11 acts have new reason to ‘Smile’

In one of the most dramatic shufflings of the national album sales chart in memory, 11 new releases debuted in the Top 20 on Wednesday, including the new recording of Brian Wilson’s ‘60s concept album, “Smile.”

Country music group Rascal Flatts topped the chart with “Feels Like Today,” which sold 201,000 copies in its first week in the stores. It was trailed closely by “Hilary Duff,” the teen pop star’s new release, which claimed the No. 2 position with first-week sales of 192,000 copies.

“Smile” finished No. 13 after selling 65,000 copies in its first week -- enough to give Wilson his highest chart finish since the days when he was still a member of the Beach Boys.

Reviewing “Smile” for The Times, Randy Lewis declared that the new recording of the work, co-written by Van Dyke Parks, is “a beautiful and cohesive work, at times deeply moving, at others oddly whimsical, at still others eerily disturbing but celebratory.”

The other artists who entered the Top 20, according to Nielsen SoundScan: Ciara (No. 3, sales of 125,000), the Used (No. 6, sales of 93,000), Marilyn Manson (No. 9, sales of 80,000), Joss Stone (No. 11, sales of 73,000), Talib Kweli (No. 14, sales of 63,000), Interpol (No. 15, sales of 63,000), Queen Latifah (No. 16, sales of 61,000) and Guerilla Black (No. 20, sales of 46,000).

Green Day’s new “American Idiot, which entered the charts at No. 1 last week, fell to No. 4 after second-week sales of 124,000.