KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

RCA recording artist Alicia Keys scores her fourth career chart-topping studio album with Girl on Fire, her sixth overall release/ The new disc debuts at #1, selling 161k. Her 2005 Unplugged live album also bowed atop the album charts, giving her a total of five.

It’s her first album to hit the top spot since 2007’s As I Am, which sold more than 3 million in the U.S.

That proves enough to keep Big Machine’s Taylor Swift at #2 with Red, which sells another 136k for a six-week total of 2.2m and counting.

Verve’s Rod Stewart holiday album, Merry Christmas Baby, is proving the top end-of-year release, moving another 120k copies for a five-week total approaching 500k at #3.

Syco/Columbia U.K. boy band One Direction’s Take Me Home remains steady at #4, with another 88k for a three-week total of 715k.

19/Interscope Idol winner Phillip Phillips’ World from the Side of the Moon rounds out the Top 5, with another 79k for a two-week total of 250k.

Def Jam/IDJ’s Rihanna (#6) and Capitol’s Now 44 (#10) sandwich Christmas albums from Reprise’s Michael Buble (#19-7, +24%), Capitol Nashville’s Lady Antebellum (#18-8) and Warner Bros. Nashville’s Blake Shelton (#16-9) to complete the sales leaders.

The independently released Matt Galle signing Timeflies EP (#24), Columbia’s Glee: The Music Season 4, Vol. 1 (#30), New Elektra’s Cee-Lo Green (#35) and Musical Freedom’s Tiesto (#46) are all new entries in the Top 50.

Top 50 re-entries include UMe’s Rolling Stones Greatest Hits (#39), Atlantic’s Hunter Hayes (#40), RCA’s Miguel (#49) and Fantasy’s Vince Guaraldi perennial Charlie Brown Christmas (#50).

Aside from Buble, the week’s other largest double-digit gainer is labelmate Josh Groban’s 2007 Noel album, which moves #47-29, +15%.

Hitting retail this week are Atlantic’s Wiz Khalifa, Kemosabe/RCA’s Ke$ha, Republic Nashville’s Florida Georgia Line and Epic’s Chevelle. Hitting on Dec. 11 are Atlantic’s Bruno Mars, Interscope’s Game and Reprise’s Green Day Tres, with Atlantic’s T.I. and Def Jam’s The-Dream set for Dec. 18.

Republic’s soundtrack to the Oscar hopeful Les Miserables hits retail stores Christmas Day, with digital to follow, and could be a sleeper for end of the year sales.