That’s what we call No. 1

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE is No. 1 on the pop charts this week ... and so is Beyonce ... and Fergie, Nelly Furtado, Chingy, Ne-Yo and 10 other top pop acts of the moment. The superstar commune at the top of the charts means that the latest installment of the “Now That’s What I Call Music!” series is in stores just in time for early holiday shoppers.

It’s the 23rd volume of the series that launched in the U.S. in late 1998 amid some musicindustry skepticism. Naysayers believed that bundling recent hit singles together would only cannibalize the sales of their original albums, but now the concept seems perfectly suited to the music-shuffle mentality of young music fans.

The new “Now” edition sold 337,000 copies its first week and is the 10th in the series to hit No. 1 on the chart.

It’s also the only place that pop fans can find Jessica Simpson and ex-husband Nick Lachey working in proximity -- his “I Can’t Hate You Anymore” is track No. 14, her “A Public Affair” is No. 16.

A flurry of other new titles debut this week as the music industry begins filling the shelves for the holiday season.

“Awake,” the third album from Josh Groban, the classically trained singer of romantic-pop songs, debuts at No. 2 with 270,000 copies sold, just edging out “Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing,” the new release from country star Keith Urban. The CD by the Australian-reared singer sold 267,000 copies, the best week of the artist’s career and one that comes at a time of personal turmoil; he won best male vocalist at the Country Music Assn. Awards last week but missed the show after checking into a rehab program.

Exposure on the CMA telecast gave a boost to a number of releases by winners and performers, among them Sugarland’s “Enjoy the Ride,” which debuts at No. 4 (211,000 copies), Carrie Underwood’s “Some Hearts,” which zooms to No. 8 with a 59% jump in sales (72,000 copies) and the Rascal Flatts album “Me and My Gang,” which leaped six positions to No. 18 with a 45% sales surge (54,000 copies).