Sade, “We Are the World 25 for Haiti” Top Sellers at iTunes Music Store

I'm going to try something different.  I'm going to attempt optimism as we take our look at the latest charts from the iTunes Music Store.  I'm going to choose to believe "We Are the World 25 for Haiti" is the top selling single because there are thousands of budding philanthropists who desire only to good, rather than accepting there are thousands of Americans who actually enjoyed that tire fire.

I'm one of the heathen sort who doesn't bow at the altar of the original, but it was a singular musical and cultural event that people remember 25 years later in no small part because musical titans stood side-by-side and sang together for a cause.  People knew who Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross and so many of those others were at the time and many if not all of them are remembered today.  There were artists who sang on the original who have been forgotten over time but I bet the ratio of remembered to forgotten will be considerably different for the original and the remake.  The artists in the update are disposable and so are the sounds.  Donate to Haiti if you can but let's all forget about this atrocity as quickly as possible.

The other newsmaker in this week's charts has to be Sade.  She's been gone for 10 years and yet her new album has moved a ton of physical and digital copies.  Sometimes absence does make the heart grow fonder. 

Veteran performer TobyMac's new album Tonight debuts at #2 on the albums chart and we have another live performance from Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, this time from Las Vegas.  In addition to the money raised by that awful "We Are the World 25 for Haiti," the Hope For Haiti Now telethon soundtrack continues to sell.  The humanitarian crisis in the small island nation has been pushed to the side by that terrible shooting incident here in Huntsville, the bizarre incident in Texas yesterday, and the Tiger Woods' scandal.  It's okay to not think about the abject suffering in Haiti every minute of the day, but don’t forget the need if you have the means.  Buy bad music for the cause or donate to reputable organizations doing God's work on the ground in Haiti.

iTunes' top 10 selling singles of the week ending Feb. 15, 2010:

1. "We Are the World 25 for Haiti" – Artists for Haiti
2. "Imma Be" – Black Eyed Peas
3. "Hey, Soul Sister" – Train
4. "Need You Now" – Lady Antebellum
5. "BedRock" – Young Money, Lloyd
6. "Tik Tok" – Ke$ha
7. "In My Head" – Jason Derulo
8. "Bad Romance" – Lady GaGa
9. "Blah Blah Blah (feat. 3OH!3)" – Ke$ha
10. "Carry Out (feat. Justin Timberlake)" – Timbaland

iTunes' top 10 selling albums of the week ending Feb. 15, 2010:

1.  Soldier of Love –  Sade
2.  Tonight –  TobyMac
3.  Need You Now –  Lady Antebellum
4.  The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies) –  Black Eyed Peas
5.  Special Delivery –  Michael Buble
6.  Hope for Haiti Now –  Various Artists
7.  Rebirth –  Lil Wayne
8.  The Fame Monster –  Lady GaGa
9.  Live in Las Vegas –  Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds
10.  XOBC –  Brandi Carlile