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Singer Taylor Swift arrives at the 2008 BMI Country Awards, in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008.[Agencies]
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With the best sales week for a country album in a year, 18-year-old Taylor Swift debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop album chart Wednesday.
Her second album, "Fearless," sold 592,000 copies during the week ended November 16, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the largest sum for a country album since the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden" started with 711,000 last November.
"Fearless" shifted 129,000 copies digitally, the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004.
Meanwhile, six songs from "Fearless" will debut on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart Thursday, led by "White Horse" at No. 13, Swift's sixth top 20 debut of 2008.
The next three slots on the Billboard 200 album chart were also debuts, with "American Idol" runner-up David Archuleta starting at No. 2 with his self-titled album on sales of 183,000. The 29th edition of the multi-artist "Now That's What I Call Music!" series began at No. 3 with 172,000, while T-Pain's "Thr33 Ringz" opened at No. 4 with 167,000.
The next three albums were each down four places: last week's No. 1 album, the soundtrack from the upcoming vampire romance "Twilight," at No. 5 with 107,000 copies; AC/DC's former chart-topper "Black Ice" at No. 6 with 105,000, and the "High School Musical 3" soundtrack at No. 7 with 94,000.
Enya's first holiday album, "And Winter Came" debuted at No. 8 with 92,000. The project is expected to be a strong seller through the end of the year, potentially in the vein of Josh Groban's runaway hit album from last year, "Noel."
Christina Aguilera's hits package, "Keeps Gettin' Better," was new at No. 9 with 73,000. The album is exclusively available at Target. T.I.'s "Paper Trail" fell three to No. 10 with 62,000.
Other new entrants included Seal's R&B covers album "Soul" at No. 13; a best-of "Now That's What I Call Music" album at No. 32; and producer David Foster's all-star live set "Hit Man" at No. 46.
Album sales were up 26.8% from the previous week at 8.9 million units, but down 24% from the same week last year.
(Agencies/China Daily November 20, 2008)
