Week Ending Dec. 25, 2011. Albums: A Very Jeezy Christmas

Michael Buble

and Adele continue to dominate The Billboard 200, which is about as surprising as the mall being jammed the day after Christmas. But some of you will be surprised to see Young Jeezy debuting at #3 with TM:103 Hustlerz Ambition, ranking ahead of such household names as Justin Bieber and Lady Antebellum. You really shouldn't be. This is Jeezy's fourth consecutive album to debut in the top three, a streak that began in 2005.

This is the second time that Jeezy has released an album right before Christmas. His sophomore album The Inspiration debuted at #1 in the week ending Dec. 17, 2006. You know that line in "Theme From New York, New York," "If I can make it there/I'll make it anywhere"? If an artist can break through with an album right before the holidays, when the chart is studded with superstars, they've really got a following.

The "TM" in Jeezy's album title stands for "Thug Motivation." His 2005 breakthrough album was titled Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101.

Jeezy was also featured on U.S.D.A.'s 2007 release Cold Summer: The Authorized Mixtape, which reached #4. For all his success, some of you probably know Jeezy best as the featured artist on Usher's 2008 chart-topper "Love In This Club."

Weird Item of the Week: Young Jeezy has had more top 10 albums than any other act that has the descriptor "Young" as part of its name. He surpasses Young Buck and Yung Joc, each of whom had two top 10 albums. (I'm not counting Neil Young, who has had eight top 10 albums as a solo artist.) By the way, Jeezy isn't all that young. He's 34.

Michael Buble's Christmas this week becomes only the third holiday album to top The Billboard 200 for five or more weeks. It follows Bing Crosby's Merry Christmas, which logged 39 weeks on top from 1945 into 1957, and Josh Groban's Noel, which had five weeks on top in 2007.

Buble's album sold 467,000 copies this week. This is the third week in a row that the album has topped 400K. It's the first album to top 400K in weekly sales three times since Susan Boyle's 2009 smash I Dreamed A Dream, which hit that mark five times. It's the first Christmas album to top 400K in weekly sales three times since Groban's Noel, which also hit that mark five times.

Buble's album has sold 2,431,000 copies in just nine weeks. That's more than his two previous studio albums (both of which are Grammy-winning chart-toppers) have sold in their entire runs. Call Me Irresponsible has sold 2,312,000 copies since 2007. Crazy Love has sold 2,151,000 copies since 2009. Christmas is Buble's fifth consecutive studio album to top the 2 million mark in sales. His first two studio releases were Michael Buble (which has sold 2,607,000) and It's Time (3,614,000).

Buble's album also holds at #1 in the U.K. for the third week. It's the first album by a male artist to log three or more weeks on top in both the U.S. and the U.K. since Eminem's Recovery last year. That album was #1 in both countries for seven weeks.

Buble's album sold 59K digital copies this week, which puts it at #1 on Top Digital Albums for the third time. The album has sold 345K digital copies, which is more than any of Buble's previous albums. His previous best-seller was Crazy Love, which has sold 265K digital copies.

Adele's 21 sold 399,000 copies this past week, which is its biggest weekly total to date. The album sold 352K copies in its first week in February. This brings its total for the year-to-date to 5,679,000. 21 has sold more copies in a calendar year than any album since Usher's Confessions in 2004. (That blockbuster sold 7,979,000 copies that year.) 21 has sold more than twice as many copies as the #2 album for the year-to-date, Buble's Christmas. This will be only the second time in the Nielsen SoundScan era (which dates to 1991) that the #1 year's album has sold more than twice as many copies as the year's #2 album. In 2004, Confessions sold more than twice as many copies as the year's #2 album, Norah Jones' Feels Like Home (3,843,000).

Adele's Live At The Royal Albert Hall sold 146,000 copies this week, which is its biggest tally to date. The DVD has sold 421K copies in its first four weeks. (That's the biggest total in a calendar year since a pair of Michael Jackson videos topped 400K in 2009. Number Ones sold 558K copies that year. Live In Bucharest sold 437K.

LMFAO's "Sexy And I Know It" sold 395K copies this week, which is the heftiest total by any song since Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" sold 509K copies in the week ending Feb. 20. Will this be enough to finally dislodge "We Found Love" by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris from the top spot on the Hot 100? Check back later today when we post Chart Watch: Songs.

Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 albums.

