Brown, Shakira Upstaged on Charts

Chris Brown and Shakira got the hype, but it was a batch of old favorites that got the sales.

In its fifth week, the 20th installment of Now That's What I Call Music! retook the top of the charts beating out new albums by Shakira and teen sensation Chris Brown. The disc originally topped the charts its opening week in November and dropped as far as number five before this week's return.

Now! 20, featuring recent hit singles by Missy Elliott, Fall Out Boy and Franz Ferdinand, sold 158,000 albums for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen SoundScan, bringing its total to 1.2 million. Brown and Shakira scored the week's highest debuts, with the rising R&B star's eponymous debut landing at number two with 154,000 copies, and the Latin hottie's Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 shaking it up at number five with 128,000.

The 16-year-old, Virginia-born Brown has topped Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart for three weeks straight with his smash hit "Ran It!" Brown's first-week sales are especially impressive considering Jive Records is issuing a dual-disc version with bonus features Tuesday, and some fans are no doubt waiting until then to pick up the album.

As for the Colombian-born superstar Shakira, her latest album is powered by the catchy lead single "Don't Bother." Her only previous English-language release, 2001's Laundry Service, opened at three with 202,000 in sales thanks to the Top 10 hits "Whenever, Wherever" and "Underneath Your Clothes." Her last Spanish-language album, Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1, also performed better selling 157,000 opening copies in June for a number-four berth.

Aside from the two debuts, the rest of the Top 10 albums all experienced a sales drop. In fact, overall sales were down 9 percent from the previous week and down 10 percent from the same period last year. Total sales for the year--currently at 525 million copies--are off 13 percent for the year.

Among the Top 10's big movers, System of a Down's Hypnotize tumbled from last week's number one all the way down to 10. On the flip side, Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts leapt four spots to number three on 154,000 copies, just missing the two spot by 172 discs. Nickelback's All the Right Reasons reentered the Top 10 at nine, selling 105,000 discs.

The rest of the Top 10 were Kenny Chesney's The Road and the Radio at four, Enya's Amarantine at six, Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi at seven and Madonna's Confessions on a Dancefloor at eight.

In what was a generally slow sales week, only three other albums made major debuts. INXS' Switch sold over 74,000 copies to open at 17. This is the first album with new singer J.D. Fortune, who won the vocal duties spot through the reality show Rock Star: INXS. Original frontman Michael Hutchence committed suicide in 1997.

Dave Matthews Band's live album Weekend on the Rocks sold nearly 42,000 copies at 37. The three-disc collection (two CDs and a DVD) features footage from the band's four-night stand at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheater last September. For those wanting more, a nine-disc version will be released on Tuesday.

Finally, it appears the lights are dimming for the Darkness. The British rockers' latest, One Way Ticket to Hell. And Back, sold just 26,000 copies at 58. Still, the band remains strong overseas as the disc opened at eight on the British charts a few weeks back.

Next week, Eminem will try to continue his string of chart-topping bows with his best-of, Curtain Call, going up against new albums by Korn, Lil Wayne, Lindsay Lohan, Ja Rule and Ashanti.

Here's a recap of last week's top-selling albums:

1. Now That's What I Call Music! 20, various
2. Chris Brown, Chris Brown
3. Some Hearts, Carrie Underwood
4. The Road and the Radio, Kenny Chesney
5. Oral Fixation, Vol. 2, Shakira
6. Amarantine, Enya
7. The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah Carey
8. Confessions on a Dancefloor, Madonna
9. All the Right Reasons, Nickelback
10. Hypnotize, System of a Down