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Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Eagles Fly Past Britney To Debut At No. 1

With their first studio title in nearly 30 years, the Eagles land atop The Billboard 200 with "Long Road Out of Eden," which sold 711,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The Eagles Recording Co. album, available exclusively in the U.S. through Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and the band's Web site, scores the year's second-best first-week total, behind Kanye West's "Graduation" (960,000).

As reported last night, this marks the first time Billboard has allowed exclusive album titles that are only available through one retailer to appear on its charts.

Previously, titles that were not generally available at retail were not eligible to appear on The Billboard 200, but were entitled to chart on Billboard's Top Comprehensive Albums, which includes catalog titles and proprietary albums from retailers willing to report those sales.

Selling 290,000 copies, Britney Spears' "Blackout" (Jive) enters at No. 2. Her first album in four years is also her first studio effort to not top the chart: 2003's "In The Zone," 2001's "Britney," 2000's "Oops!... I Did It Again" and 1999's "... Baby One More Time" all started at No. 1. However, Spears becomes the only woman whose first five studio albums have debuted in the top two slots on the chart.

After starting at No. 1 last week, Carrie Underwood's 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville set "Carnival Ride" falls to No. 3 with 170,000, a sales decrease of 68%. Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled Warner Bros. set debuts at No. 4, moving 94,000. It marks the hard rock troupe's best sales and charting week, as 2005's "City of Evil," only reached No. 30 with 33,000.

Josh Turner earns his second top 10 album as "Everything Is Fine" (MCA Nashville) starts with 84,000 at No. 5. The album's lead single, "Firecracker," holds at No. 8 with a bullet on the Hot Country Songs chart this week. The country singer's last album, 2006's "Your Man," debuted at No. 2 on the big chart.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand" (Rounder) falls 2-6 in its second week, taking a 28% sales hit to 81,000. The Backstreet Boys' "Unbreakable" (Jive) starts at No. 7, with only a few dozen sales short of Plant and Krauss' total at 81,000. The pop group's last album, "Never Gone," bowed at No. 3 with 291,000 in 2005.

Josh Groban's holiday album, "Noel" (143/Reprise), descends 5-8 with 76,000, a 16% sales boost. Andrea Bocelli's first greatest hits collection, "The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere" (Decca), begins at No. 9 with 68,000.

Rascal Flatts' Lyric Street album, "Still Feels Good," rounds out the top tier, slipping 8-10 with 53,000 (-7%).

Other big debuts this week include Puscifer's "V Is for Vagina" (Puscifer Entertainment) at No. 25 with 27,000, hip-hop duo Playaz Circle's "Supply & Demand" (Disturbing Tha Peace/Jive) at No. 27 with 26,000, Baby Bash's "Cyclone" (Arista) at No. 30 with 26,000 and R&B singer Will Downing's "After Tonight" (Peak/Concord) at No. 37 with 21,000.

Album sales are up 10.9% from last week at 9.25 million units and down 13.3% from the same week in 2006 (10.67 million).