Josh Groban seems to like the No. 1 position in The
Billboard 200, as “Noel” becomes the first Christmas album to top the chart for
five straight weeks, selling 757,000 copies over the week ending December 23 in
the United States,
according to Nielsen SounScan.
It was previously reported that Groban’s album, released in
October, beat out Elvis Presley’s 1957 LP “Elvis’ Christmas album,” which spent
four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1. Only Kanye’s “Graduation” had better
success, selling 957,000 copies in its first week. Crossing 3.5 million in
sales, “Noel” is heading to become the top-selling disc of the year.
Groban succeeded to trump the debut session on the Queen of
Hip Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige’s “Growing Pains,” which sold 629,000 copies, according
to Nielson Soundscan. Therefore, the album is the fifth best opening week of 2007
behind offerings by Kanye West, Alicia Keys, the Eagles and 50 Cent.
Next on the Billboard 200, come some of the year’s
best-selling releases, such as Alicia Keys’ “As I Am,” which drops one spot to
No. 3 with 473,000 copies sold. The Eagles’ “Long Road Out of Eden” comes at No.
4 with 312,000 copies, while No. 5 is taken by Miley Cyrus’ “Hannah Montana 2:
Meet Miley Cyrus,” which closes out the week with sales of 260,000.
The “Now That’s What I Call Music!” compilation series comes
at No. 6, with 235,000 copies sold, while No. 7 is occupied by Carrie Underwood’s
“Carnival Ride,” which sold 215,800 copies. Taylor Swift’s “Taylor Swift” sits
at No. 8 with 186,000 scans, the soundtrack to “High School Musical 2” hits No.
9 with 184,000 copies, while the last spot on the chart belongs to Chris Brown’s
“Exclusive” with 176,200 units.
While music sales were up over 40 percent since last week,
they were still down 18 percent as compared to the same week last year, according
to Billboard.com.
