Josh Groban's "Noel" Broke Record Sales

Josh Groban has just broken CD sales records with his Christmas album "Noel" on Wednesday, December 19. According to Nielsen SoundScan data, "Noel" became the first Christmas album that stays in the number one position on the Billboard Top Ten for four consecutive weeks selling 669,661 albums in this past week ended December 16.

Groban's album has succeeded in becoming the second Christmas album that spent a total of four weeks at number one tying with the record made by Elvis Presley's "Elvis' Christmas Album". Still, Groban has managed to surpass the old record made by Elvis' Christmas Album since though spending four weeks at #1, the latter album only spent three consecutive weeks at the peak position.

Further, with the total sales of 2.77 million units, the album has become the top selling album of 2007. It passed the record sales of "High School Musical 2" soundtrack which has sold in total just over 2.7 million and "Daughtry" with 2.3 million. Additionally, it saw a sales increase each week since No Doubt's 1995 album "Tragic Kingdom", and the selling well over 669,000 copies signifies the biggest single-week counts for a Christmas album since Kenny G's "Miracles: The Holiday Album".

Meanwhile, following the success of Groban's album, Alicia Keys' "As I Am" that sold 292,000 copies and the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden" with this week sales at 241,000 copies were taking number two and three spots respectively. Moreover, the fourth place went to "Now 26", a compilation hit by multi-artist, with 191,000 copies, while the fifth position was taken by Mannheim Steamroller's "Christmas Song" with 180,000.

Staying in the sixth place for the fourth consecutive week was "High School Musical 2" with 178,000, and dropping two spots to number 7 was Miley Cyrus' double-disc set "Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus" with 177,000. Rounding up the last three places in the top ten were three country albums by Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Garth Brooks. "Taylor Swift" took number 8 with 139,000 followed by Underwood's "Carnival Ride" with 137,000 and Brooks' "The Ultimate Hits" with 119,000.