Lauryn Hill Sets Record; ‘Titanic’ Sails

Lauryn Hill has topped Madonna--but she’s got a Titanic cruising on her tail.

The Fugees singer’s solo debut album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” sold nearly 423,000 copies in its first week in stores, easily taking the No. 1 spot among album sellers, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday.

That total beats by more than 50,000 the sales earlier this year of Madonna’s “Ray of Light,” setting a new record for most first-week sales by a female artist since SoundScan began monitoring U.S. sales in 1991.

“Ever since [the Fugees’ hit] ‘Killing Me Softly,’ people have been asking for a solo album from Lauryn,” says Violet Brown, urban music buyer for the Wherehouse retail chain. “That’s been since 1996 and the interest has only grown.”

Brown notes that Hill already has three songs getting strong radio play on urban and pop formats--”Doo Wop That Thing,” “Lost Ones” and a remake of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

Hill’s sales also far outdistanced the debut of “Back to Titanic,” the follow-up to the phenomenally successful “Titanic” soundtrack album. The new album, with orchestral suites drawn from the original score by composer James Horner and an assortment of Celtic and period tunes plus a mix of the Celine Dion-sung “My Heart Will Go On” featuring movie dialogue, sold about 114,000 in its first week, finishing No. 7 on the pop chart.

Its sales are expected to increase dramatically in its second week, with “Titanic” interest swelling due to the release this week of the film on home video, which is expected to set sales records of its own--exactly the strategy Sony Music had in mind when it decided to put the new album in stores a week before the video.

“The interest in ‘Back to Titanic’ is building,” says Marcia Appel, senior vice president of advertising for the Minneapolis-based Musicland/Sam Goody chain of music and video stores. “A lot of people are now buying it as they come in to buy the video. People are still really in love with the whole ‘Titanic’ push. The first ‘Titanic’ album is getting a boost as well.”