Josh Groban’s ‘Noel’ goes to the head of the class

There’s a new front-runner this week in the race for the top-selling album of 2007.

With less than two weeks left in the year, Josh Groban’s “Noel” album has eclipsed “High School Musical 2” as the year’s top seller. “Noel” sold a whopping 669,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving it the top spot on the pop sales chart for a fourth straight week. Groban’s latest has now sold 2.77 million copies, pushing it past the 2.7 million total for “High School Musical 2.”

Groban also breaks a long-standing chart record, as “Noel” is now the first holiday collection to spend four weeks in a row at No. 1. Elvis Presley’s “Elvis’ Christmas Album” logged three consecutive weeks at the top in 1957, according to Billboard.

Another seasonal album, Mannheim Steamroller’s “Christmas Song,” leaped six positions to land at No. 5 with 180,000 copies, nearly doubling its sales the previous week. Holiday shoppers helped overall sales increase about 24% over the previous week.

But the news isn’t all cheery, as Billboard reports overall sales are down about 23% from the same week last year.

The top debut this week is the Bow Wow and Omarion collaboration “Face Off.” The pairing of the young rappers enters at No. 11 after selling 107,000 copies.

While there weren’t many major new releases debuting on this week’s chart, the music industry will hope for a last-minute Christmas rush to boost sales for Mary J. Blige’s “Growing Pains” and Lupe Fiasco’s “The Cool.” Both came out Tuesday and should place high on next week’s tally.

todd.martens@latimes.com