September 13, 2006 at 09:53:00 AM
Destiny's diva lands the top-selling album in the country and the second-best sales week of any album this year.
Beyonce racks up her second No. 1 on The Billboard 200 with B'Day, bypassing her best one-week sum by more than 220,000 copies. The Columbia set moved a whopping 541,000 units in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the best sales number since Tool's 10,000 Days, sold 564,000 in May. B'Day also scores the No. 1 position on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums tally.
Beyonce also topped The Billboard 200 with her solo debut, Dangerously in Love, which sold 317,000 in its first week. Only one Destiny's Child album managed a bigger start, 2001's Survivor with 663,000.
Audioslave's third full-length effort, Revelations (Epic) bows at No. 2 with 142,000 and caps the Top Rock Albums chart. The group's sophomore effort, 2005's Out of Exile, fared better on the big chart, debuting at No. 1 with 263,000.
After crowning the chart for the first time in 30 years last week, Bob Dylan's Modern Times (Columbia) slides to No. 3 with 128,000, a sales hit of 33 percent. Danity Kane's self-titled Bad Boy effort follows suit, falling 2-4 with 82,000 (-30 percent). The soundtrack to Disney's The Cheetah Girls 2 climbs a notch 6-5 despite a 15 percent sales decrease, with 68,000.
Christina Aguilera's RCA album Back to Basics slips 4-6 with 64,000, a sales decline of 36 percent. Jessica Simpson's A Public Affair (Epic) drops 5-7, with 60,000 and a sales descent of 41 percent. After 49 weeks on the chart, Nickelback's Roadrunner set All the Right Reasons climbs back 10-8 with 58,000 (-3 percent).
Iron Maiden returns to the chart for the first time since 2003 as A Matter of Life and Death enters at No. 9 with 56,000 units. The Sanctuary release is the group's very first top 10 set in its 30-year history; its previous high-water mark was set in 1986 with the No. 11 peak of Somewhere in Time.
Hinder's Extreme Behavior rounds out the top tier at No. 10, reaching its peak position after 32 weeks on the chart. The Universal Republic effort moved 54,000 with a 12 percent sales increase.
In a slow week for new releases, only one other album debuts in the top 100 of the chart. Jars of Clay's Good Monsters (PLG) sold 15,000, good enough for No. 58.
At 9.52 million units, overall CD sales are up 1.3 percent from last week's count and up less than 1 percent compared to the same week a year ago. Sales for 2006 are down 5 percent compared to 2005 at 363.5 million units.
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