Kitty Wells, who died on Monday at 92, was the original "Queen of Country Music." She first lay claim to the title in 1952, long before Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton, before Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, even before Patsy Cline.

In  August 1952, Wells became the first female solo artist to, all by herself, land a #1 hit on Billboard's country chart. She achieved that feat with "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonky Angels."

Chris Brown lands his second straight #1 album as Fortune debuts in the top spot. It follows F.A.M.E., which went on to win a Grammy as Best R&B Album of 2011. Since the February 2009 incident in which Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna, Brown has landed two #1 albums. Rihanna has yet to reach the top spot. That doesn't seem right, but those are the facts.

But let me hasten to add that Rihanna's six studio albums have sold substantially more copies overall (8,392,000) than Brown's five studio albums have (5,598,000).

The best-selling album that either artist has had is Rihanna's 2007 smash Good Girls Gone Bad (2,750,000), followed by Brown's 2005 debut Chris Brown (2,199,000) and his 2007 sophomore album Exclusive (2,014,000). The worst-selling album that either artist has had is Brown's Graffiti, which has sold just 362K. That album was released just 10 months after the assault, when Brown supporters were hard to find.

The biggest hits got significantly bigger in the first half of 2012, but there were slightly fewer medium-sized hits than in the same period last year. Two songs each sold more than 5 million copies in the first half of 2012. "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra sold 5,501,000 copies in the first half. "We Are Young" by fun. featuring Janelle Monae sold 5,087,000. Never before in the digital era has one song, much less two, sold 5 million copies in any six month period. You have to go back to the pre-digital era to find the last song that sold 5 million or more copies in a six-month period. Elton John's "Candle In The Wind 1997" sold 8,111,000 copies in the last 14 weeks of 1997.

Adele's 21 sold 3,668,000 copies in the first half of 2012, which is more than any other album has sold in the first half of the year since 50 Cent's The Massacre blew through 4,022,000 copies in the first half of 2005. 21 sold more copies in the first half of this year than it did in the first half of 2011 (2,517,000), when it was a new release. It's the first album to finish as the top-seller of the first half of the year twice since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard in 1991.

Otherwise, the album sales news was grim. 21 was the only album that sold 1 million copies in the first half. Eleven albums sold 500K copies. This is down from past years. (I have the depressing details below.)