– If it’s a recession, then AC/DC must be number one. The boys from Down Under pick up their biggest sales week of the Soundscan era, and also the second biggest week of the year (behind Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter 3”), with almost 800,000 copies of “Black Ice”. My initial skepticism of Wal-Mart’s ability to generate huge numbers on exclusive deals is fully debunked now, after seeing what they’ve been able to do for AC/DC, the Eagles, and Garth Brooks. In addition, the rock veterans also move close to 100,000 copies of their back catalog.

– In other album news, “High School Musical 3” does something that neither of its predecessors ever did: it debuts outside of #1. While it sells just shy of 300,000, that’s not quite enough this time around. Those kids have a #1 movie…what else could they want anyway? Someone who exceeds their previous best peak is Adele, who makes another strong jump from 46 to 11 with “19”. Her single “Chasing Pavements” is the top new entry on the Hot 100 at #82. In addition, the single climbs 19-17 on the Hot AC chart, and is one of the Most Added songs, with 8 new stations reporting airplay. Things are definitely looking up for Ms. Aerophobia making it here in the U.S. She has also rescheduled her tour here for the second half of January, and I have tickets to see her. She’s playing smaller theaters, but I have a feeling those shows will sell out pretty quickly.

– Speaking of radio, Most Increased Plays and Most Added goes to Beyonce’s “If I Were A Boy”, which is at #19 in its second week. Fueled by the release of a digital single, the track also zooms up the Hot 100 to #3. In most circumstances, this would be an amazing achievement, but in today’s chart world, where we see songs jump from #96 to #1 in the span of a week, Beyonce’s jump is just okay. Other notable jumps include Jason Mraz, who re-enters the top 10 at #10, and Lady GaGa, whose “Just Dance” FINALLY looks like it may become a hit, taking a 10-point leap to #49. At Pop radio, Mr A-Z gains another 850 plays to come in at #9, and Ms Bowie-Mercury is most added, with 16 new stations reporting airplay this week. Colby O’Donis may not end up a one-hit wonder after all! I commented last month that GaGa’s radio strategy seemed odd and ill-timed, but I may have to eat my words on that one, too.

– The highly-underrated “Right Here (Departed)” from Brandy debuts at #40 on the Pop chart, and is among the most added records this week, along with Mariah Carey’s “I Stay In Love”. “Stay” is a high point of “E=MC2” (and a personal favorite of the Fizz), and the video is surprisingly good, compared to some of the crap that she’s produced for her latest disc. There’s actually a coherent story to the video, and the black and white really works well here. It’s not necessarily a Video Notable, but when you’re comparing it to her recent output, it’s absolutely stellar. Judge for yourself: