Veteran rockers and retro songs dominate Billboard 200 chart

Mike Campbell and Tom Petty perform at Viejas Arena in San Diego, California on Aug 3, 2014. -- PHOTO: AFP
Mike Campbell and Tom Petty perform at Viejas Arena in San Diego, California on Aug 3, 2014. -- PHOTO: AFP

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Retro music and veteran rockers headed the weekly US Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, as rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers notched its first-ever No. 1.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which emerged in 1976 at the forefront of the heartland rock scene, topped the chart this week with Hypnotic Eye - its 13th studio album - selling 131,000 copies, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

Veteran English guitarist Eric Clapton claimed the No. 2 spot with his latest collaboration, The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale, which features John Mayer, Tom Petty and Willie Nelson, selling 61,000 copies.

At No. 3 on the chart is Awesome Mix Vol. 1, the soundtrack to Disney-Marvel's latest superhero box office hit Guardians of the Galaxy, which is featured extensively throughout the film and sold 60,000 copies.

The throwback 1970s mix, which is rogue hero Peter Quill's own soundtrack throughout the film, features tracks such as Blue Swede's Hooked on a Feeling and Jackson 5's I Want You Back. Last week's chart-topper, Australian boy band 5 Seconds of Summer's debut self-titled record, dropped to No. 4 this week while 15-year-old Canadian social media star Shawn Mendes entered the chart at No. 5 with his self-titled extended play.

Other new entries in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 include rock band Theory of a Deadman's Savages at No. 8 and singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis at No. 9 with Voyager. For the week ending Aug 3, overall album sales totalled 4.3 million units, down 15 per cent from the comparable week in 2013, Billboard said. The total album sales for 2014 so far is 142.1 million units, down 15 per cent from the same point last year.

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