Santana News

Without a shaman or some supernatural help, Carlos Santana's All That I Am didn't have enough to beat back the latest Now That's What I Call Music! for chart supremacy this week.

The 20th edition of the hit hits franchise easily slid into the top spot on the Billboard 200 with help from such FM smashes as Missy Elliott's "Lose Control," Franz Ferdinand's "Do You Want To" and Fall Out Boy's "Sugar, We're Going Down."

For the week ended Sunday, Now! 20 sold 378,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures. It's the eighth Now! disc to top the album chart.

The Now! franchise made its U.S. bow in October of '98 with a collection that included Hanson's "MMMBop," Aqua's "Barbie Girl" and Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy." Stocked with teen pop hits by the likes of 'N Sync, Backstreet, Britney, Christina and Jessica, the series quickly became a chart force. Now! 7 sold a whopping 621,000 first-week copies in 2001. The previous compilation, Now! 19, opened at number one in July with 436,000 copies.

Now! 20, which features a track by Destiny's Child, just happened to boot the on-the-outs group's #1's from the top spot. The latter was down to number five with 85,000 copies.

Santana's latest, meanwhile, recorded first-week sales of 142,000 to open at number two, fewer than half as many copies as his previous studio album, Shaman, which bowed at number one in 2002 with 299,000. But his record label spinned the sales, quickly pointing out that All That I Am charted higher than new releases by the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Eric Clapton and many of his other classic rock peers. Only Rod Stewart, who also opened at number two recently, matched Santana's latest chart mark.

Shaman went on to sell upwards of 5 million copies worldwide, while the Latin guitar legend's Grammy- and chart-dominating 1999 release, Supernatural, has moved more than 25 million copies.

With the band on indefinite hiatus, Blink-182 rolled out the obligatory best-of collection. The band's Greatest Hits sold 72,000 at number six. Also landing in the Top 10 was Christian rock powerhouse Third Day, whose Wherever You Are opened at eight with a career-best 63,000 first-week copies.

With the holiday season right around the corner, the labels have plenty of best-of, live and Christmas-themed CDs coming out in hopes of stuffing stockings. On this week's chart, John Fogerty's The Long Road Home: Ultimate John Fogerty Creedence Collection came in at 31; Slipknot's 9.0: Live opened at 17; Montgomery Gentry's Something To Be Proud Of (Best of 1999-2005) entered at 20, Nirvana's Sliver: Best of the Box charted at 21, and Diana Krall's Christmas Songs landed at 23. Further down the list was Ozzy Osbourne's Under Cover at 134, WOW Christmas at 160, Ultimate Isaac Hayes: Can You Dig It at 171 and Kenny G's Greatest Holiday Classics at 189.

The week's other noteworthy debuts included Terri Clark's Life Goes On at 26, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio's Shine at 64, the Chicken Little soundtrack at 120, the Rent soundtrack at 145 and Imogen Heap's Speak For Yourself at 182.

Finally, with the film getting released to DVD, John Williams' Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith score reentered the charts at 126 with nearly 10,000 copies sold, putting its tally at 330,000 discs.

Here's a rundown of last week's Top 10 albums:

1. Now That's What I Call Music! 20, various artists
2. All That I Am, Santana
3. All The Right Reasons, Nickelback
4. Monkey Business, Black Eyed Peas
5. #1's, Destiny's Child
6. Greatest Hits, Blink-182
7. Timeless, Martina McBride
8. Wherever You Are, Third Day
9. Thanks For the Memory...The Great American Songbook: Volume IV, Rod Stewart
10. I Am Me, Ashlee Simpson