The Beatles Are Proving to Be the Best (Selling) Boys

The holiday album sales race is turning into a rout, thanks to the pop world’s continuing love affair with the Beatles.

Though many industry insiders expected the Backstreet Boys’ new “Black & Blue” album to lead the year-end sales rush, the latest Beatles hits package, “1,” tops the Boys’ collection on the album sales chart for the second straight week--and this time it wasn’t even close.

The Beatles album sold 824,000 units last week, almost 260,000 more than the Boys, according to SoundScan figures Wednesday. The Beatles’ lead the previous week was only around 125,000.

The latest tally pushes total “1” sales to the 3.36 million figure since its release Nov. 14. That’s still about 30,000 short of “Black & Blue” sales, but the Beatles should easily surpass the latter’s figure this week.

“It’s remarkable--just remarkable,” says Scott Levin, of the Musicland/Sam Goody chain. “It’s surprising not because it wasn’texpected to be one of the year-end’s top sellers, but because of the distance at which it’s outpacing what is the most recognizable boy band in the world--or at least one of the top two boy bands.”

Levin also notes that the album isn’t just selling to longtime Beatles loyalists.

“We’re [selling it to] not only adults, but to kids of those adults who want to know what this music was like, to know what their mom and dad were listening to,” he adds. “I don’t know when I’ve ever seen that happen before.”

The question is whether the Beatles can top the 1 million mark this week, something only a handful of albums have done.

“If the Beatles sold in the neighborhood of 800,000 two weeks before Christmas,” says Wherehouse buyer Bob Bell, “there’s no reason the album couldn’t sell over a million in the final week leading up to Christmas.”

The remaining spots in the Top 10 all showed a dramatic sales increase for the week, a sign of the holiday sales punch. The hits compilation “Now That’s What I Call Music, Vol. 5” stayed at No. 3, but saw sales jump by almost 90,000 to 473,000. Sales for Creed’s “Human Clay,” which finished No. 4, jumped 77,000 to 376,000.

Rounding out the Top 10: Britney Spears (up 65,000), Tim McGraw (up 60,000), Shaggy (up 92,000), Limp Bizkit (up 66,000), ‘N Sync (up 59,000) and Charlotte Church (up 33,000).

The week’s highest debut was posted by rapper Xzibit, whose “Restless” finished No. 14, thanks to sales of 205,000.

The nation’s best-selling single is Dream’s “He Loves U Not,” which sold 62,000 copies. The group’s members--Diana Ortiz from Pacoima, Holly Blake from North Hollywood, Ashley Poole from Blythe and Melissa Schuman from San Clemente--were brought together by an L.A. production company looking to assemble a young female pop group.

Bad Boy Records CEO Sean “Puffy” Combs saw them at a showcase at the Beverly Hills Hotel and signed them on the spot. The single’s popularity has been helped by recent tour dates with ‘N Sync as well as the quartet’s Dec. 15 appearance on MTV’s “Total Request Live.” Their debut album, “It Was All a Dream” is scheduled to be released Jan. 23.