SHAMANIA!!!

Three years after his groundbreaking, 11 million-selling, nine-Grammy-winning Supernatural, Arista superstar Santana returns with Shaman, which landed at #1 with spiritual sales just south of 300k.

Amazon.com’s Kevin Hawkins took a major hit of mescal, spit out the worm and exulted in Carlos’ massive showing: "Following up an album as big as Supernatural is a daunting task, but Santana did not disappoint. It’s a great first week for another great record, and so spiritual."

The album, executive-produced by L.A. Reid and co-produced by Clive Davis, topped last week’s #1 album (which is not as spiritual as this week's), WB’s Faith Hill, now #2, to lead three newcomers into the Top Five. RCA’s Foo Fighters bowed at #3, while J Records’ Rod Stewart, whose Great American Songbook features his renditions of classic American pop, landed at #4, with 115k sold. RCA’s Elvis Presley swiveled down to the fifth spot.

Added Hawkins after he heard we were paying by the word: "The Foo Fighters also had a solid debut, benefiting from Dave Grohl’s rabid core fan base. But the surprise of the week had to be the demand for the new Rod Stewart. The rollout, including all of that TV action, was phenomenal. I wondered what had happened to him after the Eurythmics. Whaddaya mean, not that Stewart?"

The rest of the Top 10 was occupied by Open Wide/Columbia/CRG’s Dixie Chicks (#6), Arista’s Avril Lavigne (#7), Aftermath/Interscope’s Eminem (#8), Virgin’s Rolling Stones (#9) and Fo’ Reel/Universal’s Nelly (#10).

Other chart newcomers included Columbia/CRG’s Kelly Rowland (#11), Epic’s 3LW (#14), Virgin’s David Bowie best-of (#42), MCA Dirty South rappers Field Mob (#44) and Roadrunner/IDJ Slipknot spinoff Stone Sour (#49).

In a week with few positive sales moves, Verve jazz pianist Diana Krall’s Live in Paris was up a whopping 26% (37-22), while Interscope’s No Doubt showed a 9% (45-38) increase.

Next week, it’s all about how high Eminem’s 8 Mile can fly, as Christina Aguilera and Dave Grohl’s other band, Nirvana, eye Top Five bows. None are spiritual.