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Creed's Weathered debuted At #1 in USA

It did that! New Creed's album overshadowed new albums by Pink, Kid Rock and others on this week and also achieving the honor of having the second highest first-week sales totals of any album released this year.

The Floridian rockers sold more than 887,000 copies of Weathered to land at #1 on this week's chart, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (November 28). Creed is now two for three when it comes to placing albums atop the chart, as their previous album, 1999's Human Clay, occupied the same slot after its first week in stores.

Only 'NSYNC's Celebrity, with 1.8 million in first-week sales, topped Weathered's impressive numbers this year. Britney Spears' Britney, which came in at # 3 this week, is the album with the third highest first-week sales.

Weathered's debut-week sales rank it third among rock albums in the SoundScan era (since 1991), following Limp Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, which sold more than 1.02 million in its first week last year, and Pearl Jam's Vs., which moved more than 950,000 copies its first week in 1993.

Albums by Kid Rock and Pink had impressive first-week showings. Rock's Cocky landed at #7 with more than 222,000 in sales, while Pink's Missundaztood follows right behind with more than 220,000.

The rest of this week's top 10 finds this week's top dog, Garth Brooks' Scarecrow, at #4; Now That's What I Call Christmas! jumping up 10 spots to #5; Enya's A Day Without Rain, seemingly immovable from the top tier after over a year of chart life, at #6; Enrique Iglesias' Escape sliding from #6 to #9; and Linkin Park re-entering the top 10 at the rear with Hybrid Theory.

Besides the chart prevalence of Christmas albums — Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Extraordinaire continues to crawl up the chart to land this week at #15 — another sure sign the shopping season is upon us is an increase in overall sales. All but seven albums in the top 40, including Michael Jackson's Invincible (falling from #4 to #11), Shakira's Laundry Service (#3 to #16) and Jewel's This Way (#9 to #20), sold more copies than it did the week before.

'NSYNC's Celebrity was the biggest gainer on this week's chart, as the group's latest LP, released in July, leaps 11 spots to #22, with more than 108,000 in sales, nearly doubling last week's figures.