Alicia Puts Love and Legend Behind Her

Wed., Jan. 23, 2008 11:52 AM PST by David Jenison

Raheem DeVaughn and John Legend may lead this week's debuts, but it's still ladies first at the top of the charts.

Alicia Keys' As I Am, which opened at number one 10 weeks ago, has now logged its second straight week back in the top spot after spending the holidays chasing Josh Groban's Noël. The album moved a relatively lackluster 61,000 for the extremely lackluster sales week ended Sunday, per Nielsen SoundScan figures released today.

Noël, which lasted five consecutive weeks at number one, a record for a holiday album, has completely fallen off the Billboard 200.

With the film doing strong box office, the Juno soundtrack, powered by Kimya Dawson, sold 58,000 copies at number two. The soundtrack should surge next week thanks to the indie film's Oscar buzz, including nods for Best Picture, Actress and Director.

Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains followed at three, followed by Radiohead's In Rainbows.

Neo-soul singer Raheem DeVaughn settled for a fifth-place debut for Love Behind the Melody (45,000), tops among the week's newcomers. The D.C. singer, whose first album, The Love Experience, peaked at 46 in 2005, scored a radio hit with the Grammy-nominated single "Woman."

John Legend landed the week's other Top 10 bow, selling 33,000 copies of Live from Philadelphia at seven. The concert, culled from his Show Me Tour, is an exclusive release for Target stores.

Further down the chart, Anne Murray's Duets: Friends & Legends sold 13,000 copies at 42, while Magnetic Fields's Distortion moved 8,000 at 77.

One of the more interesting chart skirmishes went down near the halfway point on the Billboard 200. British icons of different generations, the Spice Girls and Ringo Starr, finished within 15 copies of each other. Showing this was a good week for Girl Power, the "Wannabe" singers sold 6,723 copies of their Greatest Hits collection to finish at 93 while Ringo's Liverpool 8 sold 6,709 copies at 94.

Overall, sales were down 4 percent from last week and 9 percent compared to the same period in 2007.

Here's a recap of the Top 10:

1. As I Am, Alicia Keys
2. Juno soundtrack, various
3. Growing Pains, Mary J. Blige
4. In Rainbows, Radiohead
5. Love Behind the Melody, Raheem DeVaughn
6. Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift
7. Live from Philadelphia, John Legend
8. Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 26, various
9. Exclusive, Chris Brown
10. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus