Blog Posts by Paul Grein

The soundtrack to the upcoming teen vampire romance Twilight debuts at #1 on The Billboard 200. Twilight is the first soundtrack to hit #1 in advance of the movie's release since 8 Mile six years ago. That album topped the Nielsen/SoundScan chart for the week ending Nov. 3, 2002. The Eminem movie was released on Nov. 8.

Only five other soundtracks have ever hit #1 in advance of the movie's release. In 1997, Private Parts hit #1 five days before the Howard Stern comedy opened. In 1994, Murder Was The Case hit #1 four months before the Snoop Dogg movie opened. In 1975, That's The Way Of The World hit #1 one month before the little-seen Earth, Wind & Fire movie opened. In 1964, A Hard Day's Night hit #1 two weeks before The Beatles movie opened. And in 1951 (hey, I said "ever"), Show Boat hit #1 six weeks before the MGM musical opened.

The Twilight soundtrack features two songs by Paramore plus songs by such other acts as Linkin Park, Collective Soul and Perry Farrell. Twilight is the

The 42nd annual Country Music Assn. Awards, the most prestigious awards in country music, will be presented on Wednesday. To help you bone up for the big night, here are two lists. The first ranks the top 15 country albums in Nielsen/SoundScan history, which dates to 1991. The second ranks the 10 country songs with the most paid downloads.

Garth Brooks is the leading artist on the album list, with four of the 15 best-selling albums in the tracking firm's history. Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain have three and two albums in the top 15, respectively. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, country's hottest couple, each have an album in the top 15. (But who's on top? Place your bets.)

Rascal Flatts is the leading artist in song downloads, with three of the top 10. Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift each have two.

Albums from the '90s and the early part of this decade have an advantage in the album recap, because recent albums are hard-pressed to match those sales levels. But songs of more recent vintage

P!nk has been a star for nearly a decade, but until this week she'd never cracked the top five on The Billboard 200. That changes as her new album Funhouse debuts at #2. Two of Pink's previous releases, M!ssundaztood and I'm Not Dead, climbed as high as #6.

Funhouse features "So What," a recent #1 hit on both the Hot 100 and Hot Digital Songs. The song rebounds to #5 in its 11th week on the latter chart. It has sold 1,851,000 downloads over the course of its run, which puts it at #76 on Nielsen/SoundScan's all-time list of songs with the most paid downloads. It's P!nk's most successful download to date. "U + Ur Hand" is #116 (with sales of 1,473,000). "Who Knew" is #148 (with sales of 1,326,000). (P!nk's 2001 party anthem "Get The Party Started" was released before the downloading era began.)

P!nk is the last member of the sassy quartet that performed the 2001 smash "Lady Marmalade" to land a top five album. Christina Aguilera reached the top five with her debut album in 1999.  Lil'

Evidently, lots of people decided to pick up AC/DC's Black Ice when they were at Wal-Mart buying their Halloween candy. The album enters The Billboard 200 at #1, with an eye-popping sales tally of 784,000. That's the second biggest debut of 2008, trailing only Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, which started in June with sales of 1,006,000. Black Ice had a bigger first week than Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, which started in June with sales of 721,000. AC/DC's tally represents the biggest first-week by a rock album since U2's How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb started with sales of 840,000 in November 2004. It's the biggest debut ever by a mainstream hard rock album. (A pair of alternative-metal bands, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, got off to faster starts.)

It's also the biggest debut ever for an "exclusive"--an album sold in only one retail chain. It tops Eagles' Long Road Out Of Eden, which opened with sales of 711,000 in November. Both of these albums are Wal-Mart

Which country artist has had the most #1 albums on The Billboard 200 in this decade? Just last week, the correct answer would have been that it was a tie between Kenny Chesney and Alan Jackson, with four #1 albums each since 2000. But with Lucky Old Sun debuting on top this week, Chesney pulls ahead and lands his fifth #1 album, all in this decade.

Only one country artist, Garth Brooks, has more #1 albums in the entire 63-year history of Billboard's album chart. Brooks landed eight #1 albums from Ropin' The Wind in 1991 through Scarecrow in 2001.

Among all artists, not just country, Chesney is tied for second place for the most #1 albums in this decade. Jay-Z leads the field with nine #1 albums since 2000. R. Kelly is tied with Chesney with five chart-toppers in this decade.

Chesney had four straight #1 studio albums from No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems in 2002 through The Road And The Radio in 2005, but then peaked at #3 in September 2007 with Just Who I Am: Poets And Pirates. That

Bob Dylan lands his 18th top 10 album on The Billboard 200 this week as Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 enters the chart at #6. Only five artists have amassed more top 10 albums since Billboard published its first album chart (a top 10 listing) in March 1945.

A total of 14 artists have accumulated 15 or more top 10 albums since 1945. The list includes many of the greatest stars in recording history. Most of these acts are still adding to their totals. Twelve have had top 10 albums within the last five years. Ten have reached the top 10 within just the last two years.

Frank Sinatra is the act with the most top 10 albums (40) and also the act with the longest span of top 10 albums (62 years). Ol' Blue Eyes landed his first top 10 album in the first year of Harry S. Truman's presidency. He landed his most recent in the last year of George W. Bush's.

I counted only albums that made the top 10 on The Billboard 200, not on such lower-profile charts as Top Catalog Albums or Top

Britney Spears' "Womanizer" zooms from #96 to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100. It's her first #1 on that flagship chart since her debut single "...Baby One More Time" hit #1 in January 1999, when Spears was just 17. Spears has  maintained such a high profile over the past decade, it's hard to imagine that she has gone this long without a #1 single. She has had four #1 albums and has been on the cover of a magazine or two, but her highest-charting Hot 100 single since 1999 was last year's "Gimme More," which peaked at #3.

This is the third time in the past two months that the record for the biggest move to #1 on the Hot 100 has been broken. In September, T.I.'s "Whatever You Like" vaulted from #71 to #1. And just last week, T.I.'s "Live Your Life" (featuring Rihanna) made an even more dramatic move, leaping from #80 to #1.

"Womanizer" debuts at #1 on Hot Digital Songs, with 286,000 paid downloads. That sets a new record for the biggest first-week sales by a female artist, barely edging out

T.I.'s new hit "Live Your Life" (featuring Rihanna) vaults from #80 to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, setting a new record for the biggest jump into the top spot in the chart's 50-year history. The old record, set just six weeks ago, was by the rapper's previous release, "Whatever You Like," which surged from #71 to #1. "Live Your Life" sold 335,000 downloads this week to also debut at #1 on the Hot Digital Songs chart. That's the largest weekly tally of 2008. In the history of downloading, only "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain has sold more downloads in a week. It sold 467,000 in the week after Christmas, when "Low" was in its ninth week. So "Live Your Life" sets a record for the most paid downloads by a debuting single. (Mariah Carey had held the first-week record when "Touch My Body" opened with sales of 286,000 downloads in March.)

"Live Your Life" bumps "Whatever You Like" out of the top spot on both the Hot 100 and Hot Digital Songs. T.I. is the first artist to replace himself at