REBA’S DUETS DOES IT RIGHT

Thanks in part to her appearance on the Queen of Daytime TV and an album featuring such well-known partners as Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake, Rascal Flatts, Faith Hill and Carole King, UMG Nashville’s Reba McEntire has her best first week ever with Duets, which debuts at #1 with 302k in sales.

That is more than enough to turn back Roc-A-Fella/IDJ hip-hop superstar Kanye West’s Graduation, which drops nearly 80% from its one-week high of 935k at 210k, followed by Aftermath/Interscope’s 50 Cent, who is down around the same percentage to 129k.

RCA/RMG’s Barry Manilow, who sold 40k to loyal Fanilows through his recent QVC appearance, is one of a total of six newcomers to the Top 10, selling 112k to finish #4.

BNA/SBMG Nashville’s Kenny Chesney cracked the Top 5 with 110k, followed by Walt Disney’s resilient High School Musical 2, #6 with 93k.

The rest of the Top 10 includes debuts for Custard/Atlantic’s James Blunt (#7, 91k), Universal Motown’s Chamillionaire (#8, 78k), Virgin’s KT Tunstall (#9, 51k) and Interscope’s Across the Universe soundtrack (#10, 42k).

Other newcomers are J Records’ Eddie Vedder Into the Wild soundtrack (#11), Epitaph’s Motion City Soundtrack (#12), Atlantic’s Twista (#13), Sire’s HIM (#19), Verve’s Diana Krall Best of (#20), Born and Bred’s Dropkick Murphys (#24), Burgundy/SBMG’s Gloria Estefan (#26), Columbia opera phenom Paul Potts (#29), Rhino/WEA’s Bee Gees Greatest (#35), WB’s Mark Knopfler (#40), Mercury/IDJ’s Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds (#47) and Victory’s Between the Buried & Me (#48).

Biggest mover of the week is Interscope’s Feist, who takes advantage of her ubiquitous Apple Nano ad exposure to go up another 16% to #36.

Next week, look for yet another Country album to top the charts in Lyric Street’s Rascal Flatts, with RCA’s Foo Fighters, Geffen’s Keyshia Cole, Columbia’s Tony Bennett and Island’s Jagged Edge also having releases on tap.