Coldplay lands its second straight #1 album as Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends opens at #1. The album sold 721,000 copies in its first week, just a shade less than the group's first-week tally with its previous album, X&Y, which bowed with sales of 737,000 in June 2005. Coldplay is the first act with back-to-back albums that topped the 700,000 mark in sales the first week out since Kanye West did it with Late Registration in 2005 and Graduation in 2007.

In just one week, Viva La Vida has become the #10 best-seller so far in 2008. If it holds up through the rest of the year-and it probably will-it will become Coldplay's third straight studio album to finish among the year's top 10 sellers. A Rush Of Blood To The Head, released in late summer 2002, was the #10 album of 2003. X&Y was #6 for 2005.

Coldplay's eye-popping debut comes just one week after Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III opened with sales of 1,006,000. This marks the first time in nearly four years in which two albums have

Usher's Here I Stand opens at #1, with sales of 443,000. It's the biggest opening by a male artist so far this year, topping Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static, which bowed in February with sales of 375,000. The last male artists to post bigger first-week numbers were Kanye West and 50 Cent, who scored in their heavily-publicized face-off in September. West's Graduation opened with sales of 957,000. 50 Cent's Curtis bowed with 691,000.

Here I Stand ranks behind only Mariah Carey's E=MC2 (463,000) for the biggest sales week so far in 2008. The difference is that Carey's tally improved on her previous best opening total (of 404,000), posted by The Emancipation Of Mimi in April 2005. Usher's total is less than half of that posted by his previous best opening, Confessions, which bowed in March 2004 with first-week sales of 1,096,000.

The market has declined markedly since 2004, so Usher's diminished opening is to be expected. The really striking part--which becomes more impressive as

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