Bruce Springsteen 'Letter to You' album makes Billboard chart history

Chris Jordan, Asbury Park Press
·2 min read
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It's a record-breaking hit.

“Letter to You,” the latest album from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Album Sales, Vinyl Albums and Tastemaker Albums charts, and No. 2 on the overall Billboard 200 album chart for the Nov. 7-dated issue, the music industry trade journal announced.

That makes the Boss the first act with a new Top 5-charting album in the United Sates in each of the last six decades, from the 1970s to the 2020s.

That's going back to “Born to Run” at No. 3 in 1975.

Country star Luke Combs’ deluxe reissue of “What You See Is What You Get” is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for Nov. 7. The Combs re-release was a hit thanks to a large number of streaming equivalent albums on the chart.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks albums based on “multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units,” according to Billboard. Units are composed of album sales, track equivalent albums, and streaming equivalent albums, with metrics factored in for full albums, individual songs and streams from an album.

Bruce Springsteen's 'Letter to You'
Bruce Springsteen's 'Letter to You'

“Letter to You” scored with 96,000 equivalent album units while the reissue of “What You See Is What You Get” notched 109,000 equivalent album units.

The rest of the U.S. Top 10 albums:

  • 3. Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” with 61,000 equivalent album units

  • 4. Ty Dolla $ign's “Featuring Ty Dolla $ign” (44,000)

  • 5. Juice WRLD’s “Legends Never Die” (42,000)

  • 6. 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s “Savage Mode II” (36,000)

  • 7. Lil Baby’s “My Turn” (35,000)

  • 8. “Hamilton: An American Musical” (29,000)

  • 9. Machine Gun Kelly’s “Tickets to My Downfall” (28,000)

  • 10. Harry Styles’ “Fine Line” (27,000)

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The full chart will be released on Nov. 3.

Elsewhere, Springsteen's “Letter to You,” released on Oct. 23, debuted at No. 1 in Australia, Belgian, Ireland, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom.

“In case you missed it — THE UNIVERSE HAS VOTED! LETTER TO YOU! NUMBER 1! EVERY (blanking) PLACE!” tweeted E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt on Oct. 31.

“Letter to You” was produced by Springsteen and Ron Aniello.

Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bruce Springsteen 'Letter to You' album makes Billboard chart history