1. Michael Buble, Christmas, 467,000. The album holds at #1 for the fifth week. This is its ninth week in the top 10. It's #2 for the year-to-date.

2. Adele, 21, 399,000. The former #1 album holds at #2 for the second week. This is its 44th week in the top 10. It's #1 for the year-to-date. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Set Fire To The Rain," which holds at #7.

3. Young Jeezy, TM:103 Hustlerz Ambition, 233,000. This new entry is Young Jeezy's fourth top five album. "I Do" (featuring Jay-Z and Andre 3000) enters Hot Digital Songs at #77.

4. Justin Bieber, Under The Mistletoe, 225,000. The former #1 album dips from #3 to #4. This is its eighth week in the top 10. It's #7 for the year-to-date. Three songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Mistletoe," which holds at #16.

5. Drake, Take Care, 131,000. The former #1 album rebounds from #7 to #5 in its sixth week. It has been in the top 10 the entire time. It's #9 for the year-to-date. Five songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Headlines," which jumps from #24 to #17.

6. Lady Antebellum, Own The Night, 110,000. The former #1 album dips from #5 to #6 its 15th week. This is its 10th week in the top 10. It's #1 on Top Country Albums for the sixth week. It's #10 for the year-to-date. Two songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs. "Just A Kiss" holds at #46. "We Owned The Night" drops from #68 to #80.

7. Rihanna, Talk That Talk, 99,000. The album rebounds from #14 to #7 in its fifth week, largely because of sale pricing at Amazon's MP3 store. This is its third week in the top 10. It's #52 for the year-to-date.

8. Nickelback, Here And Now, 99,000. The album drops from #6 to #8 in its fifth week. It has been in the top 10 the entire time. It's #39 for the year-to-date. "When We Stand Together" drops from #50 to #66 on Hot Digital Songs.

9. The Black Keys' El Camino, 92,000. The album drops from #4 to #9 in its third week. It has been in the top 10 the entire time. It's #65 for the year-to-date. "Lonely Boy" drops from #73 to #142 on Hot Digital Songs.

10. Various Artists, Now 40, 88,000. The album rebounds from #11 to #10 in its seventh week. This is its fourth week in the top 10. The album is #45 for the year-to-date.

Three albums drop out of the top 10 this week. Andrea Bocelli's Concerto: Live In Central Park drops from #8 to #13, Scotty McCreery's Clear As Day drops from #9 to #11 and Amy Winehouse's Lioness: Hidden Treasures drops from #10 to #15.

Adele's 2008 album 19 jumps from #22 to #17. The album is #1 on Top Catalog Albums for the 28th week. This ties Michael Jackson's Number Ones for the most weeks at #1 on the catalog chart by an album released since Jan. 1, 2000. 19 has sold 821,000 copies so far this year, which puts it at #19 for the year-to-date. Adele and Justin Bieber are the only artists with two albums in the top 20 for the year-to-date.

Common's The Dreamer, The Believer debuts at #18. It's one of only two new entries (not counting re-entries) on this week's chart. This is Common's fifth top 20 album, following Like Water For Chocolate (#16 in 2000), Be (#2 in 2005), Finding Forever (#1 in 2007) and Universal Mind Control (#12 in 2008).

Glee: The Music: The Christmas Album: Volume 2 drops from #13 to #27 in its sixth week. It's #1 on Top Soundtracks for the fourth week. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 drops from #34 to #42 in its seventh week. It's the highest-ranking soundtrack to a theatrically-released movie for the seventh week.

Beyonce's 4 rebounds from #64 to #33 in its 26th week. The album sold 46K copies this week, which pushes it over the 1 million mark. It's the 11th album to reach that level so far this year. It's the best-selling (non-rap) R&B album for the year-to-date.

Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol was #1 at the box-office over the weekend. Michael Giacchino's score soundtrack will be released on Jan. 10. Giacchino also scored M:I III. That soundtrack failed to chart. The soundtracks to the first two Mission: Impossible movies made the top 20. Lalo Schifrin's soundtrack to the TV show on which the movies are based reached #47 in April 1968.

To My Readers: We still have one week to go in the 2011 tracking year. The week ending Jan. 1, 2012 counts as a 2011 week because six of those seven days fall in 2011. One week from today, I'll update the year-to-date blogs for albums and songs that we posted in mid-December, so they reflect the official year-end results. I'll also do the regular weekly blogs for that week. Happy new year, everybody.