October 2 brought with it a packaged celebration of Mariah Carey‘s 30 hit-filled years in the music industry courtesy of ‘The Rarities’ – a career-spanning compilation album of unreleased material to share with her legion of devoted fans (affectionately called “Lambs”).
An accompanying musical piece to her long-awaited memoir, ‘The Meaning of Mariah Carey’ (which opened to rave reviews and sales as we reported here), ‘The Rarities’ – which not only featured some never-before-heard tunes from her prized vault but also never-before-heard mixes of previous released hits – was kicked off by the Lauryn Hill-assisted gem ‘Save the Day.’ .
The highly anticipated set was previously forecasted by industry analysts to land Carey her latest top 20 hit on the Billboard 200 thanks to first-week sales of 21,000 units (as we reported here).
While the final count reveals she surpassed their expectations on the sales front, the effort’s first-week Billboard placement was more than ten rungs below their projections.
See what we mean inside:
Mariah Carey’s ‘The Rarities’
First-Week Sales (SPS): 21,500 units
First-Week Billboard 200 Placement: #31
Among the eight compilation albums she’s released over the past 30 years (including greatest hits sets), ‘Rarities’ is her fourth to impact the Billboard 200’s top 40. It follows the #29 peak of 2015’s ‘#1 to Infinity.’
Look below to see who joins her in the top 40 on this week’s ‘TGJ Chart Check: Billboard 200.’
Billboard 200 This Week
Click here to stream ‘The Rarities.’