RIAA GOES CERTIFICATION-HAPPY
IN APRIL

Even though there are still two days left, the RIAA has declared April a record-setting month.

NSYNC's latest Jive release, "No Strings Attached," has become the first single-disc set to be certified for U.S. sales of 7 million units in its initial RIAA audit. The previous record was set in 1993 by Arista's soundtrack to "The Bodyguard," which was certified at 6 million.

Predictably, Santana made some headlines in April. The band's multi-Grammy-winning "Supernatural" (Arista) has topped the 11 million mark. Swept up in the Santana-mania, and getting a solid sales goose, are the band's previous releases, "Santana's Greatest Hits" and "Abraxas" (both on Columbia), which have now topped 7 and 5 million respectively.

Dixie Chicks' Columbia Nashville release "Wide Open Spaces" crested the 9 million mark, making it one of the three highest certified debut albums in country music, along with Garth Brooks' "Garth Brooks" (Capitol) and Billy Ray Cyrus' "Some Gave All" (Mercury).

In related news, the combined sales of Jennifer Love Hewitt's two releases—1995's "Let's Go Bang" and 1996's "Jennifer Love Hewitt"—are still in the low five digits.