Norah Jones scores record post-Grammy sales boost

Enjoying an historic post-Grammy bounce, Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me” soared back to the top of the nation’s pop album charts by selling 621,000 copies last week -- up 477,000 copies from the week before the Feb. 23 telecast.

A spokeswoman for Nielsen SoundScan said Wednesday that the Jones album enjoyed the biggest Grammy boost since the company began monitoring U.S. record sales in 1991 -- and is believed to be the biggest post-Grammy sales increase ever.

The two albums that previously enjoyed the biggest boost during the SoundScan era were Santana’s “Supernatural,” whose sales jumped by 364,000 copies to 583,000 total after the 2000 telecast, and the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, which saw its sales jump by 151,000 copies to 209,000 last year.

Last week’s sales pushed the pop singer’s total sales to 4.2 million copies. Jones won five Grammys on the show, including best album, best single record and best new artist.

Other albums enjoying dramatic post-Grammy bounces last week were the Dixie Chicks’ “Home,” which saw sales jump from 126,000 copies to 202,000, and John Mayer’s “Room for Squares,” whose sales bounced from 45,000 the previous week to 97,000 copies. Numerous other artists, including Avril Lavigne, Eminem, Kid Rock, Coldplay, Nelly and Bruce Springsteen, also benefited from the telecast exposure.

--Robert Hilburn