As I expected, Payphone enters Hot 100 @ #3
Billboard wrote:How ironic that a song about something as old-fashioned as a payphone sets a digital download record.
With digital sales of 493,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan, Maroon 5's "Payphone," featuring rapper Wiz Khalifa, roars onto the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart at No. 3. Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know," featuring Kimbra, meanwhile, spends a second week at No. 1
Thanks to its opening sales week, "Payphone," which enters at No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart, arrives with the best digital sales frame by a group, besting the 465,000 sold by the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" the week of April 18, 2009. The sum of 493,000 marks the eighth-best sales week overall since SoundScan began tallying download sales in 2003. (Flo Rida's "Right Round" boasts the best weekly total among all acts, having sold 636,000 the week of Feb. 28, 2009.)
Radio also gives "Payphone" a ringing endorsement, as the song enters the Radio Songs chart at No. 36 with 33 million first-week audience impressions, according to Nielsen BDS.
With its entrance, Maroon 5 bests its previous highest Hot 100 start; "Moves Like Jagger," featuring Christina Aguilera, entered at No. 8 the week of July, 9, 2011. Nine weeks later, it spent its first of four weeks at No. 1. The group also establishes a personal best bow on Radio Songs, topping the No. 49 debut of "She Will Be Loved" in 2004. On Digital Songs, Maroon 5 had soared in at No. 1 once before, with "Makes Me Wonder" the week of May 12, 2007.
"Payphone" just misses debuting on the On-Demand Songs chart, bubbling under with 210,000 opening-week streams, according to BDS.
Aiding the song's strong start? A TV appearance and anticipation for Maroon 5's forthcoming album. The group and Khalifa performed "Payphone" last Monday (April 16) on NBC's "The Voice," where the Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine moonlights as a coach. The song previews the band's fourth studio album, "Overexposed," due June 26. The set was executive produced by Max Martin, with additional cuts produced by OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder. "'Overexposed' is definitely our most diverse and poppiest album yet," Levine says.