Their name might be Flatts, but this country trio spiked right to the top of the charts.

One week after T.I. set the year's single-week sales record with King, Rascal Flatts reset the bar several hundred thousand copies higher with Me & My Gang. For the week ended Sunday, the country music act hit number one with 722,0000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The group's previous album, 2004's Feels Like Today, also opened at number one but on a more modest 201,000 first-week copies. Still, that album remained a steady seller that generally stayed in the Top 40. It currently sits at 31 in its 80th week on the charts, having moved more than 4 million total copies.

Remarkably, Me & My Gang's 722,000 copies actually surpasses the two-week tally for King, currently at 708,000 total. King had set the new high last week with 522,000 and moved another 184,000 copies last week as it dropped to number three.

Flatts' 722,000-copy week is also the best for any country artist since Tim McGraw's Live Like You Were Dying, which opened to 766,000 copies in September of '04.

Wedged between Rascal Flatts and T.I., the pop hits collection Now That's What I Call Music! 21 snuck into the two spot, selling 334,000. Now! 21 features tracks by Chris Brown, Kelly Clarkson, the Black Eyed Peas and Fall Out Boy, among others. This marks the first Now! disc to miss the top spot since Now! 18 also opened at two in March 2005.

Pink's latest studio offering, I'm Not Dead, sold 126,000 copies, to give the singer a career-high number six bow despite selling fewer first-week copies than her previous two releases. Comparatively, M!ssundaztood opened at eight on 220,000 copies in 2001, while Try This debuted at nine on 147,000 discs in 2003.

Although Try This enjoyed only modest success in the States, winning a Grammy Award but not generating big sales, the disc actually exploded in Europe. Pink focused her promotional efforts overseas to the neglect of the States, making her an international star and explaining why I'm Not Dead opened in the Top 10 in six different countries, even topping the German chart, while the radio single "Stupid Girls" went Top 20 in 18 different countries.

The week's fourth and final Top 10 bow belonged to Bubba Sparxxx. The redneck rapper's The Charm sold 51,000 copies to open at nine.

The Flaming Lips, meanwhile, just missed the Top 10, with At War With the Mystics selling 48,000 copies at 11. This marks the band's biggest chart bow, besting Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' number 50 bow in 2002. In the U.K., the Lips' new disc opened at number six.

Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime II locked in at 14 on nearly 44,000 copies sold. The original Operation: Mindcrime concept album came out in 1988. A pair of compilations, The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock and Disneymania 4: Music Stars Sing Disney, followed at 17 and 21, respectively, while Morrissey's Ringleader of the Tormentors checked in at 27.

Italian goth-metal act Lacuna Coil--fronted by sexy siren Cristina Scabbia--lived up to the hype, selling nearly 34,000 copies of Karmacode at 28. The indie group has sold over 500,000 copies of its last album, Comalies, and will follow its current tour with Rob Zombie with a main stage slot at this summer's Ozzfest.

Other noteworthy debuts included Blue October's Foiled at 29, Shooter Jennings' Electric Rodeo at 64, Latin sensations RBD at 120 with RBD Live In Hollywood and one-time rock heroes the Vines with a withering 136 debut with Vision Valley.

Next week, watch for a country shootout as Rascal Flatts defends its chart perch against another cowboy, Toby Keith.

Here's a rundown of the Top 10 albums for the week ended Sunday:

1. Me & My Gang, Rascal Flatts
2. Now That's What I Call Music! 21, various
3. King, T.I.
4. High School Musical soundtrack, various
5. Greatest Hits Vol. 2, Tim McGraw
6. I'm Not Dead, Pink
7. Back to Bedlam, James Blunt
8. Oral Fixation Vol. 2, Shakira
9. The Charm, Bubba Sparxxx
10. Precious Memories, Alan Jackson