Nick Lachey's breakup album a hit with fans

Nick Lachey

LOS ANGELES - They say that breaking up is hard to do, but apparently it can also be a marketing break, too.

As anyone who has barely glanced at the magazine rack by any grocer's checkout counter in the last six months can tell you, Nick Lachey has split with wife and Newlyweds co-star Jessica Simpson.

Practically every song on his first album since this very public separation centres on heartbreak, and just to make sure the point gets driven home, it's titled What's Left of Me.

The pity party works, earning the former 98 Degrees member by far the best sales week of his solo career: 172,000 copies, good for No. 2 in the week ended May 14. That's as many copies as his prior solo album, SoulO, has sold since its 2003 release. It spent two weeks on the chart.

98 Degrees had only one week bigger than this, when fourth album Revelation opened at No. 2 in 2000 with 276,000 copies, a fat week but less than retailers had banked on.

- REUTERS/Billboard