LUKE HAS THE FORCE!

Capitol Nasvhille’s Luke Bryan doesn’t need a hat to rule our Album Sales Chart this week, but he’s going to need something to put all that money in.

The Country star’s Crash My Party bowed with a yee-haw-worthy 530k, far surpassing his biggest prior debut, 149k for the March 2013 comp Spring Break … Here to Party (which has sold 482k to date). If Universal Nashville chief Mike Dungan was wearing a hat, he’s probably thrown it in the air already. Did we say Yeeee-hawwwww? OK, just making sure.

The #2 record this week is also a debut, though it sold fewer than 1/8 as many records: K. Michelle’s Rebellious Soul (Atlantic), which moved 68k.

The rest of the Top 10 is populated by chart veterans. UMe’s Now 47 slips to #3 with 51k (-38%); Star Trak/Interscope’s Robin Thicke sells 46k (down a mere 27%); last week’s toppers The Civil Wars move 40k of their sensibility/Columbia set (-66%); Roc-a-Fella/Roc Nation’s Jay Z moves 37k (-22%); Disney’s Teen Beach ST shows its legs with just a 19% drop and 31k; Republic Nashville’s Florida Georgia Line increases 23% and two spots with 30k; KidinaKorner/Interscope’s Imagine Dragons do 25k (-32%); and Prospect Park rockers Five Finger Death Punch keep a hand in with 21k (-42%).

Further down the chart, we find debuts by Island/IDJ’s Parachute (15k, #15) and indie rapper Hoodie Allen (11k, #25).

The week’s biggest gainer? It was Luke Bryan, whose 2011 set Tailgates and Tanlines (also on Capitol Nashville) spiked 66% with 15k and jumped from #31 to #17 (it’s sold 2.1m RTD). Oh, and the aforementioned Spring Break … Here to Party came up just short of the Top 40 with 8k.

Streeting today are Columbia’s John Mayer and Mailboat’s Jimmy Buffett, among others.

Now if you’ll excuse us, the “herbal” pizza from Bistro UMPG is here.