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"How Did Eric Church’s ‘Chief’ Album Land a #1 Debut?"
With his first two albums, 2006′s ‘Sinners Like Me’ and 2009′s ‘Carolina,’ Eric Church enjoyed steadily, albeit modestly, increasing success — so you can imagine that a few industry eyebrows were raised when his latest release, ‘Chief,’ debuted at number one.
To celebrate Church’s first chart-topper, Billboard devoted a recent feature to analyzing his sales spike — and interviewing industry insiders who shared their theories about how it happened.