Another month, another Wu-Tang Clan top ten solo release, right? Well, this time it's Cappadonna's turn as he steps out from the Staten Island rap dynasty with The Pillage, this week's highest charting debut on the music sales chart. The album broke in at No. 3, selling 132,000 copies for the week ending March 29, according to SoundScan.

Other than Cappadonna, it was a quiet week on the chart, with only one other debut cracking the top 40: Aretha Franklin's Rose Is Still a Rose, which features guest production by the Fugees' Lauryn Hill, Puffy Combs, Dallas Austin, and others. It bows at No. 30.

On the soft side, Van Halen's Van Halen 3 tumbles badly in its second week in stores, falling from No. 4 to No. 13, with sales dropping 65 percent.

From the top it was the soundtrack to Titanic at No. 1 (selling 476,000 copies), followed by Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love (216,000); The Pillage; Madonna's Ray of Light (118,000); Savage Garden (117,000); The Backstreet Boys (95,000); C-Murder's Life or Death (91,000); Eric Clapton's Pilgrim (88,000); K-Ci & Jo Jo's Love Always (76,000); and Usher's My Way (69,000).

Last week's Academy Awards broadcast boosted sales for the soundtrack to Good Will Hunting (it jumps from No. 146 to No. 91), Trisha Yearwood's Songbook Collection, which features the Oscar-nominated "How Will I Live" (No. 65 to No. 49), and of course Titanic,which remains at No. 1 and, 16 weeks after its release, actually increases its weekly sales by 5 percent.

A little perspective on the still-growing Titanic sales: Through the first 12 weeks of 1998, the soundtrack along with Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love (which also boasts the movie's theme song) have sold a combined 9.6 million copies. Through the 52 weeks of 1997, the year's two best-selling albums, the Spice Girls' Spice and Jewel's Pieces of You, sold a combined 9.6 million copies.

ERIC BOEHLERT