Green Day’s game, for now

Green Day’s “American Idiot” album tops the national sales chart for the second consecutive week, but Dr. Dre’s latest discovery, the Game, is expected to easily surpass the punk-rock trio next week.

Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for Billboard magazine, said the Compton rapper’s major label debut, “The Documentary,” got off to such a fast start Tuesday in its first day in stores that it could reach the 600,000 sales mark.

If so, that would be the biggest first-week sale for any major-label debut since “American Idol” star Clay Aiken’s “Measure of a Man” sold 613,000 copies in October 2003.

The Game, whose real name is Jayceon Taylor, was joined on the album by several high profile hip-hop artists and producers, including Dre, 50 Cent, Eminem and Kanye West.

Green Day held on to the No. 1 spot this week despite selling only 100,000 copies of “American Idiot,” Nielsen SoundScan reported. The CD, nominated for album of the year in last year’s Grammy competition, was followed by Eminem’s “Encore,” which sold 84,000 copies.

Shania Twain’s “Greatest Hits” was third, selling 74,000 copies, while John Legend’s “Get Lifted” finished fourth, based on sales of 73,000.

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Robert Hilburn

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By the Numbers: Southland CD rankings

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Here are the 10 bestselling CDs in Southern California last week, along with their national ranking.

*--* TITLE, ARTIST NAT’L RANK PREV. WEEK

1 “American Idiot,” Green Day 1 1

2 “Love.Angel.Music.Baby,” Gwen Stefani 16 2

3 “Get Lifted,” John Legend 4 4

4 “Breakaway,” Kelly Clarkson 6 11

5 “Crunk Juice,” Lil Jon & The East Side 5 12 Boyz

6 “Phantom of the Opera,” soundtrack 20 17

7 “Collision Course,” Jay-Z/Linkin Park 8 7

8 “Confessions,” Usher 7 8

9 “Hot Fuss,” Killers 22 16

10 “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” U2 13 10

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Source: Nielsen/SoundScan Inc.