Those of us who regard following the Billboard charts as our version of sports fandom have a problem, of the Roger Maris-in-1961 variety, to contend with on this week's album charts: two different, legitimate No. 1 albums.
On the official SoundScan tally, to be released at end-of-day today and published in Billboard later this week, the victor will be Britney Spears's Blackout, with about 300,000 albums sold.
But in terms of actual, nationwide sales, the winner—announced this afternoon in a press release—is the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden, with a staggering 700,000 sold.
That's the second-largest first-week total of the year, and it was achieved through just one chain: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (including Sam's Club and the Wal-Mart/Sam's websites). And therein lies the confusion, and the problem for us score-keepers.
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Idolator
Last night, American Idol kicked off the head-to-head competition, and aside from "where's Carly?", "what was the name of the other girl who disappeared from the audience mid-show?" and "are we really going to have this Australian Rock Star reject shoved down our throats all freaking season?" the most important question was: Which contestants' performances caused the Idol viewers of America to head for their nearest search engine? After the jump, Google Trends brings you last night's top five Idol-performed songs and top four performers (as of 7:45 a.m. ET).
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Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today's entry is Kelly Clarkson's My December, which is released tomorrow:
After more than two months of low-rated broadcasts and 
