On the Charts: “I Look To You” Earns Whitney Houston Number One

The Big News: As expected, Whitney Houston reclaimed the crown of Queen of the Charts as her comeback album I Look To You cruised to Number One with 304,000 copies sold, almost double the amount sold by the week’s Number Two record, Miley Cyrus’ Time of Our Lives EP. I Look to You was Houston’s first album to debut atop the Top 200 since 1987’s Whitney, and the 304,000 copies represent the best-selling debut week of Houston’s career, surpassing the 205,000 copies Just Whitney sold in 2002 (that album only peaked at Number Nine).

Trey Songz also had a strong week as Ready debuted at Number Three with 130,000 copies sold. Luckily for Songz, 80,000 copies separated Ready from the week’s Number Four album, Insane Clown Posse’s Bang! Pow! Boom!. Last week’s champ Colbie Caillat and her Breakthrough rounded out the Top Five. Over on the Comprehensive Albums chart, where Michael Jackson sales are counted, the King of Pop’s Number Ones placed fourth, ahead of ICP, with 56,000 copies sold.

Debuts: A handful of debuts stormed into the Top 10 as the music industry shakes itself out of the summer sales doldrums and creeps towards autumn’s big releases. Other newbies in the Top 10 include Chevelle’s Sci-Fi Crimes at Six, Pitbull’s Rebelution at Eight and the Used’s Artwork at 10. All three albums sold in the 35K-45K range. Other notable debuts include the Black Crowes’ Before the Frost… Until the Freeze at 12 and John Fogerty’s The Blue Ridge Rangers Ride Again at 24.

Last Week’s Heroes: In an age where most releases encounter second-week sales drops in the 50 percent range, Miley Cyrus somehow managed to more than double the first week sales of the Time of Our Lives EP, moving an additional 153,000 copies to stick at Number Two for a second consecutive week. Caillat was not as fortunate as sales of Breakthrough fell 54 percent since its debut at Number One last week. But the biggest plunge was reserved for the Arctic Monkeys, who watched Humbug fall from 15 to 50 thanks to a 63 percent dip.

Next week on the charts, we’ll have the full report on the epic sales battle of Jigga versus Fab Four and The Blueprint 3 versus The White Album as Jay-Z and the Beatles both issued a pair of the most-anticipated releases in 2009.