US Chart Goss

While Walt Disney failed to sign Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears to its record label, it’s developing plenty of new talent of its own, and hits the top of the album chart for the second time this year - this time with its new Hannah Montana soundtrack, writes Alan Jones.

Telling the story of the eponymous schoolgirl who is a secret pop star by night, Hannah Montana premiered on Disney’s TV channel in March, and has turned into an impressive ratings performer for the company. Up against new albums from My Chemical Romance and John Legend, its lightweight tie-in album surprisingly beat them both, selling 281,153 copies to debut in pole position.

Most of the album is sung by Miley Cyrus, the 13-year-old daughter of Achy Breaky Heart hitmaker Billy Ray Cyrus, and provides Disney with its second number one album of 2006. The first, High School Musical, is the best-selling album of the year to date, with sales of 3,200,566. Miley, by the by, was actually born as Destiny Cyrus on 23 November 1982, just six weeks after Billy Ray’s album Some Gave All completed a marathon 17-week tour of duty at number one on the US album chart.

Incredibly, the Hannah Montana album also spins off six new entries and a re-entry on the Hot 100 singles chart for Miley Cyrus. If We Were A Movie debuts at number 47 (helped by 26,400 downloads), while I Got Nerve is in at number 67 (18,567), Pumpin’ Up The Party at number 81 (14,981), The Other Side Of Me at number 84 (14,595), This Is The Life at number 89 (13,480) and Just Like You at number 99 (11,293). Who Said, which previously peaked at number 92, is a re-entry at number 83 (14,720). Best Of Both Worlds, which also peaked at number 92 a couple of weeks ago, sold 9,973 downloads last week to lift its 29 week digital download tally to 201,710.

Although they didn’t manage to debut at number one, My Chemical Romance and John Legend’s new albums both opened with sales north of 200,000. It’s the first time this year that the top three have all surpassed the mark, and helped overall album sales to a total of 10.03m - 5.1% up on the same week last year.

As in Britain, My Chemical Romance’s Black Parade opens at number two. Sales of 240,074 last week gave it the edge over John Legend’s Once Again, which sold 231,107 copies. Both acts reach new career peaks, and both are following up million selling albums: My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge has sold 1,463,526 copies, while Legend’s Get Lifted has fared even better with 1,788,809 sales to date.

Altogether 25 new albums debut on the Top 200, none of them by British acts.

Our top ranked attraction, once again, is Rod Stewart’s Still The Same...Great Rock Classics Of Our Time, even though it slides 6-13 on sales down 43% week-on-week at 44,694., taking its three week cume to 308,752.

Snow Patrol’s Eyes Open declines more gently, falling 31-34 on sales of 23,912, lifting its 25 week cume to 489,581.

Meanwhile, Sting’s Songs From The Labyrynth falls 25-52 on sales of 16,989 (down 46%); James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam drifts 73-78 on sales of 11,809 (off 6%), and KT Tunstall’s Eye To The Telescope sheds 4% to fall 87-92 on sales of 10,573, completing UK action in the top half of the chart.

Looking beyond the Top 200 for sales by other UK acts: Goldfrapp’s We Are Glitter sold 1,375 copies, Gomez’s How We Operate sold 1,156 copies, The Kooks’ Inside In/Inside Out sold 1,124 copies, inquisitive religious rockers Delirious? sold 1,120 copies of Now Is The Time and the belatedly issued Pop Art: Hits by the Pet Shop Boys sold just 674 copies to take its four week tally to 3,158. Gorillaz’s Demon Days sold 3,929 copies to take its sales past the 2m mark - to 2,003,801, to be precise.

Finally, Christmas has arrived early at the top of the catalog chart, where Bob Seger’s Greatest Hits is dethroned by Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman’s All I Really Want For Christmas, which sold 15,968 copies last week to debut at number one, ahead of John St. John’s Halloween-themed Sounds Of Horror disc which advances 5-2 on sales of 13,063 copies. While the Halloween title is likely to be gone by next week, Christmas titles will make their presence felt increasingly on the chart, whose Top 50 positions rarely contain more than a handful of regular titles by mid-December, so dominant do Christmas titles become.