The Grammys Work: Lady Antebellum's Need You Now Is #1; Lady Gaga Is Back at #3

​All bands should be so lucky as to play the Grammys the week their record hits shelves. For instance: charmingly trite, light country trio Lady Antebellum, who just sold 481,000 fucking copies of their sophomore record, Need You Now. Those are Susan Boyle numbers. Extra bonus scorched earth performance for it being the first week in February too, a time record labels typically reserve for dumping Barry Manilow albums on an unsuspecting public (The Greatest Love Songs of All Time, debuting at #5, America!).

Even Lady Gaga got what could be construed as a Grammy bump, moving back into third place with The Fame, a record that came out in 2008. Michael Jackson's This Is It is at #6--the combined effect of a Grammy tribute and the DVD release of the movie of the same name. And people still care about Haiti, happily (or Justin Timberlake, anyway): last week's #1 Hope for Haiti Now sold 143,000 copies in route to second place. Next week's chart will be all Grammys--the sales week technically ends Sunday, which means that most of these bumps came off TV promotion, not the actual show--so get used to this picture. With a lot more Black Eyed Peas in it. [Billboard]