One Band ‘Vs.’ the Rest: No Contest : Pop music: Pearl Jam’s new album sets a first-week sales record with an estimated 950,000 copies sold.

Pearl Jam’s “Vs.” album sold an estimated 950,000 copies in its first week in the stores, the biggest opening splash since SoundScan began monitoring record sales in 1991.

In fact, the Seattle rock quintet’s new collection--which smashed the 770,000 first-week mark set by Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion II” in 1991--sold more units than the rest of the entire Top 10 combined.

“We’ve never seen anything like it in our 25-year history,” said Liz Amundson, manager of the Exclusive Company, a record store in Madison, Wis., where three consumers were injured Oct. 19 when a crowd of 600 fans rushed the entrance during a Pearl Jam midnight sale.

“It’s not like the band was making an appearance at the store or anything. These kids were just so nuts to get their hands on a copy of the album they smashed right through the window.”

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Industry insiders attribute Pearl Jam’s huge success to the band’s ability to combine traditional ‘70s and ‘80s hard-rock qualities with the alienation of the alternative rock that has been embraced by the so-called Generation X. Another crucial factor in the group’s swift rise is charismatic lead vocalist Eddie Vedder.

“Pearl Jam is forging an unprecedented alliance between alternative and traditional hard-rock fans,” said Ken Barnes, vice president and senior editor of the trade journal Radio & Records. “Even more than Nirvana, this band has a magical knack for consolidating trends and capturing the moment. And as a result, they’re reaping all the benefits.”

Indeed, Pearl Jam--who was the big winner in last month’s MTV Video Awards--is so hot that its 5-million-selling debut album, “Ten,” still ranks in the Top 30 almost two years after its release.

Other leaders in the first-week sales race since 1991 include: Metallica’s “Metallica” (598,000 units), Garth Brooks’ “In Pieces” (405,000) and Def Leppard’s “Adrenalize” (380,000).

Whitney Houston’s “Bodyguard” album didn’t top the charts when it was released last November, but it later set the SoundScan record for most units sold in any seven-day period. Thanks to the success of the film and the holiday sales season, “Bodyguard” sold more than 1 million copies during one week in early January.

Two other new albums also made big splashes last week. Rush’s “Counterparts” album, which trailed only “Vs.,” sold about 161,000 copies, while Eazy-E’s “It’s On (Dr. Dre) 187 Um Killa” album, was the fifth biggest seller with an estimated 105,000 units sold. Other records in the Top 5 were holdovers: Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell,” which sold an estimated 131,000 during its sixth week in the stores, and Nirvana’s “In Utero,” which sold 106,000 copies in its fifth week.

Pearl Jam is scheduled to kick off its new U.S. tour tonight at San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre. The tour moves into Southern California on Tuesday and Wednesday at the San Diego Civic Theatre and on Nov. 5 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. The band is not expected to play Los Angeles until next year.