Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 02/29/2012 at 12:40 PM News

The Popdust Files: 21, adele, Billboard, charts, prince, purple rain, sales, whitney houston

Too easy. Adele took a big sales hit from the 700,000+ she moved of sophomore album 21 in her post-Grammy run last week, but still managed to sell nearly 300,000 in its 53rd week of release, more than enough to get it its 22nd week on top of the Billboard 200. With week #22 at #1, Adele easily not only holds off legendary diva Whitney Houston on this week’s charts (Whitney’s Greatest Hits, which comes in at #2 with 174,000 sold), but also passes her historically, as 22 weeks is one more than Whit spent on top of the charts with her Bodyguard soundtrack back in ’92-’93. Next up for Adele: Prince’s Purple Rain soundtrack, which spent a whopping 24 weeks on top of the charts in ’84-’85.

Coming up short against Adele this week are debuts from the group Fun. (Some Nights, at #3 with 70,000 sold), Young Money rapper Tyga (Careless World: Rise of the Last King, at #4 with 61k despite not being available in most stores) and Philly rap duo Chiddy Bang (Breakfast, at #8 with 31k). In addition to landing at #2, Whitney Houston also moves two other releases into the top ten, with the recently rearviewed Bodyguard soundtrack hitting at #6 and her self-titled debut album landing at #9.

Next week, we see if Bruce Springsteen has a chance with his Wrecking Ball of knocking the queen off her throne. Possible, but we probably wouldn’t bet on it.

[Billboard]