Norah Jones News

R&B star Usher topped the U.S. pop charts on Wednesday as his new CD, "Confessions," posted the biggest album debut so far this year and became only the second 2004 release to sell more than 1 million copies in its first week in stores.

Fueled by the hit single "Yeah!," featuring rap artists Lil Jon and Ludacris, "Confessions" also topped the R&B chart, while replacing sultry vocalist Norah Jones ' "Feels Like Home" as the fastest-selling pop album for the first time in seven weeks, according to album sales tracker Nielsen SoundScan.

"Confessions" sold nearly 1.1 million copies for the week ended March 28, surpassing "Feels Like Home" as the year's biggest opener.

Usher and Jones, whose album sold 1.02 million units its first week, now stand as the only two artists to debut in seven-figure territory since 'N Sync 's "Celebrity" sold nearly 1.9 million copies its first week in July 2001, Nielsen SoundScan said.

Usher's label, Arista Records, a unit of Bertelsmann AG , touted "Confessions" as its biggest release in the label's 30-year history, easily besting the 689,000 first-week sales posted by Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous 1997 album "Life After Death."

It also was a personal best for the Atlanta-born Usher, a former gospel choir boy who landed his first recording contract at age 14 and gained notoriety with the hit single, "Think of You" off his 1994 self-titled debut.

His next CD, 1997's "My Way," opened at No. 15 on the pop album charts with sales of 67,000 copies, and his 1999 release, "8701," continued the upward trend by landing at No. 4 with first-week sales of 211,000 units.

Altogether, Usher has sold nearly 10 million albums in the United States, according to SoundScan.

Meanwhile, Jones' album slipped to No. 5 on sales of 121,000 copies, boosting her seven-week tally to more than 2.3 million.

Three other new releases rounded out the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 slots on the chart -- Vol. 15 of the "Now That's What I Call Music!" compilation series (343,000 copies); a Guns N' Roses greatest-hits collection (169,000 copies), and a new album from R&B artist Carl Thomas (139,000 copies).

Robust sales for those and other albums helped the U.S. music industry overall post an 11 percent increase in retail volume over the same week last year, Nielsen SoundScan said.

Usher's monster success bodes ill for pop diva Janet Jackson , who was hoping to clinch the pinnacle of the pop charts next week with her new album, "Damita Jo." Even if "Confessions" drops by half in its second week, it is likely to eclipse business for Jackson's CD, which industry watchers have projected would notch first-week sales of about 200,000 units.

In a footnote to the latest charts, a new collection of gospel songs recorded by Elvis Presley , "Elvis Ultimate Gospel," fell short of the Top 200 but landed at No. 37 on the country album chart on first-week sales of 5,900 albums.