After a nearly 37-year wait, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers earn their first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. The band’s new LP “Hypnotic Eye” arrives atop the chart, selling 131,000 copies in the week ending Aug. 3, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It’s the best debut sales week for Petty since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991, and his best sales frame overall (debut or otherwise) since 1994, when his solo album “Wildflowers” sold 161,000 in the week after Christmas. Sales for “Hypnotic Eye” were aided by an album promotion with Petty’s current concert tour. Customers who bought a ticket to Petty’s shows had the option of also receiving the album as part of their purchase. Only albums that were redeemed by the consumer count as sales toward Billboard’s charts. (Many ticket buyers decline the album.)
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