Hundreds of contestants have walked across the American Idol stage, but only five have amassed three or more top 10 albums on The Billboard 200. Of these five, Kellie Pickler holds a unique distinction. She finished further back in the pack (sixth place in Season 5) than any other Idol contestant who has scored three or more top 10 albums. (Pickler lands her third top 10 album this week as her third album, 100 Proof, debuts at #7.)

Kelly Clarkson, the Season 1 winner, and Clay Aiken, who finished second in Season 2, have each notched five top 10 albums. Two other artists have amassed three top 10 albums: Carrie Underwood, the Season 4 winner; and Chris Daughtry, who finished fourth in Season 5.

Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" jumps from #21 to #8 in its fifth week on the Hot 100. It's Clarkson's 10th top 10 hit, which is more, by far, than any other contestant that has ever walked across the American Idol stage. In fact, it's more than the next two contestants (in terms of their top 10 tallies) combined. Carrie Underwood has had four top 10 hits. Jordin Sparks has had three. And both of their top 10 tallies include a collabo. Underwood teamed with Randy Travis on a remake of Travis' "I Told You So." Sparks teamed with Chris Brown on "No Air."  By contrast, Clarkson has achieved every one of her 10 top 10 hits on her own.

For you Idol geeks, the list continues with Clay Aiken, Ruben Studdard and Daughtry, each with two top 10 hits; and Fantasia, Bo Bice, Taylor Hicks, David Cook, David Archuleta and Adam Lambert, each with one.

Adele's 21 tops The Billboard 200 for the 17th week, which is the longest run by any album since Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard soundtrack logged 20 weeks on top in 1992-1993. It's the longest run at #1 for an album by a British artist since the Police's Synchronicity was #1 for 17 weeks in 1983. (Two of the three members of that trio were born in England.)

Only two albums by British (or majority-British) acts have had longer runs at #1. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours logged 31 weeks at #1 in 1977-'78. (Three of the five members the iconic pop-rock group were born in England.) The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack logged 24 weeks at #1 in 1978. (All three members of the brother trio were born in England.)

"We Found Love" by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris logs its 10th week at #1 on the Hot 100. That's the longest run at #1 by any single since the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" amassed 14 weeks in the lead in 2009. It's the longest run for a collaboration since "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain had 10 weeks on top in 2008. It's the longest run for a male-female collabo since "Dilemma" by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland had 10 weeks on top in 2002.

"We Found Love" is the 28th song to log 10 or more weeks at #1 since 1955. The record for most weeks at #1 is held by "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men, which was on top for 16 weeks in 1995-1996.

The good news this week is very good: Adele's 21 tops the 6 million mark in U.S. sales in its 48th week. It's the first album to reach 6 million that quickly since Usher's Confessions hit that plateau in its 29th week in October 2004. Five other albums that have been released since Confessions have sold 6 million or more copies, but they all took much longer to hit the 6 million mark. Taylor Swift's Fearless took 96 weeks to cross that threshold, Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts took 104 weeks, Nickelback's All The Right Reasons took 105 weeks, Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway took a little more than 3-1/2 years and Green Day's American Idiot took six years and four months.

21 tops 100K in weekly sales for the 33rd time this week. What was the last album to top 100K in weekly sales 33 times? The aforementioned Confessions. (Hat tip: Keith Caulfield.)

Alas, there is also bad news this week, and it's very bad: Three albums made the top 10 this week with lower sales totals than any top 10 album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard in 1991. Those albums, Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto, Nickelback's Here And Now and Now 40, sold 20K, 19K and 17K copies this week, respectively. The previous low for a top 10 album was Ke$ha's Animal, which sold 20K in June. (Nielsen SoundScan rounds off its tallies to the nearest thousand, but Ke$ha's tally that week was higher than Coldplay's is this week.)

"We Found Love" by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris returns to #1 on the Hot 100, after spending two weeks at #2. This is its ninth week on top. That's the longest run at #1 by any single since Ke$ha's "TiK ToK" had nine weeks on top in early 2010.

"We Found Love" also tops the 3 million mark in digital sales this week. This brings Rihanna's total of 3-million-sellers to eight, which is more than any other artist in digital history. Lady Gaga and Katy Perry are in second place with six each. All three women have been in the lead position on six 3-million-sellers. Rihanna's count also includes featured roles on Eminem's "Love The Way You Lie" and T.I.'s "Live Your Life."

Adele's 21 logs its 15th week at #1 on The Billboard 200, which equals the mark set in 1971 by Carole King's Tapestry. Since 1956, when the album chart became a weekly feature, only one other album by a female artist has logged 15 or more weeks at #1: Whitney Houston's 1992 soundtrack to The Bodyguard (which had 20 weeks on top).

Next month, Adele is expected to tie King again. Adele is almost certain to win Grammys for Album, Record and Song of the Year. That would make her only the second female solo artist to win in all three categories. King swept the boards in March 1972 with Tapestry (Album), "It's Too Late" (Record) and "You've Got A Friend" (Song).

Grammy officials are fervently hoping that Adele doesn't equal King in another respect. King was a new mother in March 1972 and opted not to fly from California to New York for the Grammys. Adele is recovering from throat surgery, but is expected to be able to perform at the show.

JB Lacroix/WireImage; Al Messerschmidt/Getty ImagesYou probably know that Katy Perry is vying to break a record that she now shares with Michael Jackson for the most #1 singles from an album. But it's starting to look like it's not going to happen. "The One That Got Away," Perry's bid for a sixth #1 hit from Teenage Dream, drops from #3 to #6 this week.

There has been some backlash to Perry tying Jackson's record. Most of it strikes me as unfair. After all, the Jackson album that held the record wasn't the ground-breaking Off The Wall or the earth-shaking Thriller, but Bad, an album that, for all its success, was widely faulted for playing it too safe; for putting commercial success ahead of artistic growth.

But it got me thinking: Are Perry's singles from Teenage Dream in the same league as Jackson's singles from Bad? I pulled out my albums and played the singles, in order, Jackson first, then Perry. I scored each round. (I invite you to do the same.) Here's my report: