B.I.G. LIVES LARGE

To absolutely no one's surprise, Notorious B.I.G.'s "Life After Death" is the country's best-selling album, debuting at No. 1 for the week ending March 30, according to SoundScan. The superstar rapper's double album was already set to do big business, but his murder last month only heightened interest. The only real question for the industry was how big was B.I.G.? Answer: The posthumous release sold an astounding 690,000 copies its first week of release.

For perspective, "Life After Death" surpassed the 664,00 copies 2Pac's posthumous "Makaveli" sold its first week out, as well as the 565,500 units 2Pac's "All Eyez On Me" sold one year ago. (Pearl Jam still holds the record for biggest first-week business; its "Vitalogy" sold 900,000-plus copies in 1994.) Sales for "Life After Death" were so large, that after just one week in stores it became the seventeenth best-selling record for all of 1997.

Anticipation for "Life After Death" ran so high that the album actually snuck onto the top 200 last week at No. 176. That's because enough stores put the record on sale prior to its official release date of March 25 that 6,000 copies were sold.

The Notorious B.I.G. stampede was good news for music retailers, who also saw a sea of students on spring break snatch up all kinds of titles. In fact, eight of the top ten albums enjoyed sales gains over the previous week. (Last week, just four of the ten gained sales.)

However, new efforts by Aerosmith (No. 4), U2 (No. 12), and Live (No. 18) were not among them. In fact, U2's "Pop" dropped out of the top ten after only three weeks. Industry observers were hoping those three albums would help jump-start music sales, which have been flat.From the top it was "Life After Death" (690,000 copies sold); Celine Dion's "Falling Into You" (196,000); "Spice Girls" (174,000); the soundtrack to "Space Jam" (173,000); Aerosmith's "Nine Lives" (127,000); Jewel's "Pieces of You" (122,000); the soundtrack to "Selena" (120,000); The Wallflowers' "Bringing Down the Horse" (117,000); LeAnn Rimes' "Unchained Melody" (104,000); and No Doubt's "Tragic Kingdom" (97,000).

On the singles sales side, Puff Daddy remains at No. 1, with his "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" selling 162,000 copies, followed by the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" (1000,000); Foxy Brown's "Ill Be" (90,000); Dru Hill's "In My Bed" (88,000); Celine Dion's "All By Myself" (75,000); Monica's "For You I Will" (68,000); 702's "Get It Together" (65,0