The surprise success this year of Lionel Richie's Tuskegee (which is the #2 best-seller so far this year) shows that veteran artists have an advantage in the chart wars. Older fans are probably the most loyal and reliable album buyers. This week, two albums debut in the top five by acts that have been around even longer than Richie. The Beach Boys' That's Why God Makes The Radio enters The Billboard 200 at #3. Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Americana debuts at #4. The Beach Boys first charted in November 1962; Young (with The Buffalo Springfield) in March 1967.

This week's lofty debut gives the Beach Boys a 49-year span of top five albums. The group first made the top five on the mono chart with Surfin' U.S.A. on June 22, 1963. (The current chart will appear in the Billboard issue dated June 23, 2012.) Only Frank Sinatra has had a longer span of top five albums. Sinatra's top five albums span 62 years and two months, from The Voice Of Frank Sinatra (March 23, 1946) to Nothing But The Best (June 7, 2008). FYI, Tony Bennett is in third place, just a couple of weeks behind the Beach Boys. His top five albums span nearly 49 years, from I Left My Heart In San Francisco (Nov. 24, 1962) to Duets II (Nov. 5, 2011).

onedirection-upallnightthelivetourOne Direction's Up All Night: The Live Tour sold 76,000 copies in its first week, enabling it to enter the Top Music Videos chart at #1. In the past four years, only one other DVD has sold this many copies in any one week. That's Adele's Live At The Royal Albert Hall, which topped 80K in each of its first four weeks of release in December.

Up All Night even outsold Michael Jackson's videos in the wake of his death in June 2009. Jackson's top-seller in those weeks, Live In Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour, sold 74K in the week ending July 12.

Phillip Phillips' "Home" sold 278K digital copies in its first week, more than any other coronation song (an official single celebrating the winner's victory) in American Idol history. The old record was held by David Cook's "The Time Of My Life," which sold 236K copies in its first week in 2008.

"Home" enters Hot Digital Songs at #2, close behind Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," which grows to 301K in its second week on top. "Home" enters the Hot 100 at #10. It's the first Idol coronation song to crack the top 10 since Cook's hit, which debuted and peaked at #3.

Of the hundreds of songs that have been released by artists who rose to  fame on American Idol, only one has sold more digital copies in one week than "Home" did this week. That's Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You," which opened with sales of 280K in January 2009.

Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, who were the winner and runner-up, respectively, on American Idol three years ago, both take some lumps on this week's Billboard 200 album chart. Allen's sophomore album Thank You Camellia debuts at #26, with sales of just 16K copies. Allen is only the second Idol winner to fall short of the top 20 with his or her sophomore album. Taylor Hicks' The Distance stalled at #58 in 2009. (Note: the 2010 and 2011 winners, Lee DeWyze and Scotty McCreery, have yet to release their sophomore albums.) Allen's debut, Kris Allen, reached #11 in 2009.

Lambert's sophomore album Trespassing drops from #1 to #12 in its second week (22K). It's the first #1 album to drop out of the top 10 after spending just one week in the top 10 since Mac Miller's Blue Slide Park in November. The difference, of course, is that Lambert is a household name, while Miller isn't all that well-known outside of the hip-hop world. Lambert's drop wasn't unexpected: His 2009 debut album, For Your Entertainment, also spent just one week in the top 10.