Punk veterans pull off #1 bow despite a short week in stores.
By Gil Kaufman

Green Day's <i>21st Century Breakdown</i>
Photo: Reprise Records

A full week? Green Day don't need no stinkin' week! Despite releasing 21st Century Breakdown three days later than the usual Tuesday drop, the punk veterans will still manage to snag the top stop on the Billboard 200 albums chart next week with nearly 215,000 in sales. That put the trio's latest pop punk opera way ahead of the week's second-place album, the "Hannah Montana" soundtrack, which will hold tight to the #2 spot on sales of 68,000, according to numbers released from Nielsen SoundScan.

The only other debut in the top 10 came from veteran rhymer Cam'ron, whose Crime Pays slides in at #3, thanks to 43,000 in sales. Crime is just ahead of Fame, the unstoppable Lady Gaga juggernaut that moves up two spots to #4 with sales of 41,000. Gaga's album just passed the 850,000 mark, well on its way to platinum status.

The rest of the top 10 is relatively static: Rascal Flatts' Unstoppable (#5, 33,000), Bob Dylan's Together Through Life (#6, 31,000), Taylor Swift's Fearless (#7, 30,000), last week's #1 Chrisette Michele's Epiphany (#8, 29,000), Rick Ross' Deeper Than Rap (#9, 26,000) and Ciara's Fantasy Ride (#10, 26,000).

Just outside the top 10, grillmeister rapper Paul Wall's buzz-deficient newest, Fast Life, drops quietly at #15 on sales of under 22,000. Veteran troubadour Steve Earle's tribute to late mentor Townes Van Zandt, Townes, debuts at #19 with 18,000 in sales, and Gucci Mane's Murder Was the Case pops in at #23 thanks to 15,000 units moved.

Further down the list, Katy Perry's nearly year-old One of the Boys benefited from the "American Idol" bump, leaping more than 20 spots to #54 on sales of close to 9,000 after her performance on the show last week. The Lonely Island debut, Incredibad, got a bump from their "SNL" short "Motherlover," and will jump nearly 30 spots up to #64 thanks to almost 8,000 more fans.

Elsewhere, French electro-popsters Phoenix will manage a #76 debut with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (6,000), but America's love affair with former "Britain's Got Talent" crooner Paul Potts proved to be a short one, as his full-length debut, Passione, nose-dived by 67 percent in its second week, falling 50 spots to #86 (5,000).

Next week, look for Eminem's Relapse to take the top spot easily, followed by debuts from Busta Rhymes, Method Man & Redman, Tori Amos and Lionel Richie, who will appear on Wednesday night's "American Idol" season finale.

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