No pregnant pause for ‘Juno’ soundtrack

After “Juno” received four Oscar nominations last week, the movie’s soundtrack album moved into the top spot on the national sales chart. Sales of the indie-rock-focused soundtrack were up 13% to 65,000 copies last week, and it brings the total figure for the compilation above the 250,000 mark, according to Nielsen/SoundScan.

“Juno” is the first soundtrack to top the chart since “Dreamgirls” did it about this time last year, and Billboard reports that it is the first soundtrack from an Oscar-nominated film to hit No. 1 since “Titanic” accomplished the feat back in 1998.

The “Juno” soundtrack knocks Alicia Keys “As I Am” down to No. 2, with sales of 60,000 copies last week. Since its early November release date, “As I Am” has sold more than 2.8 million, and the Keys campaign doesn’t look to be slowing down. The artist was just announced as a performer on the Feb. 10 Grammy Awards.

Though major releases from Sheryl Crow and Lenny Kravitz aren’t due until Tuesday, a number of smaller and indie acts were released last week and landed on this week’s chart. English singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield earned her first top 10 debut with “Pocketful of Sunshine,” an album that sold 50,000 copies and entered at No. 3.

Further down, indie favorite Cat Power also scored her best chart entry. Her album “Jukebox” landed at No. 12 after selling 29,000 copies. Other newcomers include the latest volume in the Radio Disney compilation “Kid Jams,” which entered at No. 18 (21,000 copies), and country newcomer Chuck Wicks, whose “Starting Now” landed at No. 24 (20,000).

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todd.martens@latimes.com