Aiken debuts at #2; Fergie opens at #3; Chingy bows at #8.
Based on the earliest sales projections, it seemed as though Justin Timberlake's chart-topping tenure would be ended by a Clay Aiken coup. But reports of the "American Idol" runner-up's triumph were a tad premature.
Aiken did give Timberlake a run for his money, with the collection of covers A Thousand Different Ways falling just 12,000 copies shy of the Billboard albums chart crown. Clay's Ways netted 205,000 scans its first week in stores — but even with sales of Timberlake's FutureSex/ LoveSounds taking a 68 percent hit, Aiken couldn't hit the mark.
According to the latest SoundScan totals, Justin's FutureSex/ LoveSounds sold more than 217,000 copies to spend a second-straight week at #1 on Billboard's albums sales chart. Aiken's 2003 debut, Measure of a Man, opened at #1 with close to 613,000 sales, but he'll settle for a #2 debut this time around.
In at #3 is The Dutchess, the inaugural solo offering from the Black Eyed Peas' Fergie, which sold 142,000-plus copies its first week out. Country star Kenny Chesney's latest, Live: Live Those Songs Again, debuts at #4 with sales of nearly 137,000. John Mayer's Continuum slides three spots to #5 after moving 133,000 copies, a 44 percent drop from its first-week sales. Beyoncé's B'Day follows at #6, selling 91,000 units.
Billboard's top 10 features five new releases in all, including Diana Krall's From This Moment On, which finishes in the #7 spot with 85,000 in sales. St. Louis rapper Chingy's Hoodstar opens at #8, with 70,000 copies sold during the disc's first week in stores. Hinder's Extreme Behavior falls two spots to #9 with 69,000 units scanned, while Bob Dylan's Modern Times rounds out the top 10, moving 68,000 copies its fourth week out.
A total of 26 new releases will manage to crack Billboard's top 200, including Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor, which bows at #12 with close to 58,000 scans. Jesse McCartney's Right Where You Want Me debuts at #14 with 52,000 copies sold, and Elton John's The Captain & the Kid takes the #18 slot with 37,000 sales. New Found Glory's Coming Home opens at #24 with sales reported at 31,000, just in front of Paulina Rubio's Ananda, in at #25 with 30,000 copies sold.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's Thug Stories debuts at #31 with nearly 26,000 first-week sales, while Aaron Neville's Bring It on Home. . .The Soul Classics opens at #37 after selling nearly 22,000 copies. Julio Iglesias returns to the chart at #41 with his Romantic Classics moving more than 20,000 units, and the Indigo Girls bow at #44 with Despite Our Differences selling 19,000 copies. Jonny Lang's Turn Around takes #46 with nearly 19,000 sales, while the latest offering from Mushroomhead, Savior Sorrow, ranks at #73 with 12,000 copies sold. DJ Shadow's Outsider opens at #94, with nearly 10,000 scans, while Ben Kweller's self-titled disc debuts in the #117 spot with 8,000 sales.
Jedi Mind Tricks' Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell spends week one at #131 with 7,000 units scanned, while Kasabian's Empire opens at #155 with 6,000 sales. Fear Before the March of Flames' The Always Open Mouth claims the #161 opening, with 6,000 week-one sales, Crunchy Black's On My Own surfaces at #173 with more than 5,000 scans and Bonnie Prince Billy's Letting Go follows at #180 with nearly 5,000 copies sold. Just 200 copies behind Billy's latest is Forever Diamondz, the new Bratz release, which opens at #186. And the Black Crowes make the Billboard cut at #200, selling 4,000 copies of their two-disc set Freak 'N' Roll ... Into the Fog: The Black Crowes All Join Hands at the Fillmore, San Francisco.
