She may not have finished the year the way she wanted, but Mary J. Blige certainly started 2008 on the right note.
Blige's Growing Pains was expected to debut atop the final chart of 2007, but Josh Groban's holiday album Noël got on a roll and finished the year with five straight weeks at number one. With the holidays over, however, Blige rocketed right to the top of the new year's inaugural chart.
For the week ended Sunday, Growing Pains sold 204,000 copies to jump to number one, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released today. Blige accomplished this feat despite a 68 percent drop-off from her 629,000-copy first-week bow.
Noël slid down to number three, selling another 176,000 copies on a 77 percent slide. Alicia Keys edged past him with As I Am moving 193,000 copies at number two.
With a typical post-holiday sales drop across the board, Garth Brooks and Colbie Caillat were both able to make Top 10 returns. Brooks' The Ultimate Hits climbed five spots to seven, while Caillat's Coco jumped seven to 10.
The rest of the Top 10, all holdovers, included Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 26 at four, Chris Brown's Exclusive at five, the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden at six, Taylor Swift's self-titled at eight and Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus at nine.
High School Musical 2: Non-Stop Dance Party scored the week's biggest bow at 68, kicking up 22,000 in sales, even as the official HSM2 soundtrack dropped out of the Top 10, slipping three spots to number 12. The original HSM soundtrack, which celebrates its two-year chart anniversary next week, dipped 21 spots to number 60.
Though Radiohead's In Rainbows CD wasn't supposed to release until last Monday, enough stores put the disc on sale early to give it at number 156 bow on nearly 9,000 copies. The album, which is set to top the U.K. charts this week, made its high-profile debut last October as a "name your own price" digital download on the band's Website.
Though it came out in early December, the P.S. I Love You soundtrack finally made its Billboard 200 debut this week, selling 10,000 copies at 134 on the heels of the film's Dec. 21 open.
After selling 10.4 million copies last week, the top 200 albums combined for less than 5 million copies for the week after Christmas.
Here's a recap of the week's Top 10:
1. Growing Pains, Mary J. Blige
2. As I Am, Alicia Keys
3. Noël, Josh Groban
4. Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 26, various
5. Exclusive, Chris Brown
6. Long Road Out of Eden, the Eagles
7. The Ultimate Hits, Garth Brooks
8. Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift
9. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus
10. Coco, Colbie Caillat