Riding the success of her new No. 1 single, R&B teen star Brandy crashes the album sales chart this week, coming in at No. 3 with Never Say Never. It sold 160,000 copies for the week ending June 14, according to SoundScan, but not quite enough to bump rapper Master P for the top slot. Meanwhile, the Smashing Pumpkins' latest, Adore, takes a hard hit dropping from No. 2 to No. 8 in just its second week on the chart.

"The Boy Is Mine," featuring Brandy teamed up with Monica, has been No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks.

From the top on the album side it was Master P's Da Last Don (selling 218,000 copies); the soundtrack to City of Angels (169,000); Never Say Never; the soundtrack to Godzilla (122,000); the soundtrack to Hope Floats (106,000); Garth Brooks' Limited Series (102,000); the Backstreet Boys' self-titled album (99,000); the Pumpkins' Adore (96,000; that's down forty-three percent from last week); Shania Twain's Come On Over (83,000); DMX's It's Dark & Hell Is Hot (78,000).

Elsewhere on the charts, rootsy veterans fared pretty well, with John Fogerty's live album Premonition debuting at No. 29, and Dwight Yoakam's new Long Way Home coming in at No. 60. Meanwhile, Spice Girls turn their loss into a gain. On the heels of the news that Spice Girl Gerri was leaving the supergroup, publicity has driven up sales of the group's debut. This week Spice climbs from No. 77 to No. 72. And from the Where Are They Now file, Van Halen's Van Halen 3 drops off the chart this week after just three months in stores.

ERIC BOEHLERT (June 17, 1998)