The Eagles knock Britney from #1 spot
November 7, 2007

Thanks to their first studio album in almost 30 years, and a list-minute rule change by the people in control of the BIllboard charts, The Eagles have claimed the #1 spot with their brand new album, 'Long Road Out of Eden'. The Eagles managed to push Britney Spears and her newest album, 'Blackout' out of the top spot by selling a whopping 711,000 albums, compared to Britney Spears and her 290,000 copies sold.

Initially, Billboard had looked to deny 'Long Road Out of Eden' a spot on the Billboard chart due to the fact the album was sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and nowhere else. Before this week, titles which were not on general sale throughout the US were not considered for the charts, such as Wal-Mart exclusives or Starbucks exclusives. However, on Tuesday night, Billboard announced that they had changed the rules to include sales of albums available through only one retailer, and that meant The Eagles easily cruised to #1 on this weeks' Billboard 200.

While The Eagles enjoy the second biggest opening week all year, next to Kanye West's 'Graduation' which sold 960,000, Britney Spears isn't enjoying anything. The 290,000 copies of 'Blackout' which sold around the US were expected to easily hand the former pop diva another #1 album when sales figures were released. However, with the unexpected rule change, Britney didn't even come close to The Eagles, and has been forced to settle for her first non-#1 album of her career. All her other records - 1999's 'Baby One More Time', 2000's 'Oops!... I Did It Again', 2001's 'Britney' and 2003's 'In The Zone' - managed to secure a #1 spot in their first week of release.

As for the rest of the charts, last week's #1, Carrie Underwood's 'Carnival Ride' sank to #3 with 170,000 units sold, while Avenged Sevenfold debuted their self-titled album at #4 with 94,000 copies moving off store shelves. Josh Turner ('Everything Is Fine'), Robert Plant & Alison Krauss ('Raising Sand'), The Backstreet Boys ('Unbreakable'), Josh Groban ('Noel'), Andrea Bocelli ('The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere' and Rascal Flatts ('Still Feels Good') rounded out the top ten this week.

Regarding the rule change that saw The Eagles soar above Britney Spears on this week's charts, Geoff Mayfield, Billboards director of charts, was quoted by the BBC as he said, "We know that some retailers will be uncomfortable with this policy, but it was inevitable that Billboard's charts would ultimately widen the parameters to reflect changes that are unfolding in music distribution."