Blog Posts by Paul Grein

David Cook and David Archuleta take their friendly competition from the set of American Idol to the national pop charts. Cook places a staggering 17 songs on the top 200 Hot Digital Songs chart. His bevy of hits includes the new #1, "Time Of My Life," which opens with a healthy total of 236,000 downloads. Cook's 17 entries have a combined total of 944,000 paid downloads. I don't think he'll need to go back to bartending anytime soon.

Archuleta places 12 songs on the Hot Digital Songs chart, topped by his cover of John Lennon's "Imagine," which opens at #16 with 71,000 downloads. Archie's songs have a combined total of 301,000 paid downloads. Thus, Cook was downloaded more than three times as often as his rival. That's an even more lopsided result than last week's voting, which Cook won by a margin of 56% to 44%. (If Archie had won the title, would he be dominating the download battle? Probably. America loves a winner.)

Cook's new entries also include "Dream Big" (#7, 111,000

It was billed as the Great Diva Smackdown of '08. In the space of just nine weeks, three of the biggest female stars of the rock era--Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Madonna--released new studio albums. It was like three summer blockbusters hitting your local multiplex in a nine-week span, with the added (and admittedly sexist and sophomoric) appeal of an all-star catfight. Meow!

So who made the most divalicious showing? All three albums--Jackson's Discipline, Carey's E=MC2 and Madonna's Hard Candy--debuted at #1, though only Carey's improved on the opening-week sales performance of her previous studio album. (Indeed, Carey had the biggest opening of her career.) Also, only Carey's album managed to hold on to the #1 spot for a second week. Indeed, at least at this early stage, Carey's album has sold more copies than Madonna's and Jackson's albums combined.

In terms of raw numbers, E=MC2 has sold 887,000 copies in its first five weeks, making it the #3 best-seller so far in 2008. Hard

Neil Diamond this week becomes the oldest living artist to land a #1 album in the 52-year history of Billboard's weekly album chart. Diamond, 67, achieves the feat with Home Before Dark. The old record was held by Bob Dylan, who was 65 when he last topped the chart in September 2006 with Modern Times.

Only two other solo artists have had #1 albums past the age of 60--Louis Armstrong, who was 62 in 1964 when he topped the chart with Hello, Dolly! and Rod Stewart, who was 61 in 2006 when he rang the bell with Still The Same...Great Rock Classics Of Our Time.

Key group members who had #1 albums past the age of 60 are Ronald Isley, who was 62 in 2003 when the Isley Brothers' Body Kiss topped the chart; Ringo Starr, who was 60 in 2000 when the Beatles' 1 hit #1; and Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmidt, all of whom were 60 last fall when Eagles' Long Road Out Of Eden hit #1.

I know what you're thinking: How about those old-timers who had #1 albums in the early years of the rock

Madonna lands her seventh #1 album as Hard Candy debuts in the lead position. In the 52 year history of Billboard's weekly album chart, only one female artist-Barbra Streisand--has had more #1 albums. Madonna is also second only to Streisand for the longest span of #1 albums. Streisand's span a little more than 33 years, from People in October 1964 to Higher Ground in November 1997. Madonna's span a little more than 23 years, from Like A Virgin in February 1985 to Hard Candy.

The two women would seem to have little in common. Streisand is renowned as one of the most gifted vocalists of all time. Madonna's innate vocal talents are fairly modest. As she has pointed out, she didn't go into music because she thought she had a spectacular voice but because she had something to say.

The two women were received differently from the outset. Streisand's debut album won a Grammy for Album of the Year. By the time she was 27, Streisand had also won an Emmy and an Oscar, representing a rare degree

Flight Of The Conchords' first full-length album debuts at #3 on Nielsen/SoundScan's list of the nation's best-sellers. It's the highest ranking for a comedy album since Steve Martin's A Wild And Crazy Guy logged six weeks at #2 in late 1978 and early 1979. It's also the highest-debuting comedy album ever, topping Dane Cook's Retaliation, which debuted (and peaked) at #4 in August 2005.

Flight Of The Conchords consists of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who portray a folk duo transplanted from New Zealand to New York. The album is based on a popular HBO series, now in its second season. The album's music/comedy blend recalls an earlier TV spin-off-Bob & Doug McKenzie's Great White North. On that album, which went top 10 in 1982, SCTV cast members Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas portrayed the hapless Canadians.

Flight... received a Grammy in February for its six-track EP, The Distant Future, which was voted Best Comedy Album. The duo beat a field of standout stand-ups, which consisted

Mariah Carey's E=MC2 opens at #1 with sales of 463,000--the fattest opening-week total of her career. Carey's previous top opening (404,000) was made by her most recent album, The Emancipation Of Mimi. E=MC2 also tops Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static for the best opening so far in 2008. Johnson debuted with sales of 375,000 in February. The last album to open with a higher sales number was Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains, which opened with sales of 629,000 in December.

Carey's album sold as many copies as the next 12 albums on this week's chart, combined. And yet, Carey's opening tally is less than half of the first week total of the biggest opener of 2007, Kanye West's Graduation, which bowed with sales of 957,000 in September. In fact, 10 albums in 2007 debuted with higher sales totals. The others were, in descending order, Alicia Keys, the Eagles, 50 Cent, Blige, Linkin Park, High School Musical 2, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood and T.I.  For Carey to fall short of

In 1965, when Julie Andrews won an Oscar for Best Actress for her first movie, Mary Poppins, she famously remarked, "I know you Americans are famous for your hospitality, but this is really ridiculous." Leona Lewis probably has a pretty good idea of how the actress felt. Lewis' first album, Spirit, enters The Billboard 200 at #1--three weeks after her first American single, "Bleeding Love," topped the Hot 100. Lewis is the first foreign-born artist to reach #1 in the U.S. with his or her first charted album and first charted single since Spice Girls in 1997. That quintet, which, like Lewis, hails from England, reached #1 with its album Spice and single "Wannabe."

In the past 52 years, only five other non-American artists have received such a hospitable welcome on the U.S. charts. The Singing Nun (from Belgium) scored in 1963 with The Singing Nun and the novelty-edged ditty "Dominique." The Beatles turned the music world upside down in 1964 with Meet The Beatles! and "I Want To Hold

Three pop veterans, each with more than 40 years of history on the Billboard album chart, make noise this week. Van Morrison lands his first top 10 album as Keep It Simple debuts at #10. His previous highest-charting album was Saint Dominic's Preview, which peaked at #15 in 1972. The Rolling Stones' Shine A Light opens at #11, becoming the highest-charting soundtrack from a rock concert film directed by Martin Scorsese. (The soundtracks from Scorsese's first two "rockumentaries"-The Band's The Last Waltz and Bob Dylan's No Direction Home-both reached #16.) Morrison and the Stones are veritable newcomers compared to the third veteran act making waves this week--the Chipmunks. The Alvin & The Chipmunks soundtrack vaults from #16 to #5, putting the novelty act back in the top five for the first time since Let's All Sing With The Chipmunks, which was released way back in 1959.

Shine A Light is the Stones' 10^th live album, a legacy which stretches back to 1966's Got Live If You Want It!