Another ‘Idol’ tops the charts

Ruben Studdard’s debut album, “Soulful,” is the third CD by an “American Idol” star to enter the national pop chart at No. 1, but its first-week sales were far below Clay Aiken’s, Nielsen SoundScan reported Wednesday.

“Soulful” sold 417,000 copies, versus the 613,000 that Aiken’s “Measure of a Man” generated during its first week in October.

Studdard easily topped the first-week sales of 297,000 copies registered in April by Kelly Clarkson, the first “American Idol” winner. Still, Clarkson has proven surprisingly potent on the charts. Her “Thankful” album remains in the national Top 100 with total sales approaching 1.8 million.

Aiken, who lost to Studdard in the second “Idol” competition, is even hotter than Clarkson. His album has sold more than 1.7 million copies in two months. It is No. 11 this week.

Because of holiday gift buying, this is normally the hottest sales period of the year in the record business, and labels try to tailor their release schedule to take advantage of the sales rush.

No one seems to be running away with this year’s race. Although some past albums have approached or passed 1 million sales in the week before Christmas, nothing in 2003 seems poised to make that leap.

Nevertheless, Toby Keith, Josh Groban, OutKast, Rod Stewart, Hilary Duff and Sheryl Crow are all having a strong month. Among the artists whose recent albums haven’t made as strong a holiday run as expected: Britney Spears, Blink-182 and the Beatles.

The best-selling album released this year is 50 Cent’s “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” with 6.4 million sales since February.