‘Noel’ is no longer No. 1

Christmas has come and gone, and with the passing of the holiday, Josh Groban has fallen from the top spot on the U.S. pop charts, ending his five-week reign at No. 1.

Yet the crooner’s “Noel” collection still sold an additional 176,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s a 77% decrease from the 757,000 copies it sold last week, yet it was enough to keep the album in the top five, at No. 3.

Even though the album is holiday-themed, the sales drop was expected. The weeks after Christmas are typically a quiet time for the music industry, and this week’s highest debut is the “High School Musical 2: Non-Stop Dance Party” compilation, which sold 22,000 copies and debuts at No. 68.

Moving into the No. 1 post is Mary J. Blige’s “Growing Pains,” which survived a 68% sales dip in its second week in stores. After selling 204,000 copies last week, “Growing Pains” has now sold 897,000 copies.

Billboard notes that “Growing Pains” is the 36th and final No. 1 album to reach No. 1 in 2007. It’s Blige’s fourth album to reach the pop album sales summit. Alicia Keys’ “As I Am” moved up a notch to No. 2 after selling 193,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

With little new music released during Christmas week, most of the attention will be on next week’s tally and the first-week sales numbers for Radiohead’s “In Rainbows.”

The album entered this week’s chart prematurely because some retailers started selling it before its New Year’s Day release date. “In Rainbows” sold 9,000 copies, entering the chart at No. 157.

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