Twilight Zones Out AC/DC

Wed., Nov. 12, 2008 11:20 AM PST by David Jenison

Summit Entertainment

Robert Pattinson and his pretty vampire pals have proven to be a pain in the neck for AC/DC.

The Twilight soundtrack just ended the Aussie metal mavens' two-week run at No. 1, as the tunes to suck blood by sold 165,000 copies, about 5,000 more than AC/DC's Black Ice.

The rocked-out soundtrack features new singles by Paramore and Perry Farrell and a U.K. single by Muse that's already given the band a new chart-high across the pond.

Twilight is the first soundtrack to debut at No. 1 in over two years. (Jack Johnson's Sing-a-Longs and Lullabies for Curious George debuted on top in early '06.) The album should continue to be a Top 10 fixture with the big-buzz film set for a Nov. 21 opening.

Hinder's Take It to the Limit scored the week's second-best bow (No. 4, 81,000), while opera guy Andrea Bocelli's Incanto (No. 8, 62,000) and cowboy crooner Brad Paisley's Play (No. 9, 54,000) also had Top 10 showings.

Just missing the Top 10 was veteran rapper Q-Tip's The Renaissance (No. 11, 34,000). Elsewhere, Shiny Toy Guns, with new singer Sisley Treasure replacing Carah Charnow, saw Season of Poison open at No. 47 with 12,000.

Yule-themed albums also fared well, with Sarah Brightman's A Winter Symphony at No. 38, Starbucks' Winter Wonderland collection at No. 42, Harry Connick, Jr.'s What a Night! A Christmas Album at No. 48, and Jeff Dunham's Don't Come Home for Christmas and Josh Groban's 2007 smash Noël climbing to the top of the Catalog charts. Ho, ho, ho.

Over on the Digital Tracks charts, two major new singles battled it out for No. 1. Kanye West's "Heartless" (201,000) topped Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" (172,000) in their debut weeks. As a prelude to the big album debuts to come, Beyoncé and Britney Spears' new singles both remained strong in the Top 5.

Swift's new album, Fearless, which went on sale yesterday, is already No. 1 at iTunes and is expected to make a strong push for No. 1 on next week's Billboard 200.

Album sales finished up a tick from last week but are down 29 percent compared to the same week in '07 when Jay-Z's American Gangster shot to No. 1.

Here's a recap of the Top 10 albums for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen SoundScan:

1. Twilight soundtrack, various
2. Black Ice, AC/DC
3. High School Musical 3: Senior Year soundtrack, various
4. Take It to the Limit, Hinder
5. Funhouse, Pink
6. Evolver, John Legend
7. Paper Trail, T.I.
8. Incanto, Andrea Bocelli
9. Play, Brad Paisley
10. Greatest Hits, Vol. I, Rascal Flatts