Josh Groban's Noel Sets New Sales Record For Christmas Albums

Noel sold 669,000 copies in the week ended December 16, according to Nielsen SoundScan data. With total sales at 2.77 million, Noel surpassed the High School Musical 2 soundtrack as the year's top selling album. The first High School Musical soundtrack album was the biggest seller in 2006 (3.72 million copies).

Elvis Presley's 1957 release, Elvis' Christmas Album, also sat on top for four weeks, but non-consecutively.

Other strong sellers for the week included:

Alicia Keys' As I Am (292,000 copies)
The Eagles Long Road Out of Eden (241,000 copies)
The multi-artist Now 26 hits compilation (191,000 copies)
Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Song (180,000)
Miley Cyrus' double-disc set Hannah Montana 2 (Soundtrack)/Meet Miley Cyrus (177,000)
Taylor Swift's (139,000)
Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride (137,000)
Garth Brooks' The Ultimate Hits (119,000)
Bow Wow & Omarion's collaboration Face Off (107,000)

Sales for the week (17.98 million units) were down 23.1% compared to the same week in 2006, another indication of the overall downward trend in phyiscal album (CDs) sales for the evolving record industry.