Dixie Chicks Debut at Number One

The Dixie Chicks led the chart this week with their unapologetic seventh release Taking the Long Way, which sold more than half a million copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Despite country radio's reluctance to play the album's first single "Not Ready to Make Nice," this strong debut proves that the Texas trio's Rick Rubin-produced album is truly a genre bender that appeals to a wider fan base.

But America loves its television. Three of the major Top Ten albums this week were soundtracks: With the Disney Channel movie High School Musical recently heading to DVD, the kid-friendly soundtrack crept back up two notches (Number Two, 175,000) -- the album has sold more than two million copies since its January release. Other leading soundtrack debuts included American Idol's Season Five: Encores, which bowed at Number Three (150,000) and the World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) collection of superstar-theme songs. The album, featuring songs from Three 6 Mafia, Motorhead, P.O.D and Killswitch Engage and more, sold 66,000 copies its first week out to drop at Number Eight.

Other strong debuts included the atmospheric Emo rock ballads of Blink-182 vet Tom DeLonge, whose latest project Angels and Airwaves' We Don't Need to Whisper landed at Number Four (127,000). Reggaeton star Dom Omar's sophomore album King of Kings landed at Number Seven, selling 68,000 copies its first week out.

This week also marked a fall from grace for several of last week's Top Ten albums. While the Red Hot Chili Peppers' double-disc album Stadium Arcadium only dropped four spots to Number Five (113,000), ending their two-week run at the top and Tool's 10,000 Days dropped six spots to Number Nine (65,000), albums such as Cam'ron's Killa Season, which debuted last week at Number Two, fell sixteen spots to land at Eighteen (39,000) and the Raconteurs debut, Broken Boy Soldiers, fell twenty-one positions to bow at Twenty-Eight (31,000). And Ashley Parker Angel's solo debut Soundtrack to Your Life fell thirty-two sports in its second week, selling 25,000 copies to land at Number Thirty-Seven.

Debuts also landing outside the Top Ten included Michelle Branch's country duo the Wreckers, Stand Still, Look Pretty, at Number Fourteen (43,000), and Def Leppard's Yeah!, an all-cover album that surfaced at Number Sixteen (41,000).

With no major new releases from major recording artists out this week, expect a shuffling of the current Top Ten to make up the music hierarchy next week.

This week's Top Ten: Dixie Chicks' Taking the Long Way; High School Musical: The Original Soundtrack; American Idol's Season Five: Encores; Angels & Airwaves' We Don't Need to Whisper; Red Hot Chili Pepper's Stadium Arcadium; Rascal Flatts' Me and My Gang; Don Omar's King of Kings; the WWE's Wreckless Intent; Tool's 10,000 Days; Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts.