POP/ROCK - July 29, 1993

Top o’ the Hill: “Black Sunday,” the new album by underground Los Angeles rappers Cypress Hill, sold a whopping 261,000 copies during its first week in the stores and will take over the No. 1 spot on the nation’s pop album chart when Billboard magazine hits the newsstands Saturday. That outdistances sales of U2’s “Zooropa” by more than 111,000 units, bumping it to No. 2 and moving the soundtrack for “Sleepless in Seattle” to No. 3 with 145,000 in sales. Last week’s box-office success of the film, “Poetic Justice,” did not boost sales for Janet Jackson’s “janet.” album beyond 111,000 units, which remained in fourth place.

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Country AIDS Effort: Nashville is planning a three-pronged initiative that will bring the country music industry into the escalating campaign to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS in the U.S. Mary-Chapin Carpenter and Mark Chesnutt will co-chair the ambitious national public service announcement campaign that will feature 35 stars, including Garth Brooks, Wynonna Judd and Willie Nelson. Titled “Country Music AIDS Awareness Campaign Nashville,” the campaign will begin on country music radio stations in January. The spots will also be sent to non-country radio, television and cable outlets. Also planned: a major Opry House benefit concert for Nashville CARES in December, and the release next March of “Red Hot + Country,” a multi-star compilation fund-raiser album.

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Madonna Madness: In what organizers say will be Mexico’s largest rock show ever, Madonna will play an open-air concert Nov. 10 at Mexico City’s Hermanos Rodriguez Speedway, which is being renovated and installed with extra seats specifically for the event. About 50,000 fans are expected, and a special “Madonna hot line” has been set up for inquiries.

TELEVISION

Dolly Meets Mickey: Dolly Parton has signed an exclusive agreement with Walt Disney Television to develop and produce TV series, and the studio will also have the first-refusal rights on all TV movies and specials developed by Sandollar Productions, which Parton co-owns with producer Sandy Gallin. Parton would not be required to star in the Disney projects, but is expected to appear in some of them.

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Kids Not at ‘Home’: All three child stars from the top-rated ABC-TV series “Home Improvement” returned to work on Wednesday. Zachery Ty Bryan, Taran Smith and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who had reportedly asked for hefty salary increases and said they were “ill” during the first few days of production have “confirmed their deals” with Touchstone Television. No details about those deals were known, but the children had reportedly requested raises to $25,000 per episode up from their previous $8,000 a show. Touchstone had put out a casting call after the boys all called in sick.

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Carroll’s Replacement: KCAL-TV Channel 9 has hired veteran TV and radio news reporter Dave Clark to replace Larry Carroll in the “Prime 9 News” weekend anchor slot. Clark, who will also serve as a reporter for the station, is currently a general assignment reporter and substitute anchor for WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh. Local African-American groups protested after Carroll, who is black, was ousted from Channel 9. Clark is also African-American. . . . Meanwhile, the station has named Martin Quiroz as its public affairs director. He comes from Spanish language station KVEA, where he was public affairs manager.

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Don’t Toss That Script!: “Murphy Brown” and “Hearts Afire” already do it, but they won’t be alone much longer, television and environmental advocates hope. The four network presidents and John Ritter’s Adam Productions launched an on-screen recycling campaign at a Wednesday meeting of the Environmental Media Assn. (EMA) and representatives from some 40 network programs. The challenge to show television characters recycling on-camera this season was issued by ABC President Ted Harbert for his colleagues as a call-to-arms to use television to influence society on environmental issues. “We think we can really make an impact on behavior and lifestyle choices,” EMA President Andy Spahn said. “No one is better positioned to do this than TV.”

LEGAL FILE

And Then There Was One: Three of four complaints in singer-actress Martha Raye’s lawsuit claiming Bette Midler ripped off her life story to make the film “For the Boys” were dismissed by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday, according to Midler’s attorney. Left intact was a breach-of-contract claim against Midler, 20th Century Fox and the movie’ producer and director. The $5-million suit is set to go to trial Dec. 6. The suit claims Raye offered to sell her life story to Midler several years ago for $1 million. Fox later acknowledged the 1991 film was inspired by Raye’s life story, the lawsuit claims.