STONES STILL ROLLING...BUT KANYE AND 50 CENT TAKE TOP HONORS

Rolling Stones supposedly gather no moss, but many Doubting Thomases have had their, um, doubts about the continuing chart success of Mick, Keef and the “boys” over the last several years. Nonetheless, the Stones have returned with their first new album in eight years—and it’s a relative smash in its first week, selling 124k...which is enough to put the Virgin release at #3.

Of course, even rock legends weren’t enough to keep George W. Bush’s favorite rapper Mr. Kanye West (Roc-A-Fella/IDJ) out of the #1 spot, with 287k. (And Chris Rock was right: the Prez probably doesn’t like midgets, either!) And there’s no stopping 50 Cent (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope), who kept the Stones from their predicted #2 spot (hey, the dude’s been shot nine times and still keeps runnin’ like the Eveready bunny; heck, even Altamont doesn’t compare). The bullet-ridden rapper saw his sales rise 534% in the last week, selling 153k copies of the previously-released debut LP (but, hey, it has a DVD!).

The bottom of the Top 10 is rounded out by the usual suspects who’ve mostly been hanging tough since the beginning of summer. A&M/Interscope’s Black Eyed Peas have switched places from last week with Island/IDJ’s Mariah Carey, with the Peas at #4, with 81k, and the diva at #5, with 80k. G-Unit/Interscope’s Tony Yayo drops from #2 to #6, with 70k, and Capitol’s Now That’s What I Call Music 19 drops one spot to #7, with 67k.

Reprise’s Green Day, still feeling the love from the VMAs and their new “Wake Me Up When September Ends” single, saw a 6% increase, jumping from #11 to #8, with 65k. Hollywood’s Hilary Duff drops two spots, from #7 to #9, with 64k, and Young Jeezy (Def Jam/IDJ) maintains the #10 spot, with 61k. (Jeezy just makes it look so eezy—thanks to our own Mark Pearson for a new bad Jeezy pun after we’d completely run out...).

No other notable debuts this week, but we did see re-emergences from A&M/Interscope’s Keyshia Cole at #47, with 17k; Lava/Atlantic's cuddly Click Five at #49, with 16k, and DreamWorks’ Lifehouse at #50, also with 16k.

Watch for debuts next weeks from Paul Wall (who has a shot at #1), Trapt, Switchfoot, Pussycat Dolls, Paul McCartney and Bonnie Raitt.