McGraw tips his hat to the charts

GIVE them hits and they will buy. That’s what happened last week to give a badly needed shot in the arm to an anemic record industry. Country powerhouse Tim McGraw easily landed the No. 1 spot on the national sales chart with his new “Let It Go” album, which is powered by the country hit “Last Dollar (Fly Away),” helping the national sales chart rebound with a combined sales of top 10 albums up 46% over last week’s.

Still, everything’s relative: McGraw’s previous studio collection, “Live Like You Were Dying,” took the top spot in 2004 with a total more than double the 325,000 figure posted by “Let It Go.”

Falling in behind McGraw at No. 2 is volume 24 of “Now That’s What I Call Music!” The latest entry in the cross-label hits compilation series sold 230,000 copies with a disparate assembly of recent tracks from Fergie, Justin Timberlake, the Fray, Lily Allen, Corinne Bailey Rae and others.

There’s a steep drop after a solid entry at No. 3 by rapper Young Buck’s “Buck the World,” which registered first-week sales of 140,000. New York rapper Mims claimed the No. 4 spot with sales of just 78,000 copies of his “Music Is My Savior,” helped along by his hit “This Is Why I’m Hot.” Pop-punk band Good Charlotte was another of seven new entries in this week’s top 10, its “Good Morning Revival” album entering at No. 7 with sales of 66,000 copies. Elton John’s “Rocket Man: Number Ones” compilation touches down at No. 9 with 49,000 copies, just ahead of Jennifer Lopez’s new Spanish-language collection, “Como Ama una Mujer,” at No. 10, on sales of 48,000 copies. Macy Gray’s “Big” sold a modest 23,000 copies, according to the Nielsen SoundScan sales monitoring service, but it was enough for a Top 40 debut at No. 39.

Albums that hit stores Tuesday from Timbaland, Martina McBride and Hilary Duff are expected to jockey for the top slots on next week’s chart.

randy.lewis@latimes.com