USHER'S THE EIGHT MILLION MAN

Thanks to that and other hit singles like "Burn" and "My Boo," his duet with Alicia Keys, Usher's Confessions was 2004's best-selling album, moving almost 7.9 million units since its chart-topping release last March.

That was over twice as many as its nearest competitor, Norah Jones' Feels Like Home, which garnered 3.8 million in sales last year to earn the #2 spot.

Eminem's Encore was #3 with 3.3 million, followed by Kenny Chesney's When the Sun Goes Down (3.04 million), Gretchen Wilson's Here for the Party (2.9 million), Tim McGraw's Live Like You Were Dying (2.7 million), Evanescence's Fallen (2.68 million), Maroon 5's Songs About Jane (2.65 million), Ashlee Simpson's Autobiography (2.5 million) and Now 16 (2.5 million).

Chesney, Wilson and McGraw gave country superstars three of the Top 10, while rock also grabbed three (Evanescence, Maroon 5 and Ashlee Simpson), with R&B (Usher), hip-hop (Eminem) and blues/jazz (Jones) nabbing one apiece and miscellaneous (Now 16) the other.

Of the Top 10, Sony BMG had five (Usher, Chesney, Wilson, Evanscence and Maroon 5), UMG three (Eminem, Ashlee Simpson and UME's Now 16), and WMG (McGraw) and EMI (Jones) one apiece.

Josh Groban's Closer was #11 (2.5 million), while the rest of the Top 20 included Kanye West's College Dropout (2.4 million), Avril Lavigne's Under My Skin (2.38 million), Nelly's Suit (2.37 million), OutKast's Speakerboxx/The Love Below (2.36 million), Now 17 (2.2 million), Shania Twain's Greatest Hits (2.2 million), Jessica Simpson's In This Skin (2.2 million), Alicia Keys' Diary of Alicia Keys (2.1 million) and U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2.1 million).

Sony BMG had a total of nine of the Top 20, while UMG had seven, with WMG and EMI nabbing two apiece.