Keith’s ‘Shock’n’ puts a jolt in top 10

It’s no shock to Toby Keith fans that the country singer’s new album “Shock’n Y’all” entered the national sales chart at No. 1 Wednesday after selling 585,000 copies.

The Oklahoma singer and songwriter has become one of country music’s top guns, and the new album’s early momentum has been fueled by his hit single “I Love This Bar.”

His first-week figure put him well ahead of the No. 2 finisher, Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, whose first album in six years, “Afterglow,” sold 361,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In a strong week for new releases, the 14th edition of the “Now That’s What I Call Music” hits compilation series followed McLachlan at No. 3 on the chart with a first-week figure of 322,000 copies. “The Very Best of Sheryl Crow” landed right behind “Now” with first-week sales of 247,000.

Ja Rule’s new “Blood in My Eye” entered the chart at No. 6 on sales of 140,000 while P.O.D. cracked the top 10 with its latest, “Payable on Death” at No. 9 on sales of 106,000.

The remaining top 10 slots are held by OutKast (No. 4), Rod Stewart (No. 7), Clay Aiken (No. 8) and Ludacris (No. 10).

Nielsen SoundScan reported a milestone in its young history of tracking legal music downloads: Total reported downloads topped 1 million for the first time since the firm began tallying them in July. The most downloaded song of the week was OutKast’s “Hey Ya! (Radio Mix),” with 8,346 downloads.

That’s more then triple the sales of the nation’s top-selling single for the sixth straight week, Mercy Me’s “I Can Only Imagine,” which sold 2,300 copies.