Carpenters No. 1 In Japan!

Paul Grein, one of my journalist heroes from the 1980s at Billboard, now writes the weekly Chart Watch column for Yahoo! He reports the gratifying news that the Carpenters—my beloved favorite first group—scores a No. 1 album in Japan this week, with "40/40."

He writes: "Carpenters' '40/40 The Best Selection,' a 40-track collection marking the duo's 40th anniversary, jumps to #1 this week in Japan. Karen and Richard are the seventh American act to top Nielsen/SoundScan's Japanese chart in the past five years. They follow Bon Jovi (Have A Nice Day and Lost Highway), Britney Spears (Greatest Hits), Destiny's Child (#1's), Linkin Park (Minutes To Midnight), Backstreet Boys (Unbreakable) and Madonna (Hard Candy). In the same period, two other international artists have risen to #1 in Japan: England's Oasis (Don't Believe The Truth) and Canada's Avril Lavigne (The Best Damn Thing). Japan is the world's #2 music market, behind only the U.S.

Among the duo's countless hits on my own yearly chart, their biggest is "Top of the World," which ranked No. 1 in 1972, followed by "There's A Kind Of Hush," No. 4 in 1976, along with countless others. (Thanks Jon Konjoyan for the tip.)