MANILOW WRITES THE
CHARTS WITH #1 BOW

From playing the bath houses with Bette Midler to the top of the charts, it’s been an amazing ride for Barry Manilow, whose Arista album, The Greatest Songs of the Fifties, debuts at #1 this week with a hefty 151k in sales. That’s a lot of Valentine’s Day gifts.

Geffen diva Mary J. Blige’s The Breakthrough breaks through again, thanks to the power of Oprah, with a 31% jump to 118k, good for second place.

Decca opera guy Andrea Bocelli’s new album Amore made its own Cupid statement with a #3 finish and 108k in sales.

Other debuts in the Top 10 include RCA/RMG Broadway songbird Heather Headley’s In My Mind at #5 and Columbia/CRG pop-rockers Train’s new album, For Me It’s You, at #10.

Holdovers include J Records/RMG multimedia star Jamie Foxx at #4, last week’s chart toppers, Columbia/CRG poperameisters Il Divo, at #5, Shady/Aftermath/Interscope’s Eminem (#7), Arista/RMG country-pop crossover Carrie Underwood (#8) and Custard/Atlantic transatlantic sensation James Blunt, moving back into the Top 10 at #9.

Celebrating the week of his much-ballyhooed pre-Grammy party, Clive Davis’ RMG places four albums in the Top 10.

Other chart newcomers include Razor & Tie’s Monster Ballads (#19), Verity’s Wow Gospel 2006 (#27) and Geffen’s She Wants Revenge (#37).

Grammy week helped catapult a number of titles to more than a 30% boost in sales, led by Walt Disney Records’ High School Musical soundtrack, which rode the cable channel movie to a 68% rise at #13. Island/IDJ’s Mariah Carey (#16, +37%), Epic’s Matisyahu (#29, +31%), Capitol Nashville’s Keith Urban (#32, 23%), VP/Atlantic’s Sean Paul (#34, +30%) and Jive/ZLG’s T-Pain (#36, +33%) all showed impressive gains.

Look for the following titles, which streeted on Tuesday, to hit the charts next week: Universal’s Jack Johnson soundtrack to Curious George, So So Def/Virgin’s Dem Franchize Boyz, SRC/Universal’s Remy Ma, Virgin’s KT Tunstall, SMG/RLG Totally Country 5 and a dark horse, blue-collar comic Ron White on Image Entertainment.