Christmas in November: Three Holiday Albums in the Top 10

Christmas is still a month away, but three Christmas albums help to jolly up the top 10 on this week’s Billboard 200. Pentatonix's That’s Christmas To Me jumps from #8 to #3 in its fifth week (99K); Michael Buble’s 2011 album Christmas rebounds from #13 to #9 in its 33rd chart week (35K); and Idina Menzel's Holiday Wishes jumps from #16 to #10 in its sixth week (33K).

This is the highest chart ranking to date for Pentatonix. The a cappella vocal group may well wind up with a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist next week.

This is the fourth holiday season in a row in which Buble’s album has made the top 10. The album logged five weeks at #1 in 2011 and rebounded to #3 in 2012 and #8 in 2013. Christmas is the first holiday album to crack the top 10 in four holiday seasons. Kenny G's Miracles—The Holiday Album hit #1 in 1994 and would have returned to the top 10 in 1995 and 1996 if catalog albums had been allowed on the big chart then.  Buble’s album holds at #1 on Top Catalog Albums for the 17th non-consecutive week.

Buble is also featured on Menzel’s Holiday Wishes. The two stars team to sing the Oscar-winning classic, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” This is Menzel’s first top 10 album. She of course was featured on the Frozen soundtrack, which logged 13 weeks at #1 earlier this year.

Menzel’s albumis the first Christmas album by a Jewish artist to crack the top 10 since saxophonist Kenny G's Faith—A Holiday Album hit #6 in January 2000. It’s the first Christmas album by a Jewish vocalist to crack the top 10 since Neil Diamond'sThe Christmas Album hit #8 in December 1992.

Three Jewish artists have reached #1 with holiday albums. Kenny G hit #1 in 1994 with the aforementioned Miracles—The Holiday Album. “Sing Along With Mitch” leader Mitch Miller had a pair of #1 albums: 1958’s Christmas Sing-Along With Mitch and 1962’s Holiday Sing Along With Mitch. Singer Eddie Fisher, a superstar of the 1950s probably best known today as Carrie Fisher's father, topped the chart in 1953 with Christmas With Eddie Fisher.

You’ll notice that Menzel and Kenny G used the universal term “holiday” in their titles, while Diamond and Fisher went with “Christmas.” Miller had it both ways.

One Direction's FOUR debuts at #1 with first-week sales of 387K. I wrote all about this album in a blog we posted last Thursday. If you missed it, here’s a link.

Taylor Swift’s 1989 dips from #1 to #2 in its fourth week (214K). 1989 last week became the first album to top the 2 million mark in U.S. sales in just three weeks since 50 Cent's The Massacre achieved the feat it in the March 2005. Each of Swift’s studio albums has reached 2M faster than the one before it. Red took five weeks to hit 2 million. Speak Now took six. Fearlesstook seven. Taylor Swift took 61.

With five weeks left in Nielsen SoundScan’s tracking year, 1989 is threatening to overtake the Frozen soundtrack as the year’s best-seller. Frozen is currently about 1 million units ahead in this calendar year (3.27 million to 2.21 million), but Swift may well close the gap. Swift had the #1 album of 2009 with Fearless. She would become only the fourth artist to have the top-selling album of a calendar year twice in the Nielsen SoundScan era. Eminem was on top in 2002 and 2010. Adele was the leader in 2011 and 2012. Justin Timberlake was on top as part of *NSYNC in 2000 and on his own in 2013.

Swift this week surpasses Linkin Park as the best-selling album artist that has debuted in the 2000s. That’s impressive because Linkin Park had a six-year head-start on the country-turned-pop megastar. I assembled a gallery of the 20 best-selling album artists that have debuted since January 2000. If you missed it, here’s a link.

Nickelback's No Fixed Address debuts at #4 (80K). This is Nickelback’s sixth top 10 album, which brings them half-way to Rush's total as the Canadian band with the most top 10 albums.

Garth Brooks's Man Against Machine dips from #4 to #5 in its second week (62K). It’s #1 on Top Country Albums for the second week.

Pink Floyd's The Endless River drops from #3 to #6 in its second week (45K) … Foo Fighters's Sonic Highways drops from #2 to #7 in its second week (36K) … In This Moment'sfifth studio album, Black Widow, debuts at #8 (36K). It’s the group’s first top 10 album. Iggy Azalea's recent hit single of the same title (featuring Rita Ora) reached #3.

Frozen jumps from #18 to #13 in its 52nd week. It’s #1 on Top Soundtracks for the 42nd week.There are two other Frozen albums in this week’s top 40.Frozen: The Songs jumps from #28 to #16 in its eighth week.  Frozen: Disney Karaoke Series jumps from #48 to #34 in its 32nd week.

Two other soundtracks debut in the top 20. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1 (featuring and supervised by Lorde) debuts at #18. Interstellar(featuring a Hans Zimmer score) debuts at #20.

The Art Of McCartney debuts at #27.The double-CD collection is a tribute to the pop legend. (The title is stiff and uninviting. Titles matter.)

Christmas At Downtown Abbey debuts at #44. A Christmas album linked to a diametrically different TV show was a smash last year. The Robertsons'sDuck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas, a Duck Dynasty tie-in, reached #3.

Coming Attractions:  Look for Shady XV, which features Eminem, among others, to be next week’s top new entry, with sales in the 140K range. Also due: Beyoncé's Beyoncé Platinum Edition EP (about 60K), Rick Ross's Hood Billionaire (60K), Pitbull's Globalization(20K) and David Guetta's Listen (20K).

Big Chart Change Coming: Ariana Grande, Maroon 5 and Hozier have extra reasons to give thanks this week. They are among the artists expected to benefit from a major change in methodology for compiling The Billboard 200. Beginning with next week’s chart, The Billboard 200 will change from a pure sales-based ranking to one that measures “consumption.” The chart will include on-demand streaming and digital track sales by way of a new algorithm. I wrote all about this in a blog we posted last week. If you missed it, here’s a link.