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HITS Daily Double
"Country continues to dominate our charts. Shania has yet another great week and looks like she could run the table at #1 throughout the holiday season. Tim McGraw had a terrific first week of sales, also."
——Hastings’ Mike Fuller

KEEPING IT UP!

Tim McGraw, 2Pac, J.Lo, Macca and Snoop Crash Top 10, but Shania Twain Is Still #1
Retailers this week are feeling friskier than Condoleezza Rice with a missile launcher aimed at Iraq. Sales were rising faster than Hugh Hefner after a hit of Viagra.

In the biggest sales week of the year, a total of 28 albums topped the 100k mark, with Mercury Nashville space-age biker chick Shania Twain topping Curb’s Tim McGraw in a battle of country superstars, with both breaking the 600k barrier.

HastingsMike Fuller, known as Bubba to his pals, says: "Country continues to dominate our charts. Shania has yet another great week and looks like she could run the table at #1 throughout the holiday season. Tim McGraw had a terrific first week of sales, also."

McGraw was one of five newcomers to the Top 10, which also included Amaru/Tha Row/Interscope hip-hop icon 2Pac (#4), Epic’s Jennifer Lopez (#6), Capitol’s Paul McCartney double-live CD (#7) and Priority/Capitol gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg (#9).

Added Fuller, his mouth full of leftover stuffing, "2Pac, J.Lo, McCartney and Snoop Dogg all saw big post-Thanksgiving sales."

With the Shady/Interscope/UMG Strx 8 Mile soundtrack showing a healthy 45% increase at #3 and UTV’s Now 11 boasting a 21% increase at #5, Doug MorrisUMG scored four of the Top Five albums. Rounding out the Top 10 was Arista skate chanteuse Avril Lavigne (#8), with a whopping 97% increase, and WB’s Faith Hill, McGraw’s better half, whose sales total skied 126%, thanks to a pair of primetime TV specials featuring country’s first couple.

Other chart newcomers included American/Columbia/CRG’s System of a Down (#14), Def Soul/IDJ’s Dru Hill (#23), MCA’s The Roots (#24), Cash Money/Universal’s Baby aka the #1 Stunna (#28), Island/IDJ’s Sum 41 (#32), Columbia/CRG’s Barbra Streisand (#36), J’s Busta Rhymes (#44) and Legacy/Columbia/CRG’s Bob Dylan (#50).

Among the most impressive weekly increases were RCA’s Elvis Presley (23-13, up 153%), Fo’ Reel/Universal’s Nelly (27-20, 108%), Aware/Columbia’s John Mayer (#38, 80%), 143/Reprise’s Josh Groban (34-29, 72%) and DGC’s Nirvana (#27, 70%). In all, 30 of the Top 50 albums showed a rise in sales.