Mumford & Sons’ Babel rebounds from #4 to #1 on The Billboard 200 in the wake of winning the Grammy for Album of the Year. The album spent its first three weeks at #1 in September and October. It dropped as low as #23 before beginning its resurgence, which is due both to the Grammys and to the slow-building success of the band’s great single, “I Will Wait.”

Sales for Babel jumped by 242% this week compared to last week. That’s the biggest gain, on a percentage basis, for an album following a Grammy victory as Album of the Year since Raising Sand by Robert Plant/Alison Krauss surged by 715% four years ago. (The Nielsen SoundScan era record was set the year before that when Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters surged by 967% in the week following its surprise win.)

“Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz holds at #1 for the third week. It’s #1 on Hot Digital Songs for the fourth week. Impressively, the song’s sales have increased in each of those four weeks, from 236K to 279K in its first week at #1, then to 341K, then to 357K, and now to 381K. It’s the first song in the nine-year history of the Hot Digital Songs chart to post a sales increase in each of its first four weeks at #1.

The genial song about bargain-hunting has a shot at another sales record. This is the fourth time the song’s weekly sales have topped 300K. (It first reached that mark in the week that included Christmas). The song may match fun’s record for the most weeks above 300K in weekly sales. “We Are Young” (featuring Janelle Monae) topped that mark seven times.

“Thrift Shop” holds at #1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for the fourth week. This is the longest run at #1 on the R&B chart for a song by a white artist since Robin Thicke’s “Lost Without U” spent 11 weeks on top in 2007. The song is #1 on Hot Rap Songs for the fifth week.

Needless to say, it’s the best-selling song so far this year. It will probably be up for a Grammy for Record of the Year at next year’s ceremony.

Two more songs by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis debut this week. “Can’t Hold Us” opens at #97. “Same Love” bows at #99.

Gary Allan’s Set You Free enters The Billboard 200 at #1. It’s the country star’s first #1 album. Set You Free also enters Top Country Albums at #1, ending Taylor Swift’s 13-week lock on the top spot. This is the second time that a Swift album has been knocked off the top of the country chart by a star who is much less famous than she is. Fearless was bounced from #1 in February 2009 by Dierks Bentley’s Feel That Fire.

Allan, 45, is far from an overnight success. He first cracked the pop and country album charts in 1996 with Used Heart For Sale. Set You Free is his fifth top five album on The Billboard 200, following Tough All Over (#3 in 2005), Greatest Hits (#5 in 2007), Living Hard (#3 in 2007) and Get Off On The Pain (#5 in 2010). It’s his third #1 on Top Country Albums, following Tough All Over and Greatest Hits.

Allan’s “Every Storm (Runs Out Of Rain)” jumps to #1 on this week’s Hot Country Songs chart. It's Allan's first #1 country hit since 2004’s “Nothing On But The Radio.”