (Album sales? Not much competition for Swift, at 760.)
Meek Mill had the week’s top-debuting album at No. 3, his peak position to date. His “Expensive Pain” bowed with 97 million streams.
Two other albums premiered in the top 10: Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s “Love for Sale,” bowing at No. 5, and Brandi Carlile’s “In These Silent Days,” debuting at No. 8.
Holdovers in the top 10 included YoungBoy Never Broke Again falling two spots in its second week to No. 4, followed by Lil Nas X and Olivia Rodrigo at Nos. 6-7 and Doja Cat and Kanye West at Nos. 9-10. Three mainstays of the top 10, Morgan Wallen, the Kid Laroi and Billie Eilish, finally slipped out amid all the fresh competition, slipping to Nos. 11-13, respectively.
On the Rolling Stone songs chart, Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy” returned to No. 1. The track it gave way to last week, Coldplay and BTS’ “My Universe,” slipped from the top spot to No. 7 this week.
The songs chart was shy of major new entries this week, with the top newcomer, Meek Mill’s “Intro (Hate on Me),” landing all the way down at No. 17. That was the only new song to enter in the top 30 at all.
To see the complete list of the top 100 songs, click here. For the top 200 albums, click here.
