No. 1 ‘Music’ Compilation Makes History

Now that’s what they call unprecedented.

A compilation of recent hits called “Now That’s What I Call Music, Vol. 4” debuts at No. 1 on the nation’s album chart this week and carves out a modest niche in music history by becoming the first album of that type to claim the top spot.

“Excluding soundtracks, this is the first collection of previously released hits to go No. 1,” says Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for Billboard magazine. “Soundtracks, of course, are a big exception, but for this kind of animal it’s the first time we’ve seen it on top.”

The latest volume of the heavily promoted “Now” series features 18 hits from recent months including tracks from Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Blink-182, Macy Gray, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Hanson and Joe. The album sold 321,000 copies its first week to knock Eminem out of the top spot after eight consecutive weeks.

The “Now” series is an imported innovation from Britain, where surveys of recent chart-toppers have been a retail staple since the early 1980s. U.S. music powers were initially leery of the concept--they weren’t eager to collaborate with rival labels, and many worried the “jukebox” approach to an album would cannibalize the album sales of the artists contributing their key hits. Now, though, labels view the format as a way to reach new listeners and get a marketing boost from the intense advertising done for the series.

“We were all told this would not work in America and it was a very difficult task to get artists for the first one,” says Bruce Resnikoff, president of Universal Music Enterprises, the label for the latest volume. “Now the difficult part is fending artists off.”

“Oops! . . . I Did It Again” by Spears holds on at No. 2, and with her new single, “Lucky,” getting attention, her sales climbed to 241,000 on the week, up from 217,000 the previous week. Eminem, meanwhile, slips to No. 3 after selling 233,000 copies of “The Marshall Mathers LP.”

Only two Top 10 albums from last week climbed on the new chart: “Infest” from hard-edged Papa Roach moves up three spots to No. 5, while “Better Life” from Three Doors Down jumps one notch to No. 9.

Among the debut albums this week: “Canibus 2000 B.C. (Before Canibus),” the sophomore effort from rapper Canibus, opens at No. 23; the soundtrack to “Pokemon: The Movie 2000,” featuring artists such as Donna Summer and Weird Al Yankovic, reaches No. 97; and “Songs,” a survey of Moby’s work on Elektra Records, debuts at No. 158. --GEOFF BOUCHER