For the Eagles, the Long Road Out of Eden has zoomed past Britney Spears and straight to number one.
But it required a last-minute rules change to get there.
As of Tuesday evening, Spears' Blackout was poised to debut at number one due to a technicality. The Eagles' double album, their first studio release in nearly three decades, crushed Blackout, 711,00 copies to 290,000 for the week ended Sunday, but didn't qualify for the Billboard 200 because it was exclusively sold in the U.S. in Wal-Mart and Sam's Club's stores and via the band's Website.
Nielsen SoundScan, whose data Billboard uses as the basis for its pop charts, only counts albums that were "generally" available at all retail. Exclusive products like Long Road Out of Eden are in turn ghettoized on the Top Comprehensive Albums chart, and that is only when retailers release sales figures, which Wal-Mart has been wont to do.
But Long Road Out of Eden proved so popular, that the big-box chain issued a press release Tuesday touting the monster numbers. That led Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan to do some fast consulting and, late Tuesday, mere hours after explaining why Spears would be number one, Billboard announced an abrupt change of policy that would allow exclusive titles to appear on the Billboard 200 and any other applicable Billboard chart.
Oops, Britney, you couldn't do it again.
"We know that some retailers will be uncomfortable with this policy, but it was inevitable that Billboard's charts would ultimately widen the parameters to reflect changes that are unfolding in music distribution," Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts, says in a statement.
"We would have preferred to make this decision earlier, but only became aware within the last 24 hours that Wal-Mart would be willing to share the data for this title with Nielsen SoundScan."
Long Road Out of Eden registered the second-best sales week of the year, trailing only Kanye West's Graduation (957,000 copies) and gives the Eagles four straight chart-topping studio albums, following 1975's One of These Nights, 1976's Hotel California and 1979's The Long Run. The band's reunion live album Hell Freezes Over also debuted at number one. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers also hit number one with Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), which has become the bestselling album ever in the United States.
Conversely, Britney's string of number one debuts stops at four. From 1999's …Baby One More Time to 2003's In the Zone, each of her studio albums topped the charts, even with ever-declining sales. Oops!... I Did It Again sold 1.32 million first-week copies in 2000, while Britney opened with 745,000 copies a year later followed by 2003's In the Zone with 609,000. Though not studio albums, the Britney compilations Greatest Hits: My Prerogative (2004) and B in the Mix: The Remixes (2005) both failed to top the charts.
In the small victories department, Jive Records announced that Spears "sold more digital albums than any female artist ever in a first week of release" and that Blackout topped the European Top 100 chart as well as the pop charts in Canada and Ireland.
Ironically, Spears pushed up the release of Blackout two weeks, ostensibly to combat piracy. The new release date conveniently moved her away from what chart gurus considered tougher competition, but that was before the Eagles landed.
Despite her dipping sales, Blackout single "Gimme More" did reach number three on the Hot 100, making it Brit's highest charting U.S. single since her debut, "…Baby One More Time," topped the Hot 100 nine years ago. And Blackout still gives Spears the distinction of being the first female artist to open in the top two spots with her first five albums.
With the Eagles and Britney topping the charts, Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride dropped two spots to number three on 170,000 copies.
Thanks to the packed slate of albums released on Devil's Night, four other albums also made Top 10 debuts.
SoCal metalcore rockers Avenged Sevenfold sold 94,000 of their self-produced eponymous disc for a number four start, while country star Josh Turner, one of the youngest Grand Ole Opry members ever, followed at five selling 83,000 copies of Everything Is Fine.
With their lowest chart peak to date, the Backstreet Boys' Unbreakable sold 81,000 to open at number seven. To put this in perspective, Backstreet held the number one spot for 10 weeks with 1999's Millennium and sold 1.6 million first-week copies of 2000's Black & Blue. Their previous album, 2005's Never Gone, debuted at three.
Opera great Andrea Bocelli landed the sixth and final Top 10 bow at nine, selling 67,000 copies of his first major retrospective, The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere. The bestselling tenor will promote the album with a PBS concert broadcast in December, filmed in the Tuscan hills.
The three other Top 10 albums were holdovers: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand at six, Josh Groban's Noël at eight and Rascal Flatts' Still Feels Good in the ten spot.
Twelve weeks after its chart-topping debut, the High School Musical 2 soundtrack finally fell out of the Top 10, slipping one notch to 11. To date, the soundtrack has sold nearly 2 million copies, and the single "What Time Is It" has sold over 330,000 and remains in the top spot for four months running.
Puscifer's scored the week's next best bow at 25 with V Is for Vagina, selling 26,000 copies. Ludacris protégés Playza Circle trailed by just 386 copies at 27 with Supply & Demand, the Peach State rap duo's debut album.
Baby Bash followed at 30 selling 26,000 copies of Cyclone. While he scored a Top 10 hit with his latest single "Cyclone," he's best known for appearing on other artists' hits including Frankie J's "Obsession (No Es Amor)," Natalie's "Energy" and Paula DeAnda's "Doing Too Much."
Other notable debuts included Will Downing's After Tonight at 37, Project Pat's Walkin' Bank Roll at 47, Otep's The Ascension at 81, Armor for Sleep's Smile for Them at 93, the I'm Not There soundtrack at 95, Levon Helm's Dirt Farmer at 102, Larry the Cable Guy's Christmastime in Larryland at 105, Thursday's Kill the House Lights at 113 and Saves the Day's Under the Boards at 119.
Overall, sales were up 11 percent from last week but down more than 13 percent compared to the same week in 2006.
Here's a recap of the Top 10:
1. Long Road Out of Eden, the Eagles
2. Blackout, Britney Spears
3. Carnival Ride, Carrie Underwood
4. Avenged Sevenfold, Avenged Sevenfold
5. Everything Is Fine, Josh Turner
6. Raising Sand, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
7. Unbreakable, Backstreet Boys
8. Noël, Josh Groban
9. The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere, Andrea Bocelli
10. Still Feels Good, Rascal Flatts