Blige snatches the top spot

MARY J. BLIGE is back on top. The New York native known for sophisticated R&B; laced with hip-hop has regained the No. 1 spot on the nation’s pop album sales chart with her seventh album, “The Breakthrough,” which debuted at the top last month but then gave way to Jamie Foxx’s “Unpredictable.”

Foxx, the comic-turned-actor-turned-singer, had held the No. 1 spot for two weeks, and although he slips on the new chart to No. 2, his CD has sold more than a million copies since its release last month.

And for the record, the holiday sales surge is officially over. Blige takes over at No. 1 while selling only 118,000 copies during the sales week that ended on Sunday, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s a far cry from the 727,000 copies “The Breakthrough” had to sell in its first week in stores to top the tally last month. This week’s Top 5 is rounded out by CDs from Carrie Underwood of “American Idol” fame, Eminem and the Notorious B.I.G.

With the January doldrums in mind, record labels were no rush to release new titles last week. No album debuted anywhere near the top of the new chart -- you had to get all the way down to No. 48 to find a first-time listing with “The Truth,” the new collection from Bleeding Through, the Orange County metal sextet. Their CD sold 17,000 copies.

The retail singles chart is rarely worth noting these days (unlike the digital download sector, singles are afterthoughts for brick-and-mortar music merchants) but the chart released Wednesday did feature a notable name at the top. Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel: 50th Anniversary Edition” sold 4,276 copies, which was enough to earn it the No. 1 spot.