Beatles back on Billboard with Sgt. Pepper 50th anniversary release

Alexander Mazurkevich—Reuters
Ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney performs onstage at Olimpiyskiy Arena in Moscow in 2011.

LOS ANGELES — The Beatles returned to the
Billboard 200 album charts with the 50th anniversary reissue of
classic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” according to
data from Nielsen SoundScan on Monday.The remastered version of the “Sgt. Pepper” 1967 album sold
more than 75,000 units for the week to take the No. 3 spot on
the Billboard 200. It was the highest Billboard 200 ranking for
the British rock quartet in some 16 years, when its greatest
hits album “1” spent several weeks at or near the top of the
chart, Billboard said.Still, The Beatles were not big enough to steal the thunder
of Kentucky rapper Bryson Tiller, 24, whose “True to Self” sold
106,000 units in its first week and took the No. 1 spot.Kendrick Lamar’s “Damn.” held on to second place with another
84,000 units sold in its seventh week of release.The Billboard 200 album chart tallies units from album
sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming
activity (1,500 streams equal one album).
On the digital songs chart, which measures online single
sales, Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” featuring
Justin Bieber held on to the top spot for a fourth week with
another 148,0000 copies sold.