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Idols Inundate Hot 100, But 'Glee' Gloats With Top Debut

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by Silvio Pietroluongo, N.Y.  |   May 27, 2009 1:42 EDT

Adam Lambert

Nine combined tracks from "American Idol" winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert enter this week's Hot 100 tally, but each track lags behind "Don't Stop Believin'" by the cast of the Fox series "Glee," which is the chart's Hot Shot Debut at No. 4. The remake of Journey's classic top 10 hit, which shifts 177,000 downloads, surpasses the original version's 1981 No. 9 peak. Journey's rendition moves 42,000 downloads, up 48% for the week.
 
Allen's victory single "No Boundaries," one of five songs the newly crowned champ places on the Hot 100, opens at No. 11 with 134,000 downloads. "Boundaries" rank and digital sum fall short of the No. 3 entry and 236,000 downloads shifted by 2008 winner David Cook's triumphant tune "The Time of My Life" a year ago this week.

In addition, Allen's five charting songs, which also include "Heartless" (No. 16), "Ain't  No Sunshine" (No. 37), "Apologize" (No. 66) and "Falling Slowly" (No. 94), fall well short of the 11 tracks Cook tallied in the '08 post-show week. Part of this discrepancy can be attributed to the other purchasing options offered to Allen's fans that were not available a year ago for Cook's followers, including the iTunes Pass and the digital "Season 8 Favorite Performances" album which opens at No. 50 on the Billboard 200 with 10,000 units.

Runner-up Adam Lambert debuts on the Hot 100 with four tracks, with his take of Tears For Fears' "Mad World" leading the charge at No. 19 with 115,000 downloads. Lambert's chart showing bests the three songs placed by 2008 runner-up David Archuleta on the list a year ago, while his sum for "Mad World" is significantly better than the weekly downloads moved by Archuleta's top track "Imagine" (71,000). Lambert, interestingly, outpaces Allen on The Billboard 200 as his "Season 8 Favorite Performances" debuts at No. 33 with 16,000 units.

Among the beneficiaries of the "Idol" finale afterglow is season seven winner Cook who performed his new single "Permanent" which debuts on the Hot 100 at No. 24 (103,000 downloads). Keith Urban claims his best-ever Hot 100 rank (51-20) and best single-week download total (72,000) with "Kiss A Girl" and season four queen Carrie Underwood re-enters at No. 79 with this year's farewell anthem "Home Sweet Home."

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