GREAT SCOTTY!

Celebrating his 18th birthday last Sunday (10/9), the good ole young boy from a small town in North Carolina debuts at #1 as his first studio effort, Mercury Nashville/19/Interscope’s Clear as Day, sells 198k in its first week.

That’s the most for an American Idol winner since David Cook’s debut sold 280k in Nov. 2008, and the first champ to bow at #1 with his initial release since second season champ Ruben Studdard’s Soulful topped the chart in 2003.

XL/Columbia U.K. pop songbird Adele’s 21 continues its impressive reign, adding another 110k to a total which now approaches 3.9 million in the U.S. alone.

Labelmate Tony Bennett’s Duets II, in its third week, racks up another 71k to move it to 340k at #3.

Capitol Nashville/EMI’s Lady Antebellum (#4) and last week’s chart-topping Roc Nation/Columbia rapper J Cole (#5) round out the leader board, with Team Stringer/Barnett’s Columbia Records scoring three of the Top 5.

Curb country artist Rodney Atkins’ Take a Back Road (#7), Cherrytree/Interscope’s Feist (#8) and Sire’s Jack’s Mannequin (#10) are the other newcomers to the chart, which also includes Cash Money/Universal Republic’s Lil Wayne (#6) and Interscope’s Blink-182 (#9), giving Jimmy Iovine’s IGA three in the Top 10.

Other new chart entries include Mayday Parade’s Mayday Parade (#14), Fearless Records’ Blessthefall (#27), Warner Bros.’ Mutemath (#30), Epitaph’s New Found Glory (#35), Last Gang Records’ Lights (#40), Warner Music Latina’s Ricardo Arjona (#43) and Universal Republic’s Mayer Hawthorne (#47).

Among the re-entries are Capitol Nashville/EMI’s Lady Antebellum Need You Now album (#42) and Hollywood’s Selena Gomez & the Scene (#49).

Shady/Interscope’s Bad Meets Evil (#36-31, +9%) leads the gainers, followed by Startime/Columbia’s Foster the People (#12, +6%), Interscope’s LMFAO (#32, +4%) and Glassnote’s Mumford & Sons (#30-24, +3%).

Wind-up’s Evanescence and Prospect Park’s Five Finger Death Punch top this week’s new releases, along with Mercury Nashville/19/Interscope’s Idol runner-up Lauren Alaina, Republic Nashville’s Martina McBride, Capitol’s Ryan Adams, Hollywood’s Joe Jonas, One Little Indian’s Bjork multi-media “app” album, Notifi/Fontana’s Johnny Gill and Disney Music’s A.N.T. Farm, the soundtrack to the hit Disney Channel show.