Demi Lovato tops albums chart, but Michael Jackson outsells her

Well, here we go again! That's the name of the No. 1 album on Billboard's flagship Billboard 200 albums chart: Demi Lovato's Here We Go Again, which sold 107,000 copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan. Not bad for a quiet mid-summer week. But that's not actually why I exclaimed that particular phrase at the beginning of this post. I said that because the Disney Channel starlet's sophomore effort was not, in fact, the highest-selling album in the U.S. last week. Instead that honor goes once more to Michael Jackson's Number Ones, which sold another 151,000 copies but �� say it with me, now — doesn't count for the Billboard 200 because it's too old. You'll have to consult Billboard's Top Comprehensive Albums chart, which includes catalog releases like Number Ones alongside new releases like Here We Go Again, if you want a reliable indicator of which albums were really doing big business last week. And so, after a brief Daughtry-related break, Michael Jackson is back to making a mockery of that Billboard 200 rule, which worked perfectly fine until his posthumous sales boom.

Speaking of Daughtry, the rockers' week-old album sold 100,000 to hang tight at No. 2. I guess a 63-percent second-week drop-off doesn't hurt so much when you have an opening number like they did.

Meanwhile, if lead singer Chris Daughtry is a poster boy for how to find success after American Idol even if you don't win, season 6 winner Jordin Sparks might be proving the exact opposite. Two years ago, her debut album earned the dubious distinction of the lowest first-week sales of any Idol champ's first album. Her follow-up, Battlefield, just did even worse despite solid reviews, landing at No. 7 after selling a mediocre 48,000 copies. At least 19-year-old Sparks has plenty of time to get her career back on track.

And that was it for top-20 debuts this week. What do you think of these numbers? Are you surprised to see Jordin Sparks' disappointing performance?

